Assistant Bishop of Bangor announced
One of the first women to become a priest in the Church in Wales will be consecrated as a bishop next month.
Mary Stallard, who has served as Archdeacon of Bangor for the past four years, has been nominated as Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Bangor. She will share the leadership of the diocese while the Bishop of Bangor, Andrew John, serves as Archbishop of Wales.
Mary will be consecrated as a bishop at Bangor Cathedral on February 26. The new Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, John Lomas, will also be consecrated at that service…
Once the two consecrations take place in Bangor cathedral will the Church in Wales be the first Province within the Anglican Communion where female bishops outnumber male bishops – 4 to 3?
Has there been an Assistant Bishop of Bangor previously, or are we seeing a further example of the phenomenon of a declining institution hoping that more leaders will solve its problems?
I’m not aware that there has been a previous assistant bishop of Bangor. But the precedent is that an assistant bishop of Llandaff was appointed when the bishop of Llandaff, Barry Morgan, was Archbishop of Wales. Dr Morgan became Archbishop in 2003, and David Wilbourne was consecrated as assistant bishop in 2009 (a consecration I was present at, as it happens, and I took this picture of the Welsh bishops).
And splendid and dignified they all look in your photograph, in proper vestments.
The Welsh Church seems to do ordinations and consecrations rather better than her sister church the other side of Offa’s Dyke, wedded as the latter is to a dog’s dinner of choir dress, copes and multi-coloured mitres. Although I dare say it brings a smile to the faces of Tatler readers.
The last Assistant Bishop of Bangor was Bishop Benjamin Vaughan who held this post in tandem with being Dean of Bangor. He had previously been Bishop of British Honduras and went on from these two tandemed posts to become Bishop of Swansea and Brecon in 1976 and retired 10 years later if my memory serves me well. Jonathan
That is not quite the same phenomenon as this, regardless of whether the title might be the same. In past times, returning colonial bishops often assisted their Ordinary on part-time or voluntary basis; Stallard is to be the latest in a series of Archbishop’s Assistants, not incomparable to the Bishop of Dover.
Some years ago The Times displayed a graph which showed that over the last c100 years that the increase in the number of Bishops in the Church of England mirrored the decline in the number of members!
It’s not about creeping episcopacy, its is a sensible and pragmatic response to the report that was recently published re Monmouth which also critiqued various other aspects (hopefully now historical) of the CiW, which included culture and the lack of support surrounding the Archbishop in particular and others more generally. I like the use of the word ‘assistant’ as a descriptor. It is not jobs for the……
Very recently historical though, that’s the problem. Comments in the report, repeated in the Church Times’ final issue of 2021, made concerning reference to a culture of secrecy and superiority within the Bench of Bishops, not to mention the swearing and drinking.
(I know swearing and drinking is not uncommon amongst clergy, but that’s not actually a good thing, and it seems to have been approaching loutish proportions here.)
Hopefully this appointment will continue to shift the balance here.
This appointment sounds the most practical way of dealing with the FACT of Archbishop Andrew’s responsibilities around the Church in Wales. It also gives a good gender balance in diocesan leadership. Congratulations!
Of the 14 Archbishops of Wales, including the present Primate and anticipating the consecration of his Assistant Bishop next month, 8 have had assistant bishops and 6 have not. AG Edwards (St Asaph) had Thomas Lloyd, John Morgan (Llandaff) had RW Jones, Glyn Simon (Llandaff) had TM Hughes, GO Williams (Bangor) had BNY Vaughan [mentioned above], George Noakes (St Davids) had Ivor Rees, Alwyn Rice Jones (St Asaph) had Huw Jones, Barry Morgan (Llandaff) had David Wilbourne [mentioned above], and Andy John (Bangor) will have Mary Stallard. Archbishops Green (Bangor), Prosser (St Davids), Morris (Monmouth), Childs (Monmouth), and Davies (Swansea… Read more »
Llandaff had an Assistant Bishop at the time of my ordination, even without the Diocesan being Archbishop. Bishop of Llandaff after Eryl Thomas was John Richard Worthington Poole Hughes – returned from Africa, and he soon gained David Reece who was Assistant Bishop while remaining Archdeacon of Margam. He it was who ordained me yn yr hen iaith, though Pool Hughes had a good shot at Welsh at my priesting the following year.
Have I got this right? The Bishop of Bangor has become Archbishop of Wales. The Bishop of Bangor requires an Assistant Bishop of Bangor to do the work the Bishop of Bangor can no longer get round to doing because of doing the work required of being Archbishop of Wales. The Archdeacon of Bangor is appointed as Assistant Bishop of Bangor and appoints an Assistant Archdeacon of Bangor (if there’s not one already) to do the Archdeaconing work that the Archdeacon is no longer available to do by dint of doing the work of the Assistant Bishop of Bangor that… Read more »
The Bishop of Dover handles the day-to-day bishopping in the Diocese of Canterbury.