Queen appoints new Suffragan Bishop of Warrington
The Queen has appointed the Venerable Beverley Anne Mason as Suffragan Bishop of Warrington.Published 24 July 2018
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing StreetThe Queen has approved the nomination of the Venerable Beverley Anne Mason, MA, Archdeacon of Richmond and Craven, to the Suffragan See of Warrington, in the Diocese of Liverpool, in succession to the Right Reverend Richard Finn Blackburn, MA, who resigned on the 31st May 2018.
There are more details on the Liverpool diocesan website. The new bishop will be consecrated on 18 October 2018.
Great appointment. #WB17. I long for the time when it won’t be necessary to say ‘W’.
#WB78 for the Communion. I make it 18 female to 21 male episcopal appointments (14 to 15 for suffragans, 4 to 6 for diocesans, including two translations) in the C of E since the legislation permitting women and men to be bishops. If this had happened in other provinces there would be double the number of female bishops in the Communion.
Why is it that episcopal appointment are usually greeted by ‘great appointment’ or similar? This is not particularly interesting or informative!
While I am at it, has anyone done an analysis of the theological colleges attended by the women bishops so far, and a comparison with male appointments (apart from upgrades) during this period? My hunch is that most women come from evangelical backgrounds, though they don’t seem to beat that particular drum afterwards.
Great point! (I think it is a kind of cheer actually. We can get the information elsewhere can’t we?)
At least some of these women may not have been ‘beating that particular drum’ before or during college either. Evangelical colleges are more diverse places than often assumed.
To Peter Kettle: I don’t think the churchpersonship of a particular college has much to do with that of its alumni/ae these days. It never used to, but even less so these days as fewer colleges exist and people will often attend one that is geographically rather than theologically more convenient. For what it’s worth, Mother Beverley was formerly the incumbent of an Anglo-catholic parish in south London as well as a middle of the road one in West Yorkshire. Some of us grumpy old clerics who mutter about the evangelical ascendancy have to admit that labels are less and… Read more »
Regardless of male or female, evaneglical or liberal, I am afraid this is a rather predictable, ‘safe pair of hands’ former archidiaconal move to a suffragan See. Nothing to get excited about, surely, unless she is one of your drinking pals at sessions of the General Synod. I am still left wondering how ordaining women to the episcopate is making much of a difference to the cautious, corporate feel of the CofE.
I think by far the most interesting thing about the new bishop is her desire to lead a celibate life. Such a choice today seems truly radical.