Press release from 10 Downing Street. (The link mistakenly says “suffragan bishop”; if this is corrected the link may break.) Further details are on the Truro diocesan website and also on the Winchester site.
The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend David Williams, Suffragan Bishop of Basingstoke, for election as Bishop of Truro.
Appointment of Bishop of Truro: 11 December 2024
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 11 December 2024The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend David Williams, Suffragan Bishop of Basingstoke, for election as Bishop of Truro, in succession to the Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen, following his translation to the See of Winchester.
Background
David was educated at Bristol University and trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He served his title at All Saints Ecclesall, in the Diocese of Sheffield, and was ordained Priest in 1990. He served as Vicar of Christ Church, Dore, from 1992 and additionally as Area Dean of Ecclesall Deanery from 1997. David was appointed Vicar of Christ Church, in the Diocese of Winchester, in 2002. In 2014 David took up his current role as Bishop of Basingstoke, also in the Diocese of Winchester.
OK…the last appointment was a Catholic, to be salted away looking after the ‘Society’ fringe…well out of the way.
But another diocesan comes up and ….mirabile dictu….another definite Evangelical.
Sorry to upset Fr Chesterton and others but this is becoming very depressing.
The long of Welby aka HTB still casts shadows!
This is an excellent appointment. I knew David for a number of years and he was a good pastor and – as he says – he is at heart a parish priest and that is how he has exercised episcopal ministry. You can be a fine bishop and an evangelical! They are not mutually exclusive!
Of course they’re not exclusive, but so many are coming from one camp which is worrying.
I really do wish we could stop referring to camps and tribalism. It is so unhealthy, pejorative and often misleading.
Thank you. I do so agree. We begin to look sectarian which is not a good look. Whoever is appointed, some in the diocese will be thrilled, others concerned or dismayed. And as a high church Anglican, I think that a bit of a shift when bishops go is healthy. As you so rightly said a bishop can be evangelical and a good bishop. Rather that than a high church person who is a poor bishop. The C of E needs care in fractious times.
But there are camps. And when there was a true broad Anglican spread I felt comfortable as a very liberal, and catholic, member, but now so much of what bishops, archdeacons and many others come out with just makes me squirm and I’m not sure I really belong.
Yes, I know and were I in England, not Scotland, I’m sure I’d be in one of the camps. And much in evangelical theology and worship turns me off. That said, I think the C of E has from time to time been prone to camps, look at the tractarian disputes. But so far the ship has been self righting. Posts on this site have recorded generous inclusive behaviour by bishops of different persuasions. We should encourage more of that, not greet those we see as ‘them’ with cries of distress.
That isn’t just a question of camps, these days. I’m an evangelical of the non Conservative variety and I cringe at the things many hierarchs come out with, too.
Sadly we are increasingly polarised not least by arrogant triumphalism.
Add the word ‘vacuous’ to give it its proper significance.
I bet the evangelicals thought that about the new tranche of catholic bishops in the first half of the last century past. Things come and things go.
I well recall evangelicals complaining about another Anglo-Catholic and/or liberal bishop well into the 1980s.
Those were the days!!!!
I think it’s unhelpful to have any particular churchmanship dominate senior appointments – whether evangelical, Catholic, or liberal.
However, appointments can only be made from the pool of available personnel, and the person who best fits the post’s requirements should be appointed. The desired attributes might include churchmanship or theology in order to balance a team, but otherwise I don’t see why it should be an issue.
i agree in significant part but we have lost balance and leadership roles are increasingly going to those in the Welby mould.
It seems that we are no longer a “broad church” as far as the episcopate is concerned. Is there no way that the catholic wing can be represented in these appointments?
The rise of evangelicalism over the last few decades hasn’t been a roaring success. An evangelical Archbishop resigning in disgrace, declining congregations despite the craze for ‘planting’, a happy-clappy sect like Soul Survivor offering oily massages, a retired evangelical Archbishop having PTO removed, a retired evangelical Bishop of Durham asked to ‘stand back’…….the list goes on. I wish we could bring back Anglicanism.
There are potential scandals around more catholic bishops I am sure….
Potential yes. I’ve just cited real evangelical scandals.
You seem to be forgetting Exeter, Sodor and Man, Blackburn, Newcastle, Liverpool, Lincoln, Bath and Wells, Salisbury, etc.
Evangelical bishops are a minority.
And York.
Excellent news for Truro. +David is one of The Good Guys, a flexible and inclusive evangelical who has been much loved through the recent upheavals in the Diocese. He was instrumental in the defenestration of the previous +Winton, at no little personal cost to himself. It was thought by some that his involvement might block any preferment, but not so, TBTG. Churchpersonship-wise, he’s been well taught in how to drive a thurible and enjoys doing so when requested.
Defenestrated to Truro?
Defenestrated to enforced early retirement. Google Tim Dakin. A horrid mess all round.
Apologies. I misread that you were speaking of the Bishop of Basingstoke not Dakin. Basingstoke has been elevated so defenestrating Dakin did him no career damage,,,to use a rather questionable way of referring to preferment!!
Didn’t he play a key role in the defenestration of Tim Dakin? That’s a big plus in my book.
A quiet force in the background, I’m told. Definitely a huge plus. A man of integrity. And if he can manage to unpick the disastrous diocesan plan of parish amalgamation, so much the better.
It’s a little ironic that his predecessor at Truro was translated to Winchester, causing a vacancy being filled by a suffragan of Winchester. The new Bp of Truro will have seen a little of his predecessor at first hand.
something similar happened in the Diocese of Peterborough in 1961 when Robert Stopford who had been Bishop of Peterborough became Bishop of London and one of his Suffragans in London Cyril Easthaugh Bishop of Kensington followed Bishop Stopford as Bishop of Peterborough. Jonathan
I wonder if others have picked up on another series of ‘linkages’, as well as the evangelical one that has already been commented on? It is the CMS, Church Mission Society, connection which binds together David Williams with both the previous Bp of Winchester (Tim Dakin) and the present Bp of Winchester, and previous Bishop of Truro, Philip Mounstephen. David Williams was a CMS missionary/mission partner in Kenya before he was ordained (so his CMS mission time does not appear in his clerical bio). I cannot help wondering if that was part of the reason David Williams was chosen by… Read more »
I have recently been writing a biographical memoir (though its path to publication has stalled and it might never see the light of day) of an academic who taught me at Leeds in the 1970s. He was born in Shanghai in 1923 to parents who were with the China Inland Mission. Referring to him as X, I reproduce below one paragraph from the memoir. X used to recount how in the family home in China the children were not allowed to talk to the servants. Had that not been so he might have picked up at least a smattering of… Read more »
Any perspectives from this on the functionality or otherwise of the CNC?
Since CNC has now made another appointment it looks like things are going more smoothly.
Just a guess, but this may be on the ‘supply side’ – in other words, the secretary for appointments may now understand that since Synod have a elected a relatively conservative bench the most theologically liberal candidates aren’t likely to get enough votes – so they’re not being shortlisted in the first place, unless they’re an especially good fit by other criteria.
I think I’m right in saying that it isn’t the role of either of the appointments secretaries (neither the Abps’ nor the PM’s) to shortlist candidates. That is the role of the 14 voting members. The role of the secretariat is to ensure that all the information is provided to enable the 14 voting members to do the shortlisting, and then the actual choosing. Perhaps, as Anthony Archer suggests, it is easier with the current balance of national members to get an evangelical nominated than a catholic or a liberal. It does look as if the evangelical side can block… Read more »
You are correct – the secretaries do not shortlist or propose candidate names.
A successful candidate needs 10 out of 14 to be in favour..
It’s probably the case that with the current composition of CNC central members, it is *easier* to nominate evangelical-leaning candidates but I wouldn’t want to make too much of this, and am not familiar with the Truro representatives. Three of the last five nominations have been *evangelical* [Peterborough, Birmingham and Truro]. I know Bishop David, and think he will be excellent for the diocese. He will also be able to work well with Mike Harrison, newish Bishop of Exeter. Both very mission-minded bishops, but not from the same stable, born in 1961 and 1963 respectively. Long-term planning to bring the… Read more »
I generally find suggestions that Truro and Exeter amalgamate tend to come from people in the Home Counties rather than from those who regularly have cause to drive (or, shudder, take public transport) any distance across Devon and Cornwall (or speak to any Devonians or Cornish for that matter!). There are many more suitable places to combine before we look at the South West.
Surely Bishops of Exeter back in the day before the creation of the Truro Diocese managed to get to the farthest reaches of Cornwall on horeseback and were able to avail themselves of the hospitality of many a vicar and vicarage en route.
More important than any labels are the gifts and skills which the new Bishop brings. Certainly in this case where there is a very specific job to do. He has the reputation of being a pastor and experienced enough to be a wise leader. Capable of affirming the progress and opportunities that the existing Transforming Mission initiatives have offered, skilled and open enough to hear and act upon the concerns expressed by Save the Parish. Hopefully he’ll be approachable and friendly and will remember names and faces. That’s what the Cornish folk like.
Completely bemused that there’s so much interest in this game of musical chairs. None of these ‘excellent’ appointments make a jot of difference to the CofE’s state of entropy. An evangelical here a catholic there, a man or a woman, conservative or inclusive, queer or straight, ambitious or saintly – none of them are able to shift the dial. All this huffing and puffing about senior clergy is a way of avoiding the CofE’s existential crisis – and I would have said that even before Keith Makin’s bouncing bomb blew a hole in the dam wall.
Mmmmmm.As a friend said to me,” Just fingers in dykes”
None of this seems greatly to matter, since the Bishop of Newcastle appears hell-bent on single-handedly bringing down the entire temple.