The Prime Minister’s Office issued the press release below this morning. There is more information on the Carlisle diocesan website.
Appointment of the Suffragan Bishop of Penrith: 11th March 2026
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Canon Dr Michael John Leyden, BA, MA, MSt, PhD, to the Suffragan See of Penrith, in the Diocese of Carlisle.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 11 March 2026
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Canon Dr Michael John Leyden BA, MA, MSt, PhD, Dean and CEO of Emmanuel Theological College, to the Suffragan See of Penrith, in the Diocese of Carlisle, in succession to the Right Reverend Robert James Saner-Haigh, MA, MPhil, following his translation to the See of Carlisle.
Michael grew up in Merseyside and was educated at Oxford University and Chester University and trained for ministry at St John’s College, Nottingham. He served his title at St Ann’s, Rainhill, in the Diocese of Liverpool. Following a secondment to St Mellitus College, North-West, Michael was appointed half-time Incumbent of the Benefice of Weston with Shavington in 2014, in the Diocese of Chester, alongside working half-time as Lead Academic Tutor at St Mellitus College. In 2018, Michael was appointed full-time Director of St Mellitus College, North-West, and in 2019 he was licensed as Associate Priest of St Peter’s, Chester.
In 2021, Michael took up his current role as Dean and CEO of Emmanuel Theological College.
16 CommentsThe Prime Minister’s Office issued the press release below this morning. There is more information on the Truro diocesan website.
Suffragan Bishop of St. Germans: 9 March 2026
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend James Treasure BSc, to the Suffragan See of St. Germans, in the Diocese of Truro.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 9 March 2026
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend James Treasure BSc, Vicar and Resource Church Leader at St. Thomas and St. Luke’s and Team Rector for Dudley, in the Diocese of Worcester, for appointment as Suffragan Bishop of St. Germans in the Diocese of Truro, in succession to The Right Reverend Hugh Edmund Nelson BA, following his translation to the See of Worcester.
Background
James was educated at the Roehampton Institute, University of Surrey. He trained for ministry at Ripon College, Cuddesdon and served his title in the Kidderminster West Team Ministry, in the Diocese of Worcester. He was ordained Priest in 2017 and was previously a leader in a free church before his move back to the Church of England. He brings with him a wealth of experience in community engagement and growing congregations.
From 2018, James served as Vicar and Resource Church Leader at St. Thomas and St. Luke’s (commonly known as “Top Church”) in Dudley. In this capacity, he spearheaded a major redevelopment and mission project, supported by significant grant funding, to revitalise the historic Grade II* listed building and expand its community outreach.
In 2023, James was also appointed Team Rector for the wider Dudley parish. In this role, he maintained responsibility for four additional churches while continuing his leadership at St. Thomas and St. Luke’s.
49 CommentsThe Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Dr David Walker, has announced that he will retire in the summer of 2027. He has been given a short extension in office beyond his 70th birthday, and the see will become vacant as from 31 July 2027.
41 CommentsThe death has been announced this evening of the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd Andrew Watson.
A post on the Guildford diocesan website says
Bishop Andrew died peacefully on Tuesday 3 March surrounded by family, less than a month after he received a terminal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
In a letter to the diocese, the Rt Revd Paul Davies, Bishop of Dorking and Acting Bishop of Guildford, commended the following prayer to be used by parishes on Sunday.
Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for Andrew,
our brother and bishop:
for his faith and faithfulness to you
in life and in leadership.
As we mourn his death
and commend him to your everlasting arms,
give us the same faith, hope and love,
rooted in the death and resurrection of your son, Jesus.We pray especially for Beverly,
Hannah, Sam, Joe, Lydia and the whole family.
Comfort them with your Holy Spirit and protect them in their grief.
And bring us, at the last, with Andrew and all your children,
to that eternal joy where you live and reign in glory forever,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
3 Comments
The Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave, has today written to clergy and readers in the diocese to announce that he will retire at the end of September 2026. His last day of active ministry in the diocese will be Sunday 27 September.
Updated (Wednesday) Lichfield diocesan website has this story: Bishop Michael to retire in September 2026. Bishop Michael’s letter can be read here.
3 CommentsThe electronic voting results from this month’s meeting of General Synod are now available online. These contain the names of voting members and how they voted.
The full text of motions can be found in the official record of Business Done.
Updated Monday 23 February
The Diocese of Lincoln published the statement below today, 20 February”
Diocesan Statement Regarding the Status of The Bishop of Lincoln
20th February, 2026The Bishop of Lincoln, The Rt Revd Stephen Conway, has been suspended from ministry while a complaint made to the National Safeguarding Team is responded to according to House of Bishops Code of Practice. This includes referral to the appropriate statutory authorities.
The Bishop of Grantham, The Rt Revd Dr Nicholas Chamberlain, will be performing the function of the Diocesan Bishop during this period.
Support is in place for those affected and there will be no further comment while the process is ongoing.
We understand that this will be a deeply unsettling time. The Diocesan Safeguarding Team is available for anyone who wishes to contact them. They can be contacted via email: safeguarding@lincoln.anglican.org or by phone: 01522 504070.
Alternatively, Safe Spaces is an independent and confidential support advocacy service. Contact their free helpline: 0300 303 1056.
And there is also support from ThirtyOneEight, a safeguarding support line. Their number is 0303 003 1111.
The BBC has subsequently reported that the bishop has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault.
Update Monday 23 February
24 Comments
The Prime Minister’s Office issued the following press release this morning. There is more on the Durham diocesan website.
Appointment of the Bishop of Durham:
19 February 2026
The King has approved the nomination of The Venerable Richard Simpson, for election as Bishop of Durham.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 19 February 2026
The King has approved the nomination of The Venerable Richard (Rick) Simpson, Archdeacon of Auckland in the Diocese of Durham, for election as Bishop of Durham, in succession to The Right Reverend Paul Roger Butler, following his retirement.
Background
Rick was educated at Keble College, Oxford, and trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He served his title at St. Gabriel’s Heaton, in the Diocese of Newcastle, and was ordained Priest in 1994.
From 1997, Rick served as Priest-in-Charge, and then Vicar, Holy Trinity, Jesmond, and St. Barnabas and St. Jude, Sandyford, in the Diocese of Newcastle. In 2006, he was appointed IME 2 lead for the Dioceses of Durham and Newcastle, supporting curates and training incumbents, and Priest-in-Charge, St. Brandon’s, Brancepeth, in the Diocese of Durham.
In 2018, Rick took up his current role as Archdeacon of Auckland.
68 CommentsThis post will be updated as the meeting proceeds.
The Church of England’s General Synod is meeting this week. The timetable is here, the agenda is here and the papers are here.
Live video etc
All sessions are streamed live on YouTube and remain available to view afterwards. Links have been provided in advance.
There is an official X/Twitter account.
Order papers
Notice papers
Business Done
Official press releases
Press reports and comment etc
Church Times
Tim Wyatt The Critical Friend
The Guardian
Religion News Service
BBC News
Gavin Drake Church Abuse
The House of Laity of the General Synod, and the two Convocations will meet on Monday afternoon (9 February) before the start of next week’s meeting of the Synod. Here are the papers.
House of Laity
Convocation of Canterbury
Convocation of York
The 258 Questions (and answers) for next week’s meeting of the Church of England’s General Synod were issued today. They can be found online here:
There are two sessions scheduled for Questions: on Monday afternoon (not later than 6.00 pm) and Tuesday afternoon (not later than 5.30 pm). Afternoon sessions finish at 7.00 pm, so this allocates a minimum of two and a half hours to Questions.
7 CommentsDavid Holdsworth, the Chief Executive of the Charity Commission, has written a letter to the editor of the Church Times, responding to Andrew Brown’s column of 30 January Viewpoint with Andrew Brown: When everything is ‘safeguarding’ no one is safe.
…Andrew Brown appears to doubt (Viewpoint, 30 January) that some bishops consider that their diocesan boards of finance are ultimately responsible for ensuring the proper handling of safeguarding concerns of which diocesan officers or trustees are made aware.
That misunderstanding is precisely the concern that the Charity Commission raised in its recent regulatory decisions regarding the dioceses of Chelmsford and Liverpool, where trustees were seemingly not aware of their duties and were not appraised to any extent about allegations made against an influential member of the clergy with a leadership role in their region.
Whether an investigation is labelled by the Church as conduct or safeguarding is rather beside the point: diocesan trustees — just like PCC members — have a duty to take reasonable steps to keep safe from harm all who come into contact with their charity…
The full text of his letter is here.
There is also a related letter (scroll down) from Gavin Drake.
19 CommentsThe Bishop of Chichester, the Rt Revd Martin Warner, has announced that he will retire at the end of May 2026. Details are here.
44 CommentsThe latest proposal for reforming Church of England safeguarding structures is contained in this document
which is due to be considered on Wednesday 11 February at 2.00 pm. Its Executive Summary reads:
In February 2025 the General Synod voted decisively for greater independence in the Church of England’s management of safeguarding. This report sets out the work that has been done since then to turn this decision into reality and, in particular, to deliver change at pace. It includes the following.
- A vision for a new charity, provisionally named as the Independent Safeguarding Authority. This charity will be an operationally independent organisation, led by a majority-independent non-executive Board. Executive functions of the charity will be led by a Chief Safeguarding Officer, whose operational safeguarding responsibilities will be a protected function of the charity and not subject to Board discussion or determination.
- A plan for a new, standardised complaints handling process comprising:
- A standard mandatory process for each Diocesan Board of Finance and other relevant Church bodies to follow; and
- A national external ombudsman-style body to provide resolution of complaints after processes within Church bodies have been exhausted.
The General Synod is asked to welcome this update, endorse the direction of travel set out in it and look forward to considering detailed proposals in futures Groups of Sessions.
Gavin Drake has written a comprehensive briefing paper (linked below) and a shorter blog which we linked to earlier today in our previous Opinion article. I found his analysis very helpful, and recommend its reading in full.
Blog: Delay and control: the problems with the Archbishops’ Council’s safeguarding plans
Briefing: The Church of England and independent safeguarding: why GS 2429 falls short
This briefing examines the Archbishops’ Council’s latest proposals for independent safeguarding, set out in GS 2429, and assesses them against the commitments, expectations, and regulatory requirements that have accumulated since the collapse of the Independent Safeguarding Board and the commissioning of the Jay and Wilkinson reviews.
Its focus is narrower and more fundamental. It is not an assessment of the diligence, competence, or good faith of safeguarding professionals. Instead, it asks whether the governance and accountability model now proposed is capable of delivering genuinely independent safeguarding in practice, or whether it preserves institutional control behind the language of reform. In that sense, GS 2429 is not merely a technical plan but a test of whether the Church is prepared to accept external constraint and independent authority as the price of restoring trust.
GS 2429 must be understood not as an isolated policy document but as part of a long chain of commitments and failures. IICSA, the creation and collapse of the ISB, Parliamentary scrutiny, the commissioning of Professor Alexis Jay, and the Charity Commission’s intervention have progressively narrowed the scope for delay. The question is no longer whether the Church intends to improve safeguarding, but whether it will do so in a way that transfers power and accountability away from the structures that have repeatedly failed victims and survivors…
Gavin refers repeatedly to the original report by Alexis Jay which recommended a system of total independence. This report is still available on the Church of England website but its annex of legal advice is not. For those interested here is a copy.
Updated Saturday 7 February
The Church Times recently reported: President of Tribunals finds no case to answer for Archbishop of York in David Tudor case.
The full decision by Sir Stephen Males is here. (Also his supplementary decision on publication.)
In response the Archbishop of York issued this statement.
This is not the only outstanding process relating to the David Tudor case. As Gavin Drake explains:
The Church of England is currently engaged in two distinct processes arising from the David Tudor case. One is a disciplinary complaint brought under the Clergy Discipline Measure against the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, which was halted at a preliminary stage by the President of Tribunals under section 17 of the Measure. The other is a national, independent Safeguarding Practice Review, still ongoing, examining the Church’s handling of the case over many years and intended to identify learning to improve safeguarding practice and outcomes for victims and survivors.
The Safeguarding Practice Review (SPR) was commissioned by the National Safeguarding Team and the dioceses of Chelmsford and Southwark to examine the Church’s handling of the David Tudor case over many years. Its terms of reference make clear that Stephen Cottrell’s actions will be part of the review. The review began work in March 2025 and was originally expected to conclude within six months. A final call for evidence was issued in September 2025, after that initial timetable had already elapsed, and in November the Church announced a further delay, citing new police information.
The review is now expected to report in early 2026. Its stated purpose is not to re-litigate disciplinary findings, but to identify learning, assess safeguarding practice and decision-making, and improve outcomes for victims and survivors. At the time the Archbishop issued his statement, this review was ongoing and unfinished.
Gavin has further commentary on this.
He also has criticism of the president’s decision and of the archbishop’s statement over here and also here.
Update
Ian Paul has also written about this: Do we have safeguarding leadership in the Church of England? This article, like Gavin’s, is also worth reading in full.
19 CommentsThe Prime Minister’s Office has announced that the next Bishop of Ely is to be the Right Reverend Sarah Clark, currently suffragan Bishop of Jarrow. Ely diocese has this item about the appointment and Durham has this.
89 CommentsAppointment of Bishop of Ely: 27 January 2026
The King has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Sarah Elizabeth Clark, for election as Bishop of Ely.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 27 January 2026The King has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Sarah Clark, Suffragan Bishop of Jarrow in the Diocese of Durham, for election as Bishop of Ely, in succession to the Right Reverend Stephen David Conway, following his translation to the See of Lincoln.
Background
Sarah was educated at Loughborough University and prior to ordination worked as a civil servant within the Department of Employment. She trained for ministry at St. John’s College, Nottingham. She served her title at St. James Porchester, in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham, and was ordained Priest in 1999.
In 2002, Sarah was appointed Rector of the United Benefice of Carlton-in-Lindrick and Langold with Oldcotes and, from 2009, she served as Team Rector of the Clifton Team Ministry in Nottingham. In 2011 Sarah became an honorary Canon of Southwell Minster and took on the additional role of Dean of Women’s Ministry. From 2014 she served as Archdeacon of Nottingham.
In 2019, Sarah took up her current role as Suffragan Bishop of Jarrow and, since 2024, she has additionally served as Acting Diocesan Bishop of Durham since The Right Reverend Paul Butler’s retirement from that See.
Updated Monday
St Albans diocese recently (19 January) announced a grant of £2.3 million from the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB): £2.3m awarded to equip leaders and revitalise churches in our diocese and there are links from that page to further details about this.
The Church Times reported this on 22 January: St Albans diocese plans to put faith and funding in Soul Survivor.
This report, and in particular the headline, provoked negative reactions from many people who were shocked that apparently Soul Survivor was to benefit in some way as part of this. The diocese then issued on 23 January a “clarification”, sent by email to all diocesan clergy and readers, the full text of which is copied here below the fold. (At the time of writing it has not appeared on the diocesan website.)
Updates
Religion Media Centre has a report (scroll down) : Soul Survivor named ‘engine of mission’ despite safeguarding scandal, which includes a link to the diocesan proposal for funding: DS-25-11v.2 – SMMIB Funding Application
Media coverage:
Telegraph Church at centre of abuse scandal ‘rewarded’ with new role and Church of England to overhaul internships after Soul Survivor abuse scandal
Watford Observer C of E to tighten rules after Soul Survivor Watford scandal
Premier Christian News Church of England to revise mission rules to avoid another Soul Survivor
22 CommentsThe Church of England’s General Synod will meet in London from 9 to 13 February. The agenda and papers for the meeting were released today.
There are links to the papers below the fold, grouped by the day on which they are due to be debated. There are also a number of GS Misc papers and items of deemed and contingency business.
21 CommentsThe Church of England’s General Synod will meet in London next month. The papers were released today along with the following press release. I will publish a detailed list of papers later today.
Poverty, the care crisis and mental health – Synod to discuss challenges facing 21st Century Britain
21/01/2026
Call for renewed commitment to listening to and acting to support people living in poverty among motions set to be debated at February Synod.
A call for a renewed commitment to listening to and acting to support people living in poverty is among a number of motions set to be debated at the upcoming meeting of the Church of England’s General Synod.
The debate, marking 40 years since the landmark Faith in the City report, is among a series of key social challenges set for discussion, alongside the care system and the nation’s mental health in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, at the gathering in London from February 9 to 13.
The incoming Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally – who formally takes office next week – will deliver her first Presidential Address to Synod on Tuesday, February 10.
Later that day Archbishop Sarah will lead a debate on care for older and disabled people. In a debate the following day Synod will explore how the Church can respond to people’s mental health needs.
Key items on the agenda during the February group of sessions include discussion on progress in establishing independent oversight of Church Safeguarding and next steps after the Living in Love and faith process – which explores the Church’s approach to identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage – comes to a conclusion this year.
Charity Commission press release
Regulator issues Official Warnings to two Church of England Dioceses
The Charity Commission has taken regulatory action against and over failures to handle safeguarding allegations in line with the Commission’s guidance and trustee duties.
The Commission’s definition of safeguarding includes taking reasonable steps to protect from harm all those who come into contact with a charity.
The charities, which have purposes to assist and promote the work of the Church of England in the Dioceses of Liverpool and Chelmsford respectively, have both been issued with Official Warnings and advice on how to improve their practice for the future…
The full text of the press release continues below the fold.
Each diocese has issued a statement in response: