The Scottish Episcopal Church has announced that Canon Dr Nicholas Bundock has been elected as the next Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway.
The Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway has chosen a new Bishop. The Rev Canon Dr Nicholas John Bundock was elected yesterday (18 January) as the new Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway. He will be consecrated and take his new post later in the year. Nick becomes Bishop-elect, following the retirement of the Rt Rev Kevin Pearson who served the Diocese as Bishop for five years.
The Bishop-elect accepted the post following a vote of the Electoral Synod which took place at Holy Trinity & St Barnabas, Paisley, where he received over half of the votes in each house, with clergy and lay representatives from congregations across the Diocese voting…
Inspired election, but the Church of England cannot afford to lose priests with his vision.
Not sure that moving north of an undefended border with the same passport as those south of it quite constitutes a “loss”. The Scottish Episcopal Church will surely allow him to write. It’s not like he died or anything.
This is an outstanding choice, a blessing for the Diocese and for Nick.
Absolutely delighted to read this. Such a wonderful result and the working of the Holy Spirit!
Is this appointment any more the working of the Holy Spirit than any others?
A piece the Bishop-elect wrote on ‘the miracles of inclusion’ may be of interest: https://viamedia.news/2021/06/05/another-way-is-possible/
https://survivingchurch.org/2018/06/15/lizzie-lowe-a-death-and-a-congregation-transformed/ Another account about the Bishop-elect and his parish. On a personal note I knew his father as a teenager.
I am very disappointed that no-one has been along here to complain about another charismatic evangelical becoming a bishop. You lot are failing in your duty.
Another? Are there currently any charismatic evanglical bishops in the SEC?
I was speaking generically of the British Isle and particularly of TA…
But the usual grousing on TA about the churchmanship of new bishops isn’t generic to the island; it’s specific to CofE and to its perceived overconcentration of appointees in one particular tradition. In the Welby era that happened to be charismatic evangelicalism, just as there have been times in the past when liberal catholics were overrepresented.
Was welby himself charismatic? I can’t remember him singing and dancing and behaving as if drunk at Enterprise Oil offices. I think his singing and dancing may be worse than Teresa May.
As to the question. – yes. HTB was formative. that is public knowledge. The rest here is thoroughly nasty.
Im on train to work so my first reply is short. I know nothing about you and vice versa. But i think you ought to reflect before throwing out false accusations.
Maybe jesus himself did some ‘dad dancing’ at the wedding in cana.
You confuse gentle teasing with being nasty. Why ?
OK. Let’s both reflect shall we? Social media is a difficult place to hear tone and intention.
Thank you. My sense of humour is sometimes mistaken for gravitas.
Famous occasion – I sent an email to colleagues in houston, and said something like ‘I am not trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs’ which I thought was very civil and clear and demonstrating humility.
It was interpreted as ‘go suck eggs’ which means something rather different in US vernacular.
Not all charismatics sing, dance, and behave as if drunk. Some pray quietly in tongues while alone. Others have an effective ministry in healing, preaching, or evangelism, or are efficient administrators.
I don’t think caricatures are helpful.
For the avoidance of doubt, I was referring to Acts 2:15 I joined a group of younsters in 1975 and we went down to Cornwall and did a mission there to holiday makers. Looe. I enjoyed it, and they were definitely a charismatic group, lots of singing, less dancing, and some ‘drunkenness/singing in tongues’. A couple of mature adult leaders. It was a totally different culture to conservative evangelicals and the round church, and Iwerne, which was the millieu of Welby. I was the only privately educated person there. Maybe these distinctions between charismatic and conservative evangelicals became more blurred… Read more »
Nobody is caricaturing anybody, at least not on my side.
Well, I began to doubt him when he danced down the aisle at his enthronement and tried to engage the attention of the (then) Prince of Wales who looked at him with disdain bordering in incredulity.
That’s unfair to Mrs May. I suspect that as a cradle and prcticing Anglican she is quite capable of singing hymns.
It was the ecstatic dancing I was questioning!
Seriously, was Welby ever a charismatic, or was Geoff M simply saying that charismatics were appointed during his era, but he wasn’t himself?
Maybe I don’t understand the term charismatic, or the understanding has changed over the years. i always understood charismatic evangelicals, or pentacostalists, were somewhat distinct from conservative evangelicals.
welby clearly was allied to conservative evangelicals in his early days, but that was probably fluid too.
Little boxes.
To be clear, Welby showed himself open to breadth of the Anglican tradition in his time and I was not suggesting he was confined into any box of churchmanship. The comment I was replying to seemed to be suggesting that it was inconsistent of TA commenters not to take issue with this appointment because, supposedly, we usually love to complain when evangelicals are made bishops. I countered that the comments they were alluding to were not so much about evangelicals in particular becoming Anglican bishops in general, but about the CofE specifically having a (real or perceived) bias in appointments… Read more »
Thanks. Being new to TA, I assume that ‘thinking’ includes thinking conservative evangelicals and thinking charismatic and thinking almost anybody. If i thought TA and its contributers were, overall, biased towards or away from any particular style, i would immediately disappear!
TA should not be an echo chamber.
Anti-charismatic may be an expression of anti-guitars, which is a very silly viewpoint, almost as silly as anti-Messiaen.
I have friends who were anti-country music (white folks music) until Beyonce started singing it.
You’re right, the understanding of the word ‘charismatic’ has changed over the years. The modern Charismatic Movement began with the Azusa Street revival in the 1920s, and received a huge boost with the Jesus Movement (aka Jesus Revolution) which began in 1969 and went on into the 1970s. During that time, and into the 1980s and 1990s, the term usually referred to those who exercised the ‘charismatic gifts’ listed by Paul: tongues, healing, and prophecy in particular (but not administration, oddly!). Charismatic worship was often also characterised by exuberant worship, with raised hands, clapping, and a wave of creativity in… Read more »
Thank you very much for that clear explanation. My experiences are mainly from the 1970’s. Welby was from the Iwerne/Round Church/CICCU/Mark Ruston/Jonathan Fletcher background, which was conservative evangelical rather than charismatic. In those days i appreciated both charismatic and conservative evangelical worship, but they were very different. Conservatives used Hymns A&M, plus maybe some old methodist hymns. I have mentioned before that Welby and I taught at the same school in Kenya, under the CMS Youth Service Abroad scheme. We shared the same bed, but not at the same time. While Welby was at Enterprise Oil (we overlapped there as… Read more »
Welby has his spiritual roots in Iwerne, as you say. But he has also been closely associated with Holy Trinity Brompton, which is charismatic. He has both strands in his spiritual make-up, as do you and I. And like me (and perhaps you), he also seems to have integrated some more catholic elements – hence the monastic order he set up at Lambeth Palace.
Many of us are pretty eclectic by the time we reach our late middle years.
A very prominent influence when the charismatic movement first began to impact on mainstream churches in the UK of the1960’s was not Pentecostalism but the Church of the Redeemer, Houston – an anglo-catholic church. The first worship album I bought (LPs in those days) was actually a beautiful folk setting of the eucharist from there. Over the years that sacramental focus declined under the influence of American Quaker/Revivalist teaching – John Wimber being the best known. There is an important strand of charismatic spirituality among CofE Anglo Catholics. I long to see the sacramental focus return to the evangelical tradition… Read more »
In the USA too in the 1960s, charismatic renewal prominently featured sacramental churches such as Episcopalians and Roman Catholics. Dennis Bennett (Episcopalian) was an early leader, as was Michael Harper (Anglo-Catholic) here. Francis MacNutt had a significant charismatic healing ministry in the RC church.
The 1960s classic They Speak With Other Tongues described the effects of renewal on churches of all denominations. One of the effects was to foster ecumenical work and unity and reconciliation. ‘We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord’ was our theme song.
I didnt know that singing hymns was a condition of being an anglican
No – in fact there’s really only 2 charismatic evangelical churches, both within spitting distance of each other in Edinburgh
Is one of them St James, Leith?
The SEC had better watch out. Once they’ve got a foot in the door, the Evos will try and take over . They hastened the decline of the CofE.
Might I say an ill informed comment … the SEC is not the CofE!
Explain how I’m ill-informed. I’m aware Scotland is not England.
The SEC has a completely different way of appointing Bishops, far more consultative with greater involvement of laity.
Labels, pointless labels!
It’s not pointless when you are on the receiving end!
Well if you are blinded by what is effectively becoming ecclesiological racism then no wonder we are struggling as a tradition
Which tradition? Do you mean the exclusive, homophobic and hateful traditionalists who support ecclesiastical apartheid? Some evangelicals think they are the only true Christians!
Speaking as an Anglo-Catholic: I guess there are those within my tradition who might be described as ‘exclusive, misogynistic and hateful traditionalists who support ecclesiastical apartheid’. But I would be deeply unhappy were that to lead to generalisations about Anglo-Catholicism or Anglo-Catholics.
I entirely agree. Anglo-Catholicism suffers far more from self-harm than from Evangelicals, who, in my experience, are usually quite well disposed toward us.
Nick appears to be from an inclusive / open evangelical church, so I’m not sure accusations of hateful conduct and ecclesiastical apartheid are in order here
Quite right. Nick has led a large and growing evangelical church that, among many things, has, for the last few years, hosted ‘Didsbury Pride’ and drawn 4000 people to it. Last Autumn they hosted a day conference on being Inclusive and Evangelical which draw 250 people.
By the way, Nick is an excellent person and this is a great appointment. Pity it is not to an English bishopric!
I agree. I’m delighted he’s coming to Scotland. And look how clear the vote was, not an anxious appointment at all. I think that for now a CNC would struggle with his very inclusive approach.
Is it possible that he was considered for some English Episcopal appointments but was not selected, before he was successful in Scotland? Would we know if he was?
The vote numbers are never disclosed. If Bishop-elect Nick had not got 50% in each house he would not have been elected and the process would have had to have been run again. You can’t infer anything about the lack of anxiety or otherwise beyond the fact of his election.
Well, I infer from what I see, and may of course be wrong. But I think a candidate who is not ‘plain vanilla’ clearing 50% in the first round shows confidence on the part of those making the choice. I wish him and the diocese well.
There’s no indication in the statement that the election only took one round. It may have taken many more than that. The procedure is, that if one candidate doesn’t receive 50% in all houses, the Synod discusses and votes again. Last time there was an election in G & G there were *several* rounds on the one day.
None of us know “how clear”, but a ‘majority’ as required. Yet under the new SEC canons the process started in Sept 2024. Perhaps time for CofE to consider its process for discerning a new Bishop? The Holy Spirit seems to be at ‘Swift’ work in Scotland with Brechin Bishop, Andrew Swift, overseeing the process!
A good and imaginative choice. I’m very comfortable with the SEC’s Affirming Catholic tilt but it’s valuable to have another perspective in the college of bishops, particularly one that upholds the full inclusion of our LGBT brothers and sisters.
Congratulations to Kevin. He will have his work cut out as the latest statistics indicate the diocese has only 4,188 members and Sunday attendance of 1,726.
Exact.
It’s not just the absolute numbers it’s also the speed of decline. Nine years before that it was 7,061 members and 3,031 Sunday attendance.
Do please explain who “Kevin” is?
Apologies, my error.
I am amazed that a bishop is needed to look after so few people. Three churches in my deanery have as many attending on a Sunday. Perhaps the money would be better spent on parish ministry.
I’m always happy to ponder efficiency. But the SEC is not an outpost of the C of E, has a very different history, is governed differently, is very small and is widely scattered (take a look at the diocese of Argyll and the Isles, the name is a bit of a giveaway). Of course, the Church of Scotland has no bishops at all, which is another way of doing things. Not very Anglican however.
It’s not about efficiency, more about good stewardship and mission. From reading their annual reports the SEC seems to have annual deficits and is generating funds by selling property.
But given that attendance was 3031 nine years earlier it should be a concern.
Well possibly, though falling attendance is not unique to Glasgow and Galloway. But I was pondering Bob’s comment and the usefulness, or not, of a bishop. I’m not sure that abolishing the diocese would do much for attendance. As Jo B comments in this thread, a diocese in the SEC is very lean. And if like Bob you are looking at deficits, Peterborough is interesting.
It does all look quite lean. Aberdeen went from 1,426 to 725, Edinburgh from 4,728 to 2,853.
The most hopeful diocese seems to be Argyll which only dropped from 434 to 369.
The SEC doesn’t have parishes. Bishops are, however, very active within their dioceses. Remember that they are often the only full time diocesan staff, and are assisted by a Dean who has their own charge. There are no archdeacons, no suffragans, no bishop’s chaplains, drivers, etc etc. A Scottish diocese is not an English one. It has a very different structure.
Perhaps, Bob, some time you might like to identify yourself and your church and deanery that you speak so much of.
There are no parishes in the SEC and thus no “parish ministry”, whatever that phrase is supposed to mean. I am really rather bored of people making patronising and supercilious comments about my church without even the most basic understanding of our context, governance or polity.
“Parish ministry” might include leading services, visiting church members, visiting the sick in hospital, visiting the dying, visiting the bereaved, taking home communion to the housebound etc etc. Don’t need to call it a parish to carry out parish ministry. My common was neither patronising nor supercilious.
That is ministry. Nothing to do with “parish”. By your logic, we could call it submarine ministry – it would be equally as relevant to the SEC. And the exercise of that ministry and its funding has precious little to do with the costs expended on 7 bishops to cover the same geographical area as 108 do in England.
I have a little knowledge of the SEC I think there is a rough timescale for bishop appointments . Do CNCs have one
Yes – – and it’s very long. See the latest post for the Canterbury timetable. Which to me looks very typical sadly.
I’m bemused by all the speculation about the runners and riders in these episcopal appointments – the image I have in my mind is a branch of Ladbrokes with punters scanning form.
A friend of mine talking to an SEC bishop said he’d contact the bishop’s secretary with some information, with a wry smile the bishop said “I am also the bishop’s secretary”.
I think our entire diocese (A&tI) shares a part time secretary. Plenty of English parishes have more paid staff than this diocese.