Suffragan Bishop of St Germans: 17 January 2020
The Queen appoints Reverend Hugh Edmund Nelson, BA, MTh, to the Suffragan See of St Germans.Published 17 January 2020
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing StreetThe Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Hugh Edmund Nelson, BA, MTh, Vicar of Goudhurst with Kilndown, in the diocese of Canterbury to the Suffragan See of St Germans, in the diocese of Truro, in succession to the Right Reverend Christopher David Goldsmith, BA, DPhil, who resigned on 29th September 2019.
Hugh was educated at Worcester College, Oxford and spent 13 years living and working in L’Arche London, one of the Christian communities for people with and without learning disabilities founded by Jean Vanier. He trained for ministry at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, served his title at The Benefice of The Six in the Diocese of Canterbury and was ordained Priest in 2010.
In 2012, Hugh was appointed to his current role as Vicar of Goudhurst and Kilndown. He also served as Chaplain to Blantyre House Prison from 2012-2016.
There are more details on the Truro diocesan website.
Another bishop with a spell of education at Worcester College Oxford. By my recollection (aided by that nice Mr Google), Nelson joins Jillian Duff, Helen-Ann Macleod Hartley, and Mark Ashcroft as new episcopal appointments just in the last couple of years, plus Steven Croft from a bit longer ago, all recording Worcester. Even allowing for people having done more than one degree and therefore able to be claimed by multiple institutions, that does seem a statistical anomaly. (In case of any misunderstanding, I do recognise that exactly which Oxbridge college they attended is far from the most important question to… Read more »
It’s quite important, though. There are only three great universities, Oxford, Cambridge and Hull, and as Melchett said in the last Blackadder series, Oxford’s a complete dump. I (Queens’ Cambridge 1969) pity them.
Ahem… you left out St Andrews
Yes. Much more important is which football team he supports. (I say ‘he’ advisedly, because they don’t seem that bothered about women’s sporting preferences.)
I remember Hugh Nelson at L’Arche Lambeth where I spent a couple of months. At the time he was recently married with a young baby. As a graduate of Worcester College I suspect he could have gone anywhere and done anything. The fact that he chose to spend many years living and working among people with severe learning difficulties speaks volumes. I found him a compassionate and deeply Christian man. He is in my prayers.
Could it be the influence of some extraordinary college chaplains? I was in Oxford 1980 to 88 (the other end of town from Worcester) but deeply aware of Andrew Louth and then the impact of Tom Wright’s arrival. That was far wider than just Worcester. I still remember one of his first lectures and – as with Rowan Williams around the same time – the sense that something amazing was happening not simply to theology as an academic discipline but to what that could mean for the mission and ministry of the churches in the coming decades. And – despite… Read more »
Let us not forget Alec Graham, Chaplain at Worcester from 1958 – 1970, prior to that ordained by the great Bishop George Bell to a curacy at Hove in the Chichester diocese. Thereafter, Warden of Lincoln Theological College (1970 – 1977 – I sat at his feet along with “Leah dog” for most of those years). Robert Runcie chose him as Suffragan Bishop of Bedford. When Runcie went to Canterbury both of his suffragans became diocesans – Peter Mumford to Truro and Alec Graham to Newcastle – both dioceses as far away from Canterbury as they possibly could be. I… Read more »
It would be helpful to know which school he attended too. The poshest college in the most prestigious university won’t scrub away the stain of a secondary modern or comprehensive education.
I’m really heartened by this appointment. Someone who’s pre-ordination experience is being taken seriously, enabling him to be consecrated after a relatively short ordained career and directly from parish ministry. More of this, please.
James , I agree although I wouldn’t consider a decade especially short in other careers / vocations
So the Anglo-Saxon fascination with the Old School Tie dominates a discussion about a new episcopal appointment, completely eclipsing the blatantly obvious dimension that here is a (soon-to-be) bishop who is not a target-driven, managerial evangelical from the same mould as Justin Welby, endlessly banging-on about ‘growth’; who is obviously theologically literate, but has also spent a sustained period of his life engaging at some depth with human fragility. Philip Mountstephen is to be congratulated for making such an inspired appointment. With a bishop who knows ‘the power of weakness’ in ways that are as specific as they are personal,… Read more »
This appointment is undoubtedly yet more evidence of the good fruit of the ‘Learning Community’ – an extended program of training, discernment and preparation for those perceived to have potential vocation to senior leadership on the church. It is the initiative of that ‘target-driven, managerial evangelical’ Archbishop of ours. Well a good target and well managed I say.