Press release from the Prime Minister’s office
For further information see the Blackburn diocesan website.
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr Joseph Kennedy for appointment as Bishop of Burnley.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 22 March 2024
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr Joseph Kennedy, Vicar of Oxton St Saviour in the Diocese of Chester, for appointment to the Suffragan See of Burnley in the Diocese of Blackburn in succession to the Right Reverend Philip North, following his translation to the See of Blackburn.
Joe was educated at Edinburgh University and at St Hugh’s College and Keble College, Oxford, and trained for ministry at St Stephen’s House, Oxford. He served as a Curate in the Diocese of Oxford, at Stratfield Mortimer (St Mary) and Mortimer West End with Padworth, and at Abingdon, and was ordained Priest in 2003.
In 2005, Joe was appointed Dean of Chapel, Chaplain and Fellow at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and additionally served as Chaplain and Senior Member at Newnham College. In 2008, Joe took up the role of Principal, College of the Resurrection, Mirfield.
In 2011, Joe was appointed to his current role as Vicar of Oxton St Saviour, in the Diocese of Chester, additionally serving as a Lecturer and Tutor at St Mellitus College from 2015 until 2020, and as Rural Dean of Birkenhead since 2021.
This is an excellent appointment for Diocese of Blackburn! Congratulations Bishop Designate Joe!
I agree. Joe will be a great addition to the Diocese and is a person of faith, humility and intelligence. We are very fortunate to have him as a bishop.
When George Holderness resigned as Bishop of Burnley in 1970 to become Dean of Lichfield, he humorously gave as one of his reasons the fact that ‘only one previous Bishop of Burnley has left alive’. Four of the predecessors of the current Bishop-elect are still alive, a happy state of affairs.
Do we know – does he ordain women? Where would he be on PLF?
Are you asking what he thinks of the Palestine Liberation Front?
Now I know what ‘Struggling’ means.
Sadly I still have not discovered what you mean by PLF.
Presumably not Passenger Locator Form.
Perhaps I am not up to date with current churchspeak.
PLF is the set of prayers that have been produced by the House of Bishops as part of the Living in Love and Faith process. Prayers (or is it “Praying”?) in Love and Faith.
Thank you, Simon.
I always thought that it was good to ask for explanations.
Perhaps it is also OK to struggle without being tacitly sneered at?
I did send you an apology but it has not appeared. I was not sneering at you. I genuinely thought you were making a joke. I realise now you were not of course. My apologies.
Accepted of course.
In the current climate I am more focussed on the horrors in Palestine than with the CofE trying to be ‘nice’ but failing abysmally over an important matter of social justice.
I am on your side!….but I avoid the church press to save my mental health.
He means living in love and faith?
On the former,: well not at the moment (obviously), but he has had and affirmed female colleagues in his present post, and Oxton has always had an open catholic tradition, so no reason to think that he won’t ordain women. On the latter: less clear – like many he is probably rather careful what he says at the moment – time will tell ! This feels like a good appointment – he has a good theological brain and has a over twelve years of parish experience at Oxton – a large parish both geographically and numerically, socially very mixed, and… Read more »
Thank you.
He does not ordain women, or men, because he is not a bishop. He does, however, have a lady assistant priest and a lady curate, both much respected.
Well I did mean when he becomes a bishop of course. When he does I really hope he does not speak of ordained women as lady assistants or lady curates (or lady bishops some to that).
Well so do I. But in this case it was necessary for me to refer to their gender since that was the question you raised. The ordained person referred to by me as lady assistant priest is described on Oxton website as assistant priest. I added the prefix lady because that was the point you asked.
I think Mr Runcorn is picking you up on the fact that Mr Kennedy’s assistants neither hold titles nor peerages, nor are they married to such as do.
But it’s not a very good point, nor particularly apposite. T Pott correctly used the lower case ‘l’ not the upper case ‘L’ which would be appropriate to titled Ladies.
A former Roman Catholic I believe