Updated 14 December
Press release from the Prime Minister’s Office. The Bishop of Ebbsfleet replaces the former Bishop of Maidstone and will minister to complementarian evangelical parishes throughout the Church of England. There is more detail in this Church of England press release.
Appointment of Suffragan Bishop of Ebbsfleet: 9 December 2022
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr Robert Munro to the Suffragan See of Ebbsfleet, in the Diocese of Canterbury.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street and The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP
Published 9 December 2022
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr Robert Munro, Rector of the Benefice of St Mary’s Cheadle with St Cuthbert’s, in the Diocese of Chester, and Rural Dean of Cheadle, to the Suffragan See of Ebbsfleet, in the Diocese of Canterbury. This is in succession to The Right Reverend Rod Thomas following his retirement in a national role previously conducted by the Suffragan See of Maidstone.
Rob was educated at Bristol University and trained for ordained ministry at Oakhill Theological College. He was ordained Priest in 1994, served his title at St John the Baptist, Hartford, in the Diocese of Chester, and in 1997, was appointed Rector of St Wilfrid, Davenham.
In 2003, Rob was appointed to his current post as Rector of St Mary’s Cheadle with St Cuthbert’s, and completed his D.Min from Reformed Theological Seminary, USA. He has served three terms as Chair of the House of Clergy, and on the General Synod and the Dioceses’ Commission.
Update
The Chester diocesan website has this article which includes a link to a video of the Bishop of Chester interviewing the new bishop.
One thing about these flying bishops (or whatever they are called officially) is how good it is that they are so often parish priests working in parishes.
Not Deans or Archdeacons but parish clergy entering the ministry of a bishop with immediate first hand experience of life as a parish priest, and not living off memories of long ago when they were parish clergy.
Excellent news! So good to see mutual flourishing in action.
The word ‘Mutual’ might best be the adjective when women clergy are truly considered equal to the male of the species. In fact, it took a woman (the B.V.M.) to first bring forth The Christ – in her womb – before ever He was brought forth at the altar by a male priest.
And yet Mary wasn’t an apostle was she? And this takes nothing away from her dignity as a woman.
I’m not sure I understand your point?
I think that the census results and the statistics for mission indicate that we are far from ‘flourishing’. The entropy in the CofE has not been helped by increasing numbers of bishops of whatever stripe. With more senior clerics now than at any point in our history we’re still in serious decline.
So, we now know the identities of the Bishops of Oswestry and Ebbsfleet but isn’t it about time that the next Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester were appointed?
The Crown Nominations Commission for Lincoln meets on 24th February and 28th & 29th March 2023. The meetings for Winchester are 21st March and 27th & 28th April,
Which, I think, must mean that no Bishop of Winchester will participate in the Coronation on 6th May, surely the first time in the history of that ancient and (formerly?) important see. Richard Coeur de Lion and Mary Tudor are two monarchs who were crowned, admittedly in different circumstances, by the then incumbent Bishop of Winchester in place of Canterbury.
I’m not sure what part Winchester traditionally plays in the Coronation. Durham and Bath & Wells accompany the King; I don’t know who supports the Queen (last seen in 1937). Perhaps their role will be culled anyway as part of the simplification of the service and ceremonial. See also my reply to you in the Bishop of Hertford thread re the Archbishop of York’s role.
The rubric for the 1953 Coronation says this in relation to the delivery of the Sword of State to the Sovereign: “Then shall the Archbishop take the Sword from off the Altar, and (the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of London and Winchester and other Bishops assisting and going along with him) shall deliver it into the Queen’s hands; … “ There follows the Sovereign’s oath to uphold justice etc. (of which the Sword is symbolic) too lengthy to repeat here, but for those sufficiently interested, this is a link to the Order of Service: http://www.oremus.org/liturgy/coronation/cor1953b.html Yes, I well… Read more »
I’m amused that it apparently took at least 5 men to carry the sword to the young Elizabeth, and she then managed to hold it on her own.
I take some satisfaction from the fact that two of the four bishops specifically listed, York and Winchester, respectively confirmed my mother and my wife. History and symbolism seem to mean little to some people, but in its essentials the Coronation service has its origins in Saxon times. Possibly the 1953 service will have been the last of that long line; it’s said that the King would like a simpler ceremonial and a service as short as one hour has been mentioned as a possibility.
Your reply was to Clifford Jones, not to me. Although I have read that a shorter and simpler Coronation service for the present King is being considered, I assume that the tradition of all diocesan bishops being present will continue; collectively they are participants and take an oath. I merely observed that this time they would not include Winchester. I have separately linked the 1953 Coronation Order of Service.
Blackburn first, the crown nominations committee has already met so the announcement is due soon.
The last cnc meeting for Lincoln is March 2023, and April 2023 for Winchester, so not until late spring/early summer for those.
One of the unintended consequences of the flying bishops is that their workload with parishes is less than other bishops, so they get appointed to lots of national Cof E working groups etc. Their influence is then far bigger than their constituencies merit. This wouldn’t matter perhaps if they weren’t identified with the de facto sexism within the CofE they represent. But because of that, it does matter, however non-sexist their contributions to those working groups etc might be.
The outgoing Bishop of Maidstone has 147 churches on his books, according to his June newsletter. They’re spread nationally, so that’s a pretty full workload – and probably more churches to oversee than the average bishop.
Majority theological positions on women’s ordination and leadership aren’t sexist. They’re the default position for the Christian faith. The only reason the Church of England proceeded to admit women to these roles was on the understanding that those who wanted to remain faithful to the standard Christian teaching in this area could continue to do so with honour and respect within the CofE.
We aren’t sexist for thinking and doing the things we do.
This is a good nomination. I served with Rob on the Dioceses Commission for a short while, and also got to know him as a fellow member of the Chester CNC in 2020. He brings excellent pastoral skills and knows the challenges of parish ministry. Unlike his predecessor, he is not a campaigner. I wish him well in his episcopal ministry.
His work as Rural Dean means he will have given pastoral and administrative support to churches of different traditions across the Deanery. He strikes me as someone who will support his own constituency whilst seeing the bigger picture.