Press release from 10 Downing Street. Further information is available from Lichfield diocese and from Oxford diocese.
Appointment of Suffragan Bishop of Wolverhampton: 27 August 2024
The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Dr Timothy Wambunya to the Suffragan See of Wolverhampton in the Diocese of Lichfield.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 27 August 2024The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Dr Timothy Wambunya, Vicar of St Paul’s, Slough, in the Diocese of Oxford, to the Suffragan See of Wolverhampton in the Diocese of Lichfield, in succession to Bishop Clive Gregory, following his retirement.
Background
Tim’s initial career was in Marine Engineering. He trained for ministry at Oakhill Theological College, London, serving his title at St John, Southhall Green, in the Diocese of London, and was ordained Priest in 1998. Tim was appointed Vicar at Emmanuel Holloway Church, Stepney, in 2000 and, in 2007, was appointed Principal at Carlile College (The Church Army Africa College) in Nairobi, Kenya. During these two roles, he studied for a PhD in Paremiology at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (University of Wales). In 2013, he was consecrated and became Bishop of the Diocese of Butere, Anglican Church of Kenya, before taking up his current role in 2020 as Vicar at St Pauls, Slough, in the Diocese of Oxford. He has additionally served as an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Oxford.
I see a parallel with Trevor Huddleston who, having been consecrated in the African continent (Tanzania) became a suffragan in the Province of Canterbury (Stepney).
Let’s hope he copies +Trevor rather than a previous Principal of the Carlile college, the former bishop of Winchester!
Or he could just be himself and not copy anyone.
It is good to note that the first and second Bishops of Wolverhampton are alive, respectively Barry Rogerson who was translated to Bristol and Christopher Mayfield who was translated to Manchester. Like the Bishop-elect, Christopher Mayfield was an engineer before ordination. Bishop Rogerson started his working life in banking. I can recall his visit to Australia in 1981.
It is not difficult to work out from the length of the redactions and the text of the memo the then prime minister’s secretary for appointments, Robin Catford, wrote to John Major in October 1991, that Christopher Mayfield was the other candidate, along with Peter Ball, recommended to the PM for appointment by the Crown Appointments Commission (as it was then known) as the next Bishop of Gloucester. Mayfield was the first name, preferred by a 8-4 majority of the CAC. But for Catford pushing for Ball, who advised Major to choose the second name – action which appalled George… Read more »
The 1991 memo from the PM’s Appointments Secretary can be read here https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20221215005401/https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/6004/view/CAB000013_001-006.pdf
A fascinating read. Catford clearly took Ball at face value. I wonder how far he actually consulted among church people and clergy at large?
Ball took in most people, including the then Prince Charles. He was expert at grooming nearly everyone he met. He was my bishop in Sussex, and the only person I ever heard express doubts about him was, ironically, Gordon Rideout. But Gordon was con evo, and Ball was Anglo Catholic.
Manchester certainly got the better part of that particular catastrophic deal. Bishop Mayfield is remembered very fondly by a lot of my friends there, ordained and lay. Rather ‘army officer’ in his bearing, but with a lot of compassion and kindness. As one put it to me ‘he expected high standards but you felt he looked out for you’. They compare him (and Bishop McCulloch who followed him) very favourably with the current leadership. When I talk with them, I’m often struck by how consistent the comments are across a group of people of different traditions, stages in ministry, ages,… Read more »
I liked Bp. Christopher personally, but he presided over one of the worst discernment procedures (before ordaining women to the priesthood) in the whole Church of England. It was so abusive that many of us took a long time to recover. And Bp Christopher declined to rectify the damage done. That was a huge blot on his record.
Was that in Manchester, Janet? If so, I didn’t know about how abusive it was to women, or what it was like in his time, but I have heard some reliable accounts of how abusive it was to some others in Bishop Booth-Clibborn’s time. I wonder if there was any commonality in personnel.
I think Catford was also responsible for recommending Brandon Jackson to be Dean of Lincoln.
I don’t know if the ‘two names’ rule applies to Deans as well as Bishops but in that case it would have been better if the other name had been appointed. An absolute catastrophe.
I don’t think the two names rule does apply to deans, but Catford recommended candidates. In Brandon’s case Thatcher took up the suggestion enthusiastically, commenting, ‘There’ll be blood on the carpet!’
The Wolverhampton area looked after by the Area Bishop of Wolverhampton is larger than many dioceses. I suspect it is a “killer” of a job. It certainly made one previous bishop very ill and reduced another to tears at a staff meeting.
A lot of years ago I went on an exchange to Oakhill, for a week from my college, Salisbury & Wells. It struck me as very conservative evangelical then, is that still the case? And does that reflect the views of the new bishop?
I think given the diverse churchmanships practised in the Church of England as well as in the Diocese of Lichfield, when Bishop Timothy gets to the Diocese of Lichfield and the Wolverhampton Episcopal Area, he will have to be able to adapt to the various different Theological and Liturgical traditions practised in his Area, as he will be the Bishop to the whole area and just to Evangelicals within his Episcopal Area, which might mean for example if he is visiting Anglo Catholic Churches in his Area or Churches of Central Churchmanship being prepared to Vest in Eucharistic Vestments and… Read more »
The bishop who confirmed me (70 years ago), Henry Montgomery Campbell, was doing precisely that: cope and mitre at my ‘high church’ confirmation but dispensing with both in favour of plain Convocation robes when officiating at the (very) ‘low’ church where my aunt (and godmother) worshipped. I didn’t witness that, and it could well have been the black chimere and wrist bands. Of course there were not the same sadly divisive issues then (almost battle stations by comparison, it seems, in 2024) and this arrangement was accepted as normal and without fuss by the bishop and parishes in the then… Read more »
I was at the old London College of Divinity. We had a football team that played in an informal league against various other theological colleges in North London. By far the roughest, toughest and meanest team was Oak Hill who took muscular Christianity to a new level. We had one player who played Non league football near Nottingham and was useful. In one match Oak Hill obviously tried to close him down and one player was particularly vicious. After one unpleasant confrontation which went way beyond the rules of football our player got up and shouted at the Oak Hill… Read more »
Amen to that!!
Wow, that was some response. in the interest of sporting and theological balance I attended one of those northern grammar schools which only played Rugby Union. The hardest and meanest team we played against was Ampleforth!
Whereas the St Stephen’s team were always very strong on crosses!
Oakhill used to be so ‘low’ you have to look up to see bottom.
I have not heard report of that changing.
I like your description! A friend of mine once referred to his Archdeacon as “So low he could walk under a caterpillar with his hat on.”
On Ship of Fools the extremes are labelled snake-belly low and nosebleed high…
‘Spiky’ describe those ACs who are more in the ordo of fiddle-backs and Rose Macaulay’s Fr Hugh Chantry-Pigg, and less in the style of cassock-albs and +Rowan Williams.
In the 50s and 60’s it was described as ” advanced”.
Fiddle-backs? Isn’t that a style of chair?
Is being spirit- filled a bad case of alcoholism?
Only in the Acts 2 sense: ‘We’re not drunk, it’s only 9 o’clock in the morning.’
Apart from the obvious literal violin meaning, it can also be a ‘Roman’ chasuble or a spider, some of them evidently venomous. Our late friend, and regular TA correspondent, Stanley Monkhouse can be seen in photographs wearing a ‘fiddle-back’.
I do miss Prof Stanley and Fr Ron’s contributions on TA. Sadly missed.
On close inspection a fiddle back chasuble is straight at the back and violin shaped at the front. Maybe fiddle front is more accurate. Not a fan myself though I have worn them on some very exotic occasions
They were designed for maximum economy of fabric. When the pattern is cut out there is practically no wastage at all.
And they are designed to be worn by an eastward-facing priest, i.e. with his [sic] back to any congregation. So the front is very plain but the back is often highly decorated and of a richer fabric. And the priest’s arms are free, unencumbered by a full chasuble, so it is much easier for them to elevate the consecrated elements for congregational adoration.
(Not my thing at all, for a number of reasons!)
Not entirely correct. Gothic chasubles every often carry heavy ornamentation too. The front of a ‘Latin’ chasuble is always of the same fabric as the back but the seam is across the breast rather than across the shoulders. Latin ‘fiddleback’ chasubles were for the most part extremely plain in design and were the less expensive option. The sort of vestment sported by young Anglocatholic clergymen in all the photographs they put up on social media and in their publications are not really representative.
And cool in hot weather
Back of the fiddle rather that the back of the priest?
Kind of clerical G string?
I suspect “that ancient bigot”, Fr High Chantry-Pigg, would have vested in lacy cotta, fiddle-back chasuble and maniple; as well as presiding eastward facing. Dame Rose Macaulay’s Towers of Trebizond, written at the high-water mark of Anglo-Catholicism, gives a wonderful insight into a world long gone. Or has it? As Perry Butler has pointed out, some are returning to it.
One of the selectors at my ACCM (selection conference) suggested I read ‘The Towers of Trebizond’ in order to understand the Church of England. I did, and was no wiser. I still don’t understand the recommendation.
No surprises there!
“Take my camel, dear”, said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.” Surely one of the best opening lines in fiction; setting the tone for the whole book. This came up as a quiz question at my last clergy conference before retirement. Hardly anyone knew where it was from; demonstrating how far Anglo-Catholicism had declined. Sorry to hear of your experience, Janet; I suspect it helps to be immersed in the cultus. I had a lady in my last parish who was Aunt Dot reincarnated. “Baptists are fine people, dear; but… Read more »
Yes, it’s a great opening sentence. I don’t regret having read the book, I just don’t understand why it was recommended. My ACCM was in spring 1984, and it was well out of date by then. But not long enough out of date to be in again.
He would only have worn a chasuble over a cotta if taking part in a procession of the blessed sacrament, and then without a maniple.
One wears the chasuble over the alb.
Normally, yes, but Maureen is correct that a priest taking part in a procession of the blessed sacrament would wear one over a cotta had he not been the celebrant of the Mass preceding the procession.
Not at all certain that this will work, but this is one of the photographs of Fr Stanley in ‘fiddle back’ chasuble. Note its elaborate front and maniple (now largely disused and unknown) on his left wrist. The front ‘cutaway’, surely, was intended to provide greater freedom of arm movement, especially when raising the host.
IMG_5434.jpg
Maniples were a liability.
Elevation was not the issue.The issue was knocking things flying when your hand was closer to the mensa of the altar when using manual acts in the process of celebrating.
They were well consigned to the parish jumble over 60 years ago. Laus Deo….common sense prevailed!
I assume you are not a priest but you seem to be an encyclopaedia of ecclesiastical curiosities.
Sorry if I did not make it entirely clear in this composite reply to several earlier posts. I was referring to the ‘cutaway’ of the front of the fiddle-back chasuble, not the shape or purpose of the maniple. I don’t know whether ‘ecclesiastical curiosities’ is to be taken as a compliment. Chasubles (including Roman) and maniples (along with other AC vestments and ceremony) were part of daily life in the church where I was confirmed – I gave a clear clue that my confirmation was 70 years ago. Sadly, that particular church abandoned everything AC last century, but not as… Read more »
Sadly, the (propped up) burse hasn’t gone the same way of the maniple when presiding versus populum, particularly when the altar has been set up with the corporal already in place, thereby losing the ritual ‘putting on the cloth’.
How do we cope?
The ‘larger than some dioceses’ argument was used in the Peart-Binns biography of Graham Leonard, with reference not to Leonard himself but to his episcopal colleague Ronald Goodchild, Bishop of Kensington, who did not become a diocesan. Peart-Binns points out that the episcopal area of Kensington was ‘larger than some dioceses’.
Surely from the comments from the Bishop of Lichfield…. he is a “conservative” in TA terms on LLF’? How much criticism will he receive ?
Oakhill?? An odd successor to Bishop Clive.
Why? We don’t have a tradition in England where bishop’s successors are neccessarily in the same tradition as their predessors…
Quite the opposite. It used to be common to appoint a bishop of a different brand to his (it was ‘his’ in those days) predecessor. The tradition persists re the appointments of the archbishops.
Admitted my stay at Oak Hill was 1985-88 but in those three years my fellow students were: Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Moravian, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Independent House Church. Among the Anglicans (often in strange combinations) charismatic, cessationatist, Central, low, Calvinist, Prayer Book, contemplative, Male, female, single, married, divorced and remarried, widow, early 20s to late 70s in age. Even the staff were inconsistent/varied depending on your terminology. I doubt any college was/is capable of reduction to a word or phrase. Thanks be to God.
Any gay?
Part of me wants to say yes, but those who were either followed a celibate path or told few. It would be for others to declare.
It would, indeed, be for others to declare but I fear that if a student did declare that he or she were gay and did not declare that they were celibate, their time at Oakhill could be somewhat challenging perhaps ?
I should love to know my fears were and are unfounded.
I remember a gay friend who was a student at Cranmer Hall who often wondered whether to disclose his sexuality to the staff and others in an evangelical environment. It was a shock when the lecturer in liturgy contracted AIDS and sadly died. Fear and secrecy is a terrible thing.