on Thursday, 10 April 2025 at 3.10 pm by Peter Owen
categorised as Church of England, News
The Bishop of Brixworth, the Right Reverend John Holbrook, has announced that he will retire on 30 September 2025. Details are on the Peterborough diocesan website.
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Clifford Jones
20 days ago
The first Bishop of Brixworth was consecrated in 1989. Interestingly, that was the centenary of the creation of the Suffragan Bishopric of Northampton in the Diocese of Peterborough. That was never filled. At the same time the Suffragan See of Leicester in the Diocese of Peterborough came into existence, and there were three holders in succession before Leicester became a diocese. Two of them were closely related to archbishops. Lewis Clayton, second Suffragan Bishop of Leicester, was the father of Geoffrey Clayton, Archbishop of Cape Town. Norman Lang, third and final Suffragan Bishop of Leicester, was the brother of Cosmo… Read more »
Michael OSullivan
19 days ago
As the diocese appears to have no money and we are constantly being told the cathedral will have to close, and as there appears to be so much difficulty finding people who are suitable to be bishops, would it be too much to suggest that we might do without a Bishop of Brixworth especially as it seems we managed perfectly well for a century when far more people went to church.
Over the period when it was without a suffragan, the Diocese of Peterborough benefited from retired bishops resident in the diocese and more than willing to help out. One was Alan Rogers of Mauritius, Fulham and Edmonton. Another was Guy Marshall, previously in Venezuela. They amongst others would have done some of the confirmations.
Thank you. This message is in response to both your postings in this thread. I should think that an assistant bishop having previously worked overseas might for that reason have quite a lot to give in an English diocesan setting. Donald Coggan (whom I frequently quote) said that when he returned from an overseas trip he ‘longed to share with his flock at home the treasures he had found abroad’. An assistant bishop with episcopal experience of another province could do the same. Coggan himself had, at York, an assistant bishop previously a bishop in West Africa. His name was… Read more »
other way around I think – given the twin tendencies of increased admin and diminishing congregations for the admin to be done on/for/to, the need for a Bishop of Brixworth has probably only increased in importance. I don’t know how local you are, but Peterborough diocese is a bizarre shape – over here in the extreme west, it would probably make more sense for us to come under Oxford, but we’re Peterborough. Brixworth is at least on the mental map, rather than expecting someone living and operating in Peterborough (a city I’ve never so much as visited) to have any… Read more »
I remember reading in Church times back in the mid 80’s when Bishop Bill Westwood was Bishop of Peterborough, Bishop Westwood expressing a view when he decided to seek a Suffragan Bishop, when the Diocese had up to the relied on Hon Assistant Bishops, that it was quite wrong to go on using retired Bishops as Assistant Bishops who had already given so much in their previous working lives as Stipendiary Bishops, and he wanted someone who would come to him at the start of the Episcopal Ministry rather then at the end of their working Episcopal ministry on retiring… Read more »
I guess that, like several Henrician creations, Peterborough was a cack-handed and cheapskate partial solution – in that instance to the problem of Lincoln diocese being much too big, but the removal of Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Rutland from Lincoln diocese also conveniently camouflaged the extent to which the see of Lincoln under John Longland was asset stripped (though as Margaret Bowker noted in her 1982 monograph on Longland’s pontificate, that wily old prelate staged a fairly creditable rearguard action, certainly by comparison with such craven and opportunistic contemporaries as William Rugge of Norwich or Rowland Lee of Coventry & Lichfield).… Read more »
Peterborough Abbey was a far grander place than the others you mention, comparable with Norwich and Ely as great Anglian churches, and more than worthy of being a cathedral church. In addition the king’s first wife was buried there, which may have contributed to its repurposing. It would have made a bit more sense if Huntingdonshire had also been taken out of Lincoln at the creation of the see. And if he had created a see of St Albans for Beds, Herts and Bucks (sounds like a radio station!).
It is also odd that half of the City of Peterborough (south of the Nene) is in the Ely Diocese. Both bishops of Peterborough and Ely are honorary assistant bishops in their respective dioceses, but it is a curious geographical and pastoral anomaly.
Well, the monks really were pioneer colonists. At least part of the problem with the distribution of cathedrals in the East Midlands was due to many of the Midland counties formed in the 9th and 10th centuries being in origin military units based on an assessment of hides, and focused upon a borough which would function as the military HQ of its eponymous county. The English diocesan system had largely been formed before that point in time, based upon the kingdoms or sub-kingdoms extant between the 7th and 8th centuries, with the rule – not followed consistently – of there… Read more »
I wrote to the Dioceses Commission suggesting Rutland detaches from Peterborough and forms a new diocese. I am waiting for a reply, but remain hopeful. We would not need a suffragan although a number of honorary assistant bishops would no doubt be attracted to the area. Rutland could eventually detach from the United Kingdom if the threat of reunification with Leicestershire persists. We would then be looking at Anglican provincial status.
Your amusing comment, for which many thanks, reminds me of the recidivism in the period 1974-97, but one of the reasons why Rutland was absorbed into Leicestershire was that it lacked the tax base and economies of scale to secure adequate social services: prior to 1974 Rutland notoriously had some of the worst healthcare provision in the UK. There is no evidence of Rutland having any meaningful identity separate from Northamptonshire prior to the Conquest, save that it formed part of the dower lands granted by Ethelbert to his queen Emma of Normandy in 1002 (along with Rockingham and Winchester).… Read more »
Froghole’s contributions are always so informative. This has caused me to have further thoughts (musings?). I seemed to recall that Peterborough had in the past been not part of Cambridgeshire, but in the Soke of Peterborough, in Northamptonshire but administered separately. According to Wikipedia, the Soke was abolished as recently as 1965. The Wikipedia entry for the Anglican Diocese of Peterborough indicated the Suffragan Bishop of Brixworth to have been created even more recently, in 1988, and the retiring John Holbrook is only the third Bishop of Brixworth. It seems timely for the Dioceses Commission to review the need for… Read more »
The configuration of the diocese of Peterborough was, if I remember aright, one of the very first issues looked at by the Dioceses Commission after its reform in 2007. At the time it recommended a number of minor changes whch were implemented, and it then moved on to other issues, such as the Yorkshire dioceses. There was, I recall, little appetite for change locally or in the wider area, including Ely and Lincoln dioceses. I believe the Commission had intended to revisit Peterborough — but the outcome in Yorkshire has not encouraged further reform.
I should add (also further to your exchange above with Homeless Anglican about the northern border of Ely diocese) that the old boundary between the Soke and Huntingdonshire was ‘breached’ quite recently. A decade ago Water Newton, which is on the right/south bank of the Nene and is of considerable interest to anyone interested in Constantine the Great, was at risk of closure as its congregation had died out. The then incumbent of the Castor benefice (on the opposite side of the river, in the Soke) was determined that it should not be closed. He therefore took effective control of… Read more »
Yes, the Water Newton case was one of those I obliquely referred too, and I remember its transfer from this diocese to the one across the river. The situation with other parishes is quite complicated. Many of them have strong historical and emotional links with the See of Ely, having been part of this diocese since 1837, almost 200 years ago. Ely diocese has also invested heavily in some of them, and it isn’t quite so obviously a good move for a congregation to transfer from a diocese with better than average finances (and correspondingly lower share request) to one… Read more »
My Father (Canon Khalil Jamal) was the last Rector of Fletton and he served from 1965 until 1988 when he retired and he was warned on taking on Fletton he was taking on a Parish slowly on its way out, when he retired there was a Priest in Charge for 5 years and then his former Parish was linked with Woodstone, and when the church at Woodstone ceased to be Viable and was closed, Fletton was recently linked to Stanground. I think it will eventually and legally become a united Benifice. Yes! I know that area well from past visits… Read more »
Yes Clifford that is correct, he was ordained by Bishop George Graham Brown first as Deacon in 1939 in St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem and then he was Priested in St John’s Parish Church in Haifa. My Father started his ministry as Curate of St Andrew’s Church in Ramalla, and then from 1941 to 1956 he was Vicar of Christ Church in Nazareth and from 1956 to 1957 He was Priest in Charge of St Mary’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Dalkeith in the Diocese of Edinburgh. When Dalkeith was raised in 1957 to a Proper Incumbancy , my father became… Read more »
Very many thanks! Yes, there was also the shortlived Huntingdon & Peterborough established in 1965, which was a victim of the 1974 reorganisation prompted by the Redcliffe-Maud report of 1969. However, the Redcliffe-Maud report recommended the formation of two large districts, Peterborough – North Fens (which would have included large tracts of Kesteven, Holland, the Isle of Ely and Norfolk) and Cambridge – South Fens. This would have made an even greater nonsense of diocesan boundaries, but it went well beyond what wider local interests were prepared to accept, and so what currently prevails is something of a half-baked compromise… Read more »
Indeed, and thank you, but Peterborough would still have remained fairly liminal even if Huntingdonshire had been added. There was the cluster of great monastic churches on the fringes of the Fens, or within them: Bardney, Crowland, Ely, Peterborough, Ramsey, Thorney, etc., but nothing of remotely comparable size in the rest of Lincoln diocese (with the exception of the Augustinian abbey at Leicester), whilst St Albans was within London diocese, which was deemed to be of an acceptable size. This, I suspect, was one of the problems which confronted those who were trying to redraw the diocesan map in 1540-42.… Read more »
I imagine that this is the first time Crowland (Abbey) has been mentioned in Thinking Anglicans (can one do a word search here?) but I write as someone whose vocation was initially stirred as a server at that church in the 1960’s. The situation is that Crowland related much more to Peterborough (only about 10 miles away), albeit being in the diocese of Lincoln (56 miles distant). Diocesan boundaries are indeed a cornucopia of geographical and historical oddities! In spite of the population having doubled since my time (approx 3,000 to 6,000), Crowland Abbey no longer has a resident priest,… Read more »
Well aware of the shape of the diocese. In fact only two weeks ago I replied to the thread regarding the Brackley deanery being closer to seven other cathedrals than it is to its own. The problem is that if every time a slimming down of the episcopal structure is proposed, NIMBYS, like you pop up, it will never get done. We have to start somewhere.
I’m with you Michael, although I may not expressed it quite as strongly as you have to rural-liberal. ‘Admin’ can and must be cut. It’s no good saying that Diocesan bishops need more help. parish priests need more help. Churchwardens need more; safeguarding needs more …. It’s a matter of priorities. How many congregants per Bishop, whether Diocasan or Suffragan? Maybe all should be bishops? Why not? waht arebishops for? Perhaps someone might p[oint us toward a Job description? And I take it as read that the Person Specification will expect someone of the kind of prayerful pastorally caring theologian… Read more »
IIUC, all Suffragan Bishop role descriptions are ‘scrutinised’ by the Dioceses Commission, and some (few) are remitted for reconsideration. Not so for Diocesans, where a request would need to be made to the Dioceses Commission for a particular review to be undertaken, like resulted in the West Yorkshire rearrangements. Not that they make the appointments. Maybe Guthiac might have made it onto a ‘ready now’ list?
Perhaps the Dioceses Commission may be asked to consider the need for a Peterborough suffragan bishop or two.
Further to this, and taking into account particularly supportive contributions fron Stephen Griffiths and Froghole, I note from the Dioceses Commission website: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/governance/general-synod/committees-and-commissions/dioceses-commission that it has a duty to keep boundaries under review and to have in mind ‘if they become out of sync with civic life’. I have alluded to some of the changes in civic structures over recent years, and am reminded of the creation of a Combined Authority in 2017: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridgeshire_and_Peterborough_Combined_Authority The Dioceses Commission website indicates that:’It can initiate proposals for change.’ I recognise, as does Simon Kershaw, following the Yorkshire reorganisation experince, the lack of appetite… Read more »
Don’t you think St Guthlac might be a little bit ancient by now ? Is there a retirement age for holy relics? In life his on-costs would have been pretty low of course because he lived in a cistern, only wore clothes made of rough animal skins and lived on minimum rations of barley bread and muddy water. He understood the demons who tormented him as it appears they spoke Welsh/Common Brittonic which he had learned in a previous period of captivity. But he probably would be ruled out as any sort of a bishop because he concentrated on mortifying… Read more »
Something comes to mind that Bishop Douglas Feaver was happy to operate single handed without a Suffragan Bishop and in Purple Feaver he was reported to have rudely described Suffragan Bishops as “Consecrated Nannies to look after the Clergy!” Jonathan.
There was also a large number of incumbents in the days of Bishop Douglas Feaver, he was active in keeping the number of benefices as high as possible in rural areas. Presumably he saw this is most important. Many benefices were small (some extremely so) in terms of population.
Yes, the parish in which I grew up, a parish of around 400 souls, had its own Rector until as late as 1983. How times change – that parish then had 2 services every Sunday, and now has 2 a month.
Interesting, thank you – I felt that the Bishop’s approach was to be commended at the time, and whilst I know it is easy to be nostalgic, it is still a question of priorities in our present day and time.
Adrian
19 days ago
I hope that this was a lovely bishop, a godly pious man that blessed the people with his presence and attention.
Good to hear. As an aside, Douglas Feaver, Bishop of Peterborough 1972-84 (who is mentioned in another thread on this post, as he managed without a suffragan) was also previously Rector of St Mary’s Nottingham.
Homeless Anglican
16 days ago
I think we need to pay tribute to Bishop John. He has been a good suffragan. A faithful priest and pastor. He was exactly what Peterborough needed and has been a fine and wise leader.
The first Bishop of Brixworth was consecrated in 1989. Interestingly, that was the centenary of the creation of the Suffragan Bishopric of Northampton in the Diocese of Peterborough. That was never filled. At the same time the Suffragan See of Leicester in the Diocese of Peterborough came into existence, and there were three holders in succession before Leicester became a diocese. Two of them were closely related to archbishops. Lewis Clayton, second Suffragan Bishop of Leicester, was the father of Geoffrey Clayton, Archbishop of Cape Town. Norman Lang, third and final Suffragan Bishop of Leicester, was the brother of Cosmo… Read more »
As the diocese appears to have no money and we are constantly being told the cathedral will have to close, and as there appears to be so much difficulty finding people who are suitable to be bishops, would it be too much to suggest that we might do without a Bishop of Brixworth especially as it seems we managed perfectly well for a century when far more people went to church.
And large numbers got confirmed. What are the statistics for Confirmation in the Peterborough diocese I wonder?
Over the period when it was without a suffragan, the Diocese of Peterborough benefited from retired bishops resident in the diocese and more than willing to help out. One was Alan Rogers of Mauritius, Fulham and Edmonton. Another was Guy Marshall, previously in Venezuela. They amongst others would have done some of the confirmations.
Indeed. Bishop Alan Rogers confirmed me many moons ago when he was assisting in the diocese in retirement.
Thank you. He was the first Bishop Suffragan of Edmonton.
They also from 1957 to 1970 (when he died) Bishop Weston Stewart former Anglican Bishop In Jerusalem. Jonathan
Thank you. This message is in response to both your postings in this thread. I should think that an assistant bishop having previously worked overseas might for that reason have quite a lot to give in an English diocesan setting. Donald Coggan (whom I frequently quote) said that when he returned from an overseas trip he ‘longed to share with his flock at home the treasures he had found abroad’. An assistant bishop with episcopal experience of another province could do the same. Coggan himself had, at York, an assistant bishop previously a bishop in West Africa. His name was… Read more »
In response to Perry Butler’s question:
Confirmation figures for every diocese are available in the spreadsheet that I produce alongside the Statistics for Mission report: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/statisticsformission2023_tables.xlsx
The stipend, expenses and housing costs will be met by the Church Commissioners . They will cost the diocese nothing.
Housing of suffragan bishops is not paid for by the Church Commissioners – it’s a diocesan responsibility.
other way around I think – given the twin tendencies of increased admin and diminishing congregations for the admin to be done on/for/to, the need for a Bishop of Brixworth has probably only increased in importance. I don’t know how local you are, but Peterborough diocese is a bizarre shape – over here in the extreme west, it would probably make more sense for us to come under Oxford, but we’re Peterborough. Brixworth is at least on the mental map, rather than expecting someone living and operating in Peterborough (a city I’ve never so much as visited) to have any… Read more »
I remember reading in Church times back in the mid 80’s when Bishop Bill Westwood was Bishop of Peterborough, Bishop Westwood expressing a view when he decided to seek a Suffragan Bishop, when the Diocese had up to the relied on Hon Assistant Bishops, that it was quite wrong to go on using retired Bishops as Assistant Bishops who had already given so much in their previous working lives as Stipendiary Bishops, and he wanted someone who would come to him at the start of the Episcopal Ministry rather then at the end of their working Episcopal ministry on retiring… Read more »
I guess that, like several Henrician creations, Peterborough was a cack-handed and cheapskate partial solution – in that instance to the problem of Lincoln diocese being much too big, but the removal of Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Rutland from Lincoln diocese also conveniently camouflaged the extent to which the see of Lincoln under John Longland was asset stripped (though as Margaret Bowker noted in her 1982 monograph on Longland’s pontificate, that wily old prelate staged a fairly creditable rearguard action, certainly by comparison with such craven and opportunistic contemporaries as William Rugge of Norwich or Rowland Lee of Coventry & Lichfield).… Read more »
Peterborough Abbey was a far grander place than the others you mention, comparable with Norwich and Ely as great Anglian churches, and more than worthy of being a cathedral church. In addition the king’s first wife was buried there, which may have contributed to its repurposing. It would have made a bit more sense if Huntingdonshire had also been taken out of Lincoln at the creation of the see. And if he had created a see of St Albans for Beds, Herts and Bucks (sounds like a radio station!).
Perhaps Huntingdonshire should be in the Diocese of Peterborough now (dives for cover).
It is also odd that half of the City of Peterborough (south of the Nene) is in the Ely Diocese. Both bishops of Peterborough and Ely are honorary assistant bishops in their respective dioceses, but it is a curious geographical and pastoral anomaly.
You have to blame the monks of Medeshamstede for founding their abbey church of St Peter so close to the banks of the river Nene.
Well, the monks really were pioneer colonists. At least part of the problem with the distribution of cathedrals in the East Midlands was due to many of the Midland counties formed in the 9th and 10th centuries being in origin military units based on an assessment of hides, and focused upon a borough which would function as the military HQ of its eponymous county. The English diocesan system had largely been formed before that point in time, based upon the kingdoms or sub-kingdoms extant between the 7th and 8th centuries, with the rule – not followed consistently – of there… Read more »
I wrote to the Dioceses Commission suggesting Rutland detaches from Peterborough and forms a new diocese. I am waiting for a reply, but remain hopeful. We would not need a suffragan although a number of honorary assistant bishops would no doubt be attracted to the area. Rutland could eventually detach from the United Kingdom if the threat of reunification with Leicestershire persists. We would then be looking at Anglican provincial status.
Well done, Stephen.
Your amusing comment, for which many thanks, reminds me of the recidivism in the period 1974-97, but one of the reasons why Rutland was absorbed into Leicestershire was that it lacked the tax base and economies of scale to secure adequate social services: prior to 1974 Rutland notoriously had some of the worst healthcare provision in the UK. There is no evidence of Rutland having any meaningful identity separate from Northamptonshire prior to the Conquest, save that it formed part of the dower lands granted by Ethelbert to his queen Emma of Normandy in 1002 (along with Rockingham and Winchester).… Read more »
Froghole’s contributions are always so informative. This has caused me to have further thoughts (musings?). I seemed to recall that Peterborough had in the past been not part of Cambridgeshire, but in the Soke of Peterborough, in Northamptonshire but administered separately. According to Wikipedia, the Soke was abolished as recently as 1965. The Wikipedia entry for the Anglican Diocese of Peterborough indicated the Suffragan Bishop of Brixworth to have been created even more recently, in 1988, and the retiring John Holbrook is only the third Bishop of Brixworth. It seems timely for the Dioceses Commission to review the need for… Read more »
The configuration of the diocese of Peterborough was, if I remember aright, one of the very first issues looked at by the Dioceses Commission after its reform in 2007. At the time it recommended a number of minor changes whch were implemented, and it then moved on to other issues, such as the Yorkshire dioceses. There was, I recall, little appetite for change locally or in the wider area, including Ely and Lincoln dioceses. I believe the Commission had intended to revisit Peterborough — but the outcome in Yorkshire has not encouraged further reform.
I should add (also further to your exchange above with Homeless Anglican about the northern border of Ely diocese) that the old boundary between the Soke and Huntingdonshire was ‘breached’ quite recently. A decade ago Water Newton, which is on the right/south bank of the Nene and is of considerable interest to anyone interested in Constantine the Great, was at risk of closure as its congregation had died out. The then incumbent of the Castor benefice (on the opposite side of the river, in the Soke) was determined that it should not be closed. He therefore took effective control of… Read more »
Yes, the Water Newton case was one of those I obliquely referred too, and I remember its transfer from this diocese to the one across the river. The situation with other parishes is quite complicated. Many of them have strong historical and emotional links with the See of Ely, having been part of this diocese since 1837, almost 200 years ago. Ely diocese has also invested heavily in some of them, and it isn’t quite so obviously a good move for a congregation to transfer from a diocese with better than average finances (and correspondingly lower share request) to one… Read more »
My Father (Canon Khalil Jamal) was the last Rector of Fletton and he served from 1965 until 1988 when he retired and he was warned on taking on Fletton he was taking on a Parish slowly on its way out, when he retired there was a Priest in Charge for 5 years and then his former Parish was linked with Woodstone, and when the church at Woodstone ceased to be Viable and was closed, Fletton was recently linked to Stanground. I think it will eventually and legally become a united Benifice. Yes! I know that area well from past visits… Read more »
I note from the 1969-70 issue of Crockford that your father was ordained by the Bishop in Jerusalem.
Yes Clifford that is correct, he was ordained by Bishop George Graham Brown first as Deacon in 1939 in St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem and then he was Priested in St John’s Parish Church in Haifa. My Father started his ministry as Curate of St Andrew’s Church in Ramalla, and then from 1941 to 1956 he was Vicar of Christ Church in Nazareth and from 1956 to 1957 He was Priest in Charge of St Mary’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Dalkeith in the Diocese of Edinburgh. When Dalkeith was raised in 1957 to a Proper Incumbancy , my father became… Read more »
Thank you for this reply.
Very many thanks! Yes, there was also the shortlived Huntingdon & Peterborough established in 1965, which was a victim of the 1974 reorganisation prompted by the Redcliffe-Maud report of 1969. However, the Redcliffe-Maud report recommended the formation of two large districts, Peterborough – North Fens (which would have included large tracts of Kesteven, Holland, the Isle of Ely and Norfolk) and Cambridge – South Fens. This would have made an even greater nonsense of diocesan boundaries, but it went well beyond what wider local interests were prepared to accept, and so what currently prevails is something of a half-baked compromise… Read more »
Indeed, and thank you, but Peterborough would still have remained fairly liminal even if Huntingdonshire had been added. There was the cluster of great monastic churches on the fringes of the Fens, or within them: Bardney, Crowland, Ely, Peterborough, Ramsey, Thorney, etc., but nothing of remotely comparable size in the rest of Lincoln diocese (with the exception of the Augustinian abbey at Leicester), whilst St Albans was within London diocese, which was deemed to be of an acceptable size. This, I suspect, was one of the problems which confronted those who were trying to redraw the diocesan map in 1540-42.… Read more »
I imagine that this is the first time Crowland (Abbey) has been mentioned in Thinking Anglicans (can one do a word search here?) but I write as someone whose vocation was initially stirred as a server at that church in the 1960’s. The situation is that Crowland related much more to Peterborough (only about 10 miles away), albeit being in the diocese of Lincoln (56 miles distant). Diocesan boundaries are indeed a cornucopia of geographical and historical oddities! In spite of the population having doubled since my time (approx 3,000 to 6,000), Crowland Abbey no longer has a resident priest,… Read more »
It is an amazing building , and somewhere within its vicinity are the remains of St Guthlac the hermit.
Well aware of the shape of the diocese. In fact only two weeks ago I replied to the thread regarding the Brackley deanery being closer to seven other cathedrals than it is to its own. The problem is that if every time a slimming down of the episcopal structure is proposed, NIMBYS, like you pop up, it will never get done. We have to start somewhere.
I’m with you Michael, although I may not expressed it quite as strongly as you have to rural-liberal. ‘Admin’ can and must be cut. It’s no good saying that Diocesan bishops need more help. parish priests need more help. Churchwardens need more; safeguarding needs more …. It’s a matter of priorities. How many congregants per Bishop, whether Diocasan or Suffragan? Maybe all should be bishops? Why not? waht arebishops for? Perhaps someone might p[oint us toward a Job description? And I take it as read that the Person Specification will expect someone of the kind of prayerful pastorally caring theologian… Read more »
But would he be a suitable suffragan bishop?
This was meant to be a reply to Susannah (h) re S Guthlac!!
IIUC, all Suffragan Bishop role descriptions are ‘scrutinised’ by the Dioceses Commission, and some (few) are remitted for reconsideration. Not so for Diocesans, where a request would need to be made to the Dioceses Commission for a particular review to be undertaken, like resulted in the West Yorkshire rearrangements. Not that they make the appointments. Maybe Guthiac might have made it onto a ‘ready now’ list?
Perhaps the Dioceses Commission may be asked to consider the need for a Peterborough suffragan bishop or two.
Further to this, and taking into account particularly supportive contributions fron Stephen Griffiths and Froghole, I note from the Dioceses Commission website: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/governance/general-synod/committees-and-commissions/dioceses-commission that it has a duty to keep boundaries under review and to have in mind ‘if they become out of sync with civic life’. I have alluded to some of the changes in civic structures over recent years, and am reminded of the creation of a Combined Authority in 2017: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridgeshire_and_Peterborough_Combined_Authority The Dioceses Commission website indicates that:’It can initiate proposals for change.’ I recognise, as does Simon Kershaw, following the Yorkshire reorganisation experince, the lack of appetite… Read more »
Don’t you think St Guthlac might be a little bit ancient by now ? Is there a retirement age for holy relics? In life his on-costs would have been pretty low of course because he lived in a cistern, only wore clothes made of rough animal skins and lived on minimum rations of barley bread and muddy water. He understood the demons who tormented him as it appears they spoke Welsh/Common Brittonic which he had learned in a previous period of captivity. But he probably would be ruled out as any sort of a bishop because he concentrated on mortifying… Read more »
Sounds just the job!
Something comes to mind that Bishop Douglas Feaver was happy to operate single handed without a Suffragan Bishop and in Purple Feaver he was reported to have rudely described Suffragan Bishops as “Consecrated Nannies to look after the Clergy!” Jonathan.
There was also a large number of incumbents in the days of Bishop Douglas Feaver, he was active in keeping the number of benefices as high as possible in rural areas. Presumably he saw this is most important. Many benefices were small (some extremely so) in terms of population.
Yes, the parish in which I grew up, a parish of around 400 souls, had its own Rector until as late as 1983. How times change – that parish then had 2 services every Sunday, and now has 2 a month.
Interesting, thank you – I felt that the Bishop’s approach was to be commended at the time, and whilst I know it is easy to be nostalgic, it is still a question of priorities in our present day and time.
I hope that this was a lovely bishop, a godly pious man that blessed the people with his presence and attention.
I knew him when he was Rector of St Mary, High Pavement, In Nottingham. A lovely man indeed.
Good to hear. As an aside, Douglas Feaver, Bishop of Peterborough 1972-84 (who is mentioned in another thread on this post, as he managed without a suffragan) was also previously Rector of St Mary’s Nottingham.
I think we need to pay tribute to Bishop John. He has been a good suffragan. A faithful priest and pastor. He was exactly what Peterborough needed and has been a fine and wise leader.