The Prime Minister’s Office has annnounced that the next Bishop of Basingstoke in the diocese of Winchester will be the Ven Kelly Anne Betteridge, currently Archdeacon of Bodmin. The Winchester website carries a press release New Bishop of Basingstoke Announced by Downing Street while Truro has Archdeacon Kelly named as new Bishop.
Suffragan Bishop of Basingstoke: 28 August 2025
The King has approved the nomination of the Venerable Kelly Anne Betteridge BA, MA, to the Suffragan See of Basingstoke, in the Diocese of Winchester.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 28 August 2025The King has approved the nomination of the Venerable Kelly Anne Betteridge BA, MA, Archdeacon of Bodmin in the Diocese of Truro, to the Suffragan See of Basingstoke in the Diocese of Winchester, in succession to the Right Reverend David Williams BSc, following his translation to the See of Truro.
Kelly was educated at Roehampton Institute, gaining a degree in Education and Theology in 1992. She served as a youth and children’s worker in parishes in the Dioceses of Guildford and of Oxford and then as a ministry specialist working with the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS), involved in training and consultancy work with leaders, writing resources and shaping policy relating to children’s ministry.
Kelly trained for ministry at Queen’s College, Birmingham, gaining an MA in Applied Theological Studies. She served her title across the three parishes of St. Nicolas, Nuneaton with St. James, Weddington, and St. Theobold and St. Chad, Caldecote, in the Diocese of Coventry. She was ordained Priest in 2011 and was subsequently appointed Vicar of St. Nicolas and Priest in Charge of St. James and St. Theobold and St. Chad in 2014.
In 2021 Kelly took up her current role as Archdeacon of Bodmin and a Director of Intergenerational Church, in the Diocese of Truro, supporting deaneries to implement plans for sustainability and flourishing, working with leaders (lay and ordained) to embed new patterns of ministry and, promoting intergenerational approaches to church life.
Whilst I wish Bishop Kelly every success in her new role, I do wonder about her selection. She worked at CPAS at the same time as the Bishop.of Winchester, and was his Archdeacon in Truro prior to his move to Winchester. In addition, the previous Bishop of Basingstoke is now Bishop of Truro. Was there a reciprocal arrangement – you get a diocese, I get your Archdeacon? Or was she poached, removing an experienced and knowledgable Archdeacon from a recently consecrated Diocesan? Third, she became vicar of the parish where she served her curacy, directly following her curacy. Whilst there… Read more »
Maybe, maybe not – I don’t know. But if there are machinations behind the appointment they seem no worse than those behind many such appointments to senior staff posts, or more insidious than for the hundreds if not thousands of protégés and/or yes people who have been engineered into such posts over centuries. All this talk of calling is pretty spurious in my view (and that of my spiritual director who is a ‘name’ in things spiritual and far more faith filled and less cynical than I will ever be) – occasionally the Holy Spirit gets a look in –… Read more »
This appointment appears to give Winchester Diocese three (out of three) evangelical bishops. One presumes other candidates were available for consideration from the list provided by the team at the Wash House.
Interesting to see that they decided to mention Caldecote twice. I attended a service at SS Theobald & Chad not long before its closure overseen by this appointee – there was then a mid-afternoon service once a month. I also wrote representations prior to the closure scheme being made and had an exchange about it with the then archdeacon of Coventry (and former chaplain of the Fleet). The church is next to the big house which, along with the church, featured in a Civil War skirmish. The big house, having been reconstructed, became a nursing home for inebriates before being… Read more »