Press release from the Prime Minister’s Office. There is more on the Carlisle diocesan website.
Appointment of Bishop of Carlisle: 9 May 2025
The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Robert Saner-Haigh, for election as Bishop of Carlisle
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 9 May 2025
The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Robert Saner-Haigh, Suffragan Bishop of Penrith in the Diocese of Carlisle, for election as Bishop of Carlisle, in succession to The Right Reverend James William Scobie Newcome, following his retirement.
Background
Rob was educated at Birmingham University and trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He served his title at St. Lawrence, Appleby in the Diocese of Carlisle, and was ordained Priest in 2006. He was appointed Diocesan Initial Ministerial Education Officer in 2007 and Diocesan Director of Ordinands in 2008. Alongside both of these roles he served as Bishop’s Chaplain and Assistant Priest at St. Michael’s, Dalston, with Cumdivock, Raughton Head and Wreay. In 2010, he was appointed Priest in Charge of Holy Trinity Kendal and, from 2020, served as Director of Mission and Ministry for the Diocese of Newcastle and Residentiary Canon of Newcastle Cathedral.
In 2022, Rob took up his current role as Suffragan Bishop of Penrith, in the Diocese of Carlisle and, since 2023, he has served as Acting Bishop of Carlisle.
Penrith to Carlise is becoming a bit of an habit. Once is an innovation – twice in a row becomes a tradition.
But James was not the first. Cyril Bulley made that move in the 1960s. Cumbria values continuity in a very particular way, and sometimes the internal candidate may become very obviously the right candidate.
Evangelicals becoming bishops seems to be a bit of a habit too!
In case you hadn’t noticed, Carlisle’s Diocesan bishops have been generally of a central-low tradition over many years. The current appointment is hardly indicative of a national trend.
I had noticed.
However there does seem to be a national trend.
James was head of my house, senior prefect, and full back for school and my house. I always remember he got down on his knees and prayed before getting into bed.
Man of integrity and decency, at least at school. Thrashing by prefects was banned by my time, but he was never a thrasher type anyway.
Nearly in tears when he missed a tackle in a house final rugger match and we lost.
The Church of England clearly needs good muscular rugger- playing chaps from the better public schools to keep our noses to the grindstone.
Ha ha! I also ran a lot with Nick McKinnel, who was quite good in his youth, used to win most cross country competitions and county championships.
nobody would ever have accused me of being muscular. Weedy would have been more accurate. Maybe that is why I didn’t become a bishop (or priest).
Absolutely. Get back on the fives court and the rugger pitch and don’t get too serious about all this religion stuff unless you get invited to a Bash Camp!
Don’t dismiss fives courts.In my Direct Grant Grammar,School Distinguished rather than posh, the fives courts were the safest place to go for a smoke.Prefects had to walk a long path,so even though you could hardly see for the smoke, nobody could actually get caught. As for rugby,the toughest (i hesitate to say dirtiest ) opponents were the boys of Ampleforth. No Bash Camps thank God!
Out of interest may I ask which school that was? (it’s not named in the press release or +James’ wikapedia)
I was hopeless at games at school but I went on to be a phenomenally successful parish priest. Did +Rob go to boarding school – I think we should be told. A university friend of mine went to a posh Edinburgh boarding school and he often wistfully said that his parents knew very little about his childhood as a result.
How does a ‘phenomenally successful parish priest’ compare to a ‘Rolls Royce priest’?
What, indeed, is a ‘phenomenally successful parish priest’? Asking for a friend, or two
Presumably a phenomenally sucessful parish priest is one who sees the naked clothed, the hungry fed, and the poor hear good news. And of course – given the upside down values of the kinkdom – discovers (often the hard way) that the first are last, the greatest is the least and – to quote John Bell – to do the master’s privilege is to wash servants’ feet before they feast.
‘kingdom’ – I like it!
Why is it that autocorrect kicks in when you deliberately to a typo, and not when it’s accidental? I typed ‘kinkdom’.
I have a terrible memory and cannot recall the title of the book ,or the name of the priest. The image,however, of a Catholic priest,in a teeming South American slum, living in single room, in which he kept the Blessed Sacrament stays with me to this day. He thought of himself as not up to much, but saw his mission was ‘ to keep the rumour of God alive’
That sounds pretty phenomenal to me.
Bishop Patrick Rodger of Manchester and Oxford was a Scot and was ordained in Edinburgh. He identified strongly with Scotland, and his two sons (one of whom was to die tragically young in a car accident) were named Jock and Andrew. Immediately before his consecration he was Provost of the Episcopal cathedral in Edinburgh. Yet Patrick Rodger did not speak with a Scottish accent but with a very refined English accent. It seems to me that that was because of his schooling at Rugby (where he was head boy).
James Newcome (about whom various comments are made above) was Bishop of Carlisle 2009-2023, after being Bishop of Penrith from 2002. He’s not the new Bishop, so of course there’s no reference to his school in the press release about Rob Saner Haigh. The school that +J attended is on public record, and is in North Wiltshire.
If memory serves from Nigel’s earlier post it was Marlborough, also the alma mater of Archie Coates who succeeded two old Etonians at HTB.
Correct. It was a fairly liberal free thinking school. I was never a member of any school cu. I dont think anybody attended bash camps but cant be sure. It was just by chance i knew two future bishops. I didnt know coates was a marlburian. Marlborough always provided bursaries for children of clergy. My sisters children went there as she married a priest, james atwell, later dean at winchester.
“a marlburian”
One of the many small ways that British society maintains its class structures (with all the damage that entails, from restricted opportunities for flourishing to the mentality of the Bash camps and the Smyth abuse) is by allocating attendance at socially elite schools special terminology. Not only do the words themselves reinforce elitism by their structure (wykehamist, harrovian, marlburian), but they are nouns not adjectival – they convey, not something you did, but something you have become.
This isn’t just an embittered socialist rant, it does seem relevant when discussing church leaders.
I tend to agree. For clarity, I have never spoken to a Marlburian since leaving (apart from family), and am still waiting for the ladder to appear which is meant to catapult public school pupils into illustrious careers.
Yes, I would worry too about the high proportion of public school educated leaders. Doesn’t necessarily make them bad leaders, but I would prefer they have a minimum 10 years experiencing the other side of the fence/tracks getting down and dirty.
It is well known that Todmorden Grammar School, close to the boundary between Lancashire and West Yorkshire, can number two Nobel laureates amongst its former pupils. One is Sir John Cockcroft, who received a Nobel prize for physics in 1951. The other is Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson, who received a chemistry Nobel prize in 1973. I recall that when in the year of his award Geoffrey Wilkinson accepted an invitation to speak to the student chemical society at the University of Leeds, he asked to be sent details of trains which would get him to Todmorden afterwards. That was, of course,… Read more »
And to add to the esoterica, Sir John Cockcroft’s nephew (also from Todmorden I think) is a fellow parishioner of mine, and he and his wife sing in our choir.
I am delighted to receive this information. Thank you.
Todmorden used to be in the Diocese of Wakefield, and close in one direction to Manchester and in another to Blackburn.
Wikipedia says that.
We are going off track, but your comment prompted me to look up Archie Coates. I listened to his podcast https://www.premier.plus/the-profile/podcasts/episodes/rev-archie-coates-the-new-vicar-of-holy-trinity-brompton I know why I have never kept in touch will old school friends! At 6:40 he starts talking about privilege, then talks about diversity and George Floyd (ticks box), then says he has a Nigerian churchwarden, so that’s OK. It is agonising. Somewhere later on he talks about maybe starting a church in east London, but his wife took one look, burst into tears, and said it’s not for us. In contrast I have always respected a college acquintance… Read more »
It always struck me at theological college how odd it was that the Holy Spirit had such a preference for sending people to the home counties. Maybe that’s why I ended up in Hartlepool…
In 1966 Bishop Bulley was also translated from Penrith to Carlisle.
And was not an Evangelical.
Are, that was when things were more of a level playing field.
Wasn’t this the appointment in which the CNC was deadlocked last year or in 2023 and there was a problem of a ‘lack of trust’ among members? I wonder what changed in terms of candidates? Did they have to start all over again?
They did start afresh, I assume with different central members and possibly different diocesan members.
I think that depends what you mean by “start afresh”. My understanding is that the CNC that failed to make a nomination decides how far back in the process to go. They can decide to go back to the diocesan Vacancy-in-see committee and ask for a new election of 6 diocesan represntatives. Or they can decide to carry on. Again, my understanding is that in Carlisle the CNC decided to carry on. One central member was no longer eligible, but the rules allow the other member of that pair to replace them. As it happens, the Abp of Canterbury had… Read more »
One thing that changed was that in 2023 the suffragan had been in post for just 1 year, by 2025 he’d been there for three, serving for 2 of them as acting diocesan.
So could there be hope for poor Ely??
If the acting bishop is liked, broadly accepted and up for the job which they are perceived by many as doing well already, then it would seem a very plausible way to get through an impasse.
can they speed up the appoint process give he is the acting bishop? one would assume he wouldn’t have to give the normal notice period.