Bishop of Chichester announces his retirement
on Thursday, 5 February 2026 at 12.17 pm by Peter Owen
categorised as Church of England, News
The Bishop of Chichester, the Rt Revd Martin Warner, has announced that he will retire at the end of May 2026. Details are here.
I particularly remember being at Walsingham one New Year’s Day whilst Martin Warner was Administrator. After a mid-morning Mass the congregation were invited to his home (called, I think, the College) for a drink. It was extremely pleasant.
The announcement of +Martin’s retirement, nearly three years ahead of the mandatory retirement age of 70, will mean that those many parishes of traditional Anglo-Catholic sympathies in the Diocese – who so far have not felt the need to pass a Resolution because of who their Diocesan Bishop is – will very quickly have to make a decision on their position when it comes to the Ordination of Women. Hopefully, they will be fully supported in making that decision in a way that is balanced and mindful of the tradition of the parishes concerned.
Since the bishop of Lewes is also a member of The Society the high church anti-female brigade will continue to be catered for regardless of who takes over from Warner. Moreover the likelihood of the new diocesan in Chi being anything other than male & ultra high church is precisely zero.
Warner’s mishandling of the George Bell affair is what many will remember him for most.
No surprise that Society Bishop of Lewes will be Chi interregnum stand-in after Warner retires. Bishop of Horsham is same seniority, but ConEvo in all but biological sex, so ineligible on two counts.
(Indeed Horsham is senior by a few hours.)
Francis, describing those of a Traditional Catholic theological conviction within the Church of England as the “high church anti-female brigade” is rather below the belt and rather beyond the bounds of the spirit of mutual flourishing. It is also not a given that the new Bishop of Chichester will be “male & ultra high church” – we no longer live in an age of predictable episcopal appointments. Many were sure that ++Sarah would not be appointed because of the potential damage to the unity of the Anglican Communion; there is no reason why the same could not happen in Chi.… Read more »
“Mutual flourishing” is a one-way street which leaves female priests as second-class citizens.
Francis, I think it is very clear that the reverse is true. Female priests are only unable to minister in such parishes as have passed a Resolution. Every other position in the Church is open to them, and even in Society parishes, a female bishop retains a real and visible jurisdiction.
On the other hand, by their conviction traditionalists may only minister in a handful of parishes, and would certainly have a hard time flourishing in a cathedral setting.
Thomas, If you are in Chi Dio you will know that the male clergy you describe in such high terms avoid attending Deanery meetings if women clergy will also be in attendance, or worse, chair such meetings. You will also know that female rural deans and archdeacons face a barrage of unpleasant attacks, blocking tactics and blanking. The same is not the case when roles are reversed. You will also know that young female clergy leave the Diocese as soon as they can. I have to say that Warner’s initial charm offensive was so successful that the longstanding women’s pressure… Read more »
Francis, I don’t intend to describe those clergy in “high terms” at all – simply to look at the issue as objectively as possible. I have been involved in the life of a deanery in Chichester Diocese and while I do not recognise the behaviour you describe in the engagement with the deanery of which I was part (in which the Society clergy play a full and unobstructive role), such behaviour is of course deplorable. It is why I think that Traditional A-C parishes need to be clearer about their conviction and be a full part of The Society –… Read more »
I sincerely hope that you are wrong, Francis, in your prognosis for the next +Chichester. +Martin, already in post when the legislation allowing women bishops was passed, was something of an anomaly as a Diocesan who would not ordain women and did not believe that women could be priests. But that anomaly could have been temporary, and would have ended with his retirement. Instead, this monstrous insult to catholic order was perpetuated by the reckless and unwise appointment of +North to Blackburn, thus giving us another Diocesan who is not in communion with more than a third of the priests… Read more »
Some recent history may be relevant to the forthcoming appointment:- when +Martin was translated from Whitby. ++Sentamu nominated Fr Philip North (of similar theological convictions to +Martin) as his successor. Such was the outcry from the women priests of the Whitby episcopal area that Fr North (to his credit) graciously withdrew. Then ++Sentamu engineered Fr North’s appointment as +Bury but instead of consecrating him, as was his canonical duty, he brought back +Martin from the other province to carry out an ‘untainted’ consecration, perhaps forgetting or ignoring the fact the he himself (Sentamu) had consecrated +Martin, after he had ordained… Read more »
One of the things that has happened since the nomination of Bp Philip North to Sheffield has been that diocesan vacancy-in-see committees have tended to be more and more explicit in their Statement of Needs that the incoming bishop must be someone who will themself ordain both men and women as priests and unreservedly and fully support the ordained ministry of women at all levels. You can see the trend as each successive diocese takes the brief statement made by the preceding few dioceses and tweaks it slightly to be even more watertight. No room for equivocation, no room for… Read more »
Given that our female suffragan is certainly not one for liberal views, & that Will Hazlewood will be acting bishop in the vacancy, my money is on another “traditional” High Church Anglo-Catholic.
I think you mean Burnley rather than Bury.
Although I am a relative newcomer as a priest in the Diocese of Chichester, I have known +Martin for many years. Indeed he took my mother’s funeral when he was Bishop of Whitby. The task he faced on arrival in Chichester was immense – not simply the well known failures in safeguarding but systemic structural issues that required tenacity, vision, and courage to address. +Martin rose to those challenges effectively and with real determination. In many ways the gifts that he demonstrated in the re-imagining and re-development of the Shrine at Walsingham – particularly in such a way as my… Read more »
Thank you, Nicholas, for your perspicacious view of +Martin. I was particularly interested in your report that your successive female curates felt happy to be at Walsingham. In my experience, while some women priests are prepared to go there, many more are not, because their orders are not recognised, and they are not allowed to celebrate the Eucharist with their parishioners (if they have taken them to the shrine). I have never understood why any woman priest could feel happy there, when the ontological core of their being is denied, and I won’t go there myself whilst that remains the… Read more »
I also take grave exception to those male priests visiting Walsingham who enjoy the “prestige” of joining in concelebration by the altar, while leaving their female curates to languish amongst the laity. Not my idea of mentoring!
I’m very much in favour of the ordination of women to all orders of ministry. On the other hand if you accept a title post in a parish that visits Walsingham you can expect that there will be awkward moments during your curacy. You’d hope that a conversation about these matters might occur between ordinand, training incumbent, DDO and bishop beforehand. I’ve only ever visited Walsingham once or twice and it left me cold. Each woman would have to find her own modus vivendi in these circumstances; I think I’d have eschewed clerical attire for day, had a glass or… Read more »
And why should an ordained woman have to go in mufti if on a visit to Walsingham with her parish?
Full disclosure: I’ve been to Walsingham in civvies, but I was in Norfolk on a birdwatching holiday. The Anglican shrine and surrounding campus left me cold too, but the Roman Catholic shrine was better and there was a great icon shop in the village.
I hope I haven’t offended you Janet that wasn’t my intention. I suppose my feeling was that if you are excluded why not opt out altogether but then as you rightly infer I would presumably be allowed to join in with the high jinks if I wanted to. I also much preferred the RC shrine.
You haven’t offended me; I’m sorry if I seemed to imply you had.
A female colleague and I were once forbidden to robe or join our male colleagues on the platform at a united service for our benefice. The service was being held at the one church in the benefice which had passed Resolutions A and B. She and I opted to stay at home and take the morning off.
That (i.e., forbidding you) is rather ridiculous, to say the least. The Resolutions, as they were, prevented a woman from being the incumbent, and from presiding at the eucharist or saying the absolution. They should not have prevented you robing (or just “collaring”) and being courteously treated at a service at which you did neither of those things. But yes, that’s the sort of thing that you face. Only this morning I was reminded of the occasion a few years ago when the then vicar of our parish “asked” a female priest who had recently moved into the area not… Read more »
Yes, it happens, and it’s demeaning.
I have nothing personal to say about +Martin, but more a general observation.
Discrimination and prejudice conveyed with civility and good manners is often more difficult to deal with than discrimination conveyed with hostility.
Because observers will see the politeness, and therefore fail to accept that discrimination might still exist.
As the diocese is stuffed to the rafters with lgbtqi+ clergy and laity, I would imagine a finessed approach would be the very least he could offer to LLF. One of his suffragans, Bishop Bushyager, gave a platform for those advocating gay conversion therapy when she was in a parish in Dorking.
On becoming Bishop of Whitby, Martin Warner’s first official duty was to induct me as priest in charge of my new parish. He managed to conduct the service without ever using the word ‘priest’, saying instead ‘pastor’, ‘shepherd,’ ‘minister,’ etc. My other memory of that service was that in his talk he referred to items of personal information I had given him in what I thought was a confidential chat beforehand. None of it was secret, but neither was it presented the way I would have liked, and I was taken off guard by its being used at all. It… Read more »
I’ve just re-read my own collation 18 months ago, and nowhere in the liturgy is the word priest mentioned.
the average induction etc takes over an hour. You can read the liturgical text out loud in 20 minutes. It’s the other 40 minutes that is at issue here.
As long as you’re mutually flourishing! Don’t be surprised if he swims the Tiber once he’s given up his seat in the House of Lords.
Recent Induction in this diocese: ‘x do you believe that God has called you to share in the ministry of the people of God in this parish and to serve as their priest and pastor?’
Martin used the word ‘priest’ when licensing men to parishes.
I wonder if he has your pardon, as he has requested, Janet? Sounds like he offended you substantially.
He hasn’t requested my pardon. Where did you get the idea he had?
In his resignation announcement he asked for “pardon from anyone I have offended”.
That isn’t a personal apology.
Indeed. I was merely explaining Despondent’s comment that you had queried (about Bp Martin asking for pardon).
Thank you!
On his arrival in Chichester, Bishop Martin was invited to a meeting of the Chalice Group, a collective of people led by the doughty Rachel Moriarty and campaigning for the recognition of female priestly orders. +Martin was, as ever, courteous, but necessarily evasive. I asked him about Sacramental effectuality, inquiring what his advice would be to someone with a female parish priest, whose validity of orders he doubted, and who wondered whether he should therefore take the Sacrament in a neighbouring parish where the priest was male. +Martin was effusive in his praise of female priests he had worked with,… Read more »
Rachel Moriarty is much missed. At her funeral in the Cathedral I found myself sitting behind John Hind, former bishop of Chi, & much enjoyed watching him squirm in his seat during the very pointed eulogy delivered by Rachel’s daughters.
It would be interesting to know how many parishes are likely to pass the Resolutions should a woman ordaining Diocesan be appointed. My knowledge of the diocese is slim but bishop Benn had some impact on appointments in east Sussex and no doubt +Horsham has had an impact. The number of newly ordained priests who don’t accept women’s orders is far fewer than it was. How many members of the Society are there in the diocese? How many woman clergy? It would be interesting to know its “topography”. Perhaps the learned Froghole could tell us. Sadly we haven’t heard from… Read more »
As stated before, even after the departure of Martin Warner the High-Anglicans in Chi Dio have no cause for concern, let alone panic, as they will remain well catered for by Will Hazelwood, who is the Society Bishop of Lewes.
It’s complicated, as people are. I was +Martin’s neighbour in the cathedral close for five years. He was extraordinarily kind to my atheist wife when she had cancer during the pandemic. His work to turn Chichester into a diocese with functioning systems and processes, when he inherited the swamp of safeguarding failure and shame from +John, has been very necessary and quite successful. He has appointed an outstanding woman priest as a residentiary canon in the Cathedral and +Ruth to Horsham. He introduced proper maternity leave provision in the diocese, and a couple of friends who are women incumbents speak… Read more »
And Jesus said to them, “Which one of you would wash your robes in a cesspit and hang them out to dry in public for all to admire? Why then did I wash and dress your nakedness with robes I myself washed when you were baptised?”