The Prime Minister’s Office issued the following press release this morning. There is more on the Durham diocesan website.
Appointment of the Bishop of Durham:
19 February 2026
The King has approved the nomination of The Venerable Richard Simpson, for election as Bishop of Durham.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 19 February 2026
The King has approved the nomination of The Venerable Richard (Rick) Simpson, Archdeacon of Auckland in the Diocese of Durham, for election as Bishop of Durham, in succession to The Right Reverend Paul Roger Butler, following his retirement.
Background
Rick was educated at Keble College, Oxford, and trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He served his title at St. Gabriel’s Heaton, in the Diocese of Newcastle, and was ordained Priest in 1994.
From 1997, Rick served as Priest-in-Charge, and then Vicar, Holy Trinity, Jesmond, and St. Barnabas and St. Jude, Sandyford, in the Diocese of Newcastle. In 2006, he was appointed IME 2 lead for the Dioceses of Durham and Newcastle, supporting curates and training incumbents, and Priest-in-Charge, St. Brandon’s, Brancepeth, in the Diocese of Durham.
In 2018, Rick took up his current role as Archdeacon of Auckland.
Hoorah!
Why?
What an unusual and, to quote Sir Humphrey Appleby ‘courageous’ appointment.
Of course the Bishop of Durham clearly does not carry the weight it once did. But an internal appointment to be diocesan bishop is very unusual – (is it? can anyone give other recent examples), and in the case of Durham I am not sure it is wise.
For myself I think it rather shows the difficulty the church is having in appointing diocesan bishops.
Another recent example: Philip North from Burnley to Blackburn.
Bishop of Penrith became Bishop of Carlisle.
The Penrith-Carlisle move has happened three times – 1966 (Bulley), 2009 (Newcome) and 2025 (Saner-Haigh).
Dave that last case I remember of such an internal appointment was in 1988/89? when Bishop Michael Turnbull who was Archdeacon of Rochester and a Canon Residentiary of Rochester Cathedral was appointed Bishop of Rochester. He was translated to Durham in 1994. Jonathan
…. and that ended well didn’t it?!
Very common in the Anglican Church of Canada. Of course, our bishops are elected by diocesan electoral synods, and then their elections are confirmed by their provincial house of bishops, so there’s a different flavour to it all.
Internal promotions are normal in business, academia, the public sector, etc. Why not in the church?
Durham also has something of a tradition of taking back as Bishop people who have already been well known in the Diocese, but have gone away for a short spell in another post. Herbert Hensley Henson and Arthur Michael Ramsey are two twentieth century examples, John Cosin from the seventeenth. I can’t remember whether there are other less well-known ones.
Before someone else corrects me – I ought not to characterise John Cosin’s time away as a ‘short spell’. But he did remain well-known in the Diocese between his two spells there.
Well, the first person chosen subsequently withdrew, hence the situation after the translation of +Jarrow to Ely off a diocese without a bishop …
Not the first such diocese. St Edmundsbury & Ipswich were without a bishop (excluding retired honorary assistant bishops) in 2014 (its centenary year) after Nigel Stock was ‘poached’ by ++Welby to be Bishop at Lambeth. By then, the suffragan bishop of Dunwich, Clive Young, had retired and had not been replaced. +David Thomson, Bishop of Huntingdon in Ely diocese, was appointed to serve as acting bishop during the vacancy. Likewise, in 2024, Mike Harrison, then Bishop of Dunwich, who would have become acting bishop on Bishop Martin Seeley’s retirement on 28 February 2025, was translated to Exeter in November 2024… Read more »
Rick is excellent. He and i were candidates for the IME 2 post in Newcastle and Durham – he was appointed! I observe that he steered Holy Trinity Jesmond to be a more open evangelical church than its larger neighbour and to be a place where questioning faith was encouraged. He has solid parish experience in the north east.
Absolutely – I’ve known Rick since we were both priests in Newcastle and the work he did at Holy Trinity was transformational. A very able priest who will make a very able Bishop
I third the vote of confidence (if that’s possible!). A very longstanding friend of mine, who tends towards the scathing these days when it comes to episcopal appointments, for the most part, has worked with Rick nationally and speaks extremely highly of him. Their comment about the appointment was ‘well, if the newish regime at the wash house have their eye on people like Rick and a Diocese is willing to appoint him straight to Diocesan, perhaps the senior leadership of the C of E isn’t a lost cause after all.’ This certainly seems to be a case of God… Read more »
Hello Charles, Does that mean he fully affirms women’s priestly ministry?
yes. Hard to be IME2 officer if you don’t IMHO
Given the difficulties they have had appointing a bishop (one candidate being obliged to withdraw, a very long period of vacancy) it makes sense to go for a well-known and respected internal candidate who will not, it seems, scare any of the horses. The translation of Penrith to Carlisle is another example of an internal candidate answering local requirements after deadlock. But it is indicative of the rather poisonous atmosphere in which appointments to diocesan posts are operating, and is not, overall, a healthy indication of a church which is looking to attract the best candidates.
A new generation of Gen X Bishops. The Boomers broke the C of E traditional mould (along with other traditions) and I wonder what these new Bishops will make of this godless generation? At least they will have more of a clean sheet to work once the last of the Quiet generation go, well, quietly.
Interesting. Informed endorsement from Charles Read. Of course, the Bishop of Durham is an ex-officio Lord Spiritual. I believe there have only been five archdeacons nominated as diocesans in the last seventeen years: Donald Allister to Peterborough (Adn Chester) (2009); Julian Henderson to Blackburn (Adn Dorking) (2013); Rachel Treweek to Gloucester (Adn Hackney) (2015); Christine Hardman to Newcastle (former Adn Lewisham) (2015); and Peter Eagles to Sodor and Man (Adn to the Army) (2017). This is therefore the first such appointment for nine years.
Rick stands in that long evangelical tradition of trendy ministers who shorten their baptismal name. Rick Dunelm sounds very cool and down with the yoof.
Kyrue Eleison
Bishop Rick has a bishopric.
And he isn’t the first Bishop Ric. Bishop Ric of Kensington now Archbishop of Melbourne. Archbishop-ric.
Yes. Continuing the evangical tradition. His Grace Ric sounds groovy.
There used to be a well-known radio announcer in Australia called Ric (or Rick) Melbourne. I listened to him on the car radio many a time in the 1980s. Quite simply, his surname was Melbourne. So if Archbishop Ric Thorpe uses ‘Ric Melbourne’ he’ll have had a namesake.
Isn’t the Anglo-Catholic Bishop of Lewes known as Will, and not William, Hazlewood?
Yes, & Will is not merely Anglo-Catholic, he is a member of “The Society”.
William Shakespeare was known as Will in his day. His will, the subject of much debate and discussion on account of how little he left to his wife, is sometimes referred to as Will Shakespeare’s will.
He also stands in that long evangelical tradition of wanting to wrestle honestly with scripture and with the complexities of modern life and culture. A tradition represented by the (much missed) magazine Third Way, the original Greenbelt festival and the original Ship of Fools. A tradition some of us still identify with but see little of in contemporary evangelicalism, at least in the C of E.
He was already ‘Rick’ when he was president of OICCU in the 1980s.
It may cause Fr David further pain to know there was in recent years another +Dunelm who shortened their name as well: ‘Tom’ he called himself.
Obviously. He was an evangelical.
Sometimes bishops shortened their names in their episcopal signatures. Bishop William Greer of Manchester would sign Wm Manchester. I think that later in his very long episcopate he used his forename in full.
Yes, and the bishop who confirmed me (William Chadwick, suffragan of Barking, in the diocese of Chelmsford) signed as +Wm Barking).
Thank you. ‘Wm’ Chadwick was consecrated alongside Mervyn Stockwood of Southwark.
I think our diocesan bishop, Joanne Grenfell, probably has the longest episcopal signature: +St Edmundsbury and Ipswich ! (Colloquially shortened to ‘St Eds & Ips”.)
And it is said, only half in jest, that diocesan bishops in Suffolk cast their eyes enviously towards their western neighbour, whose bishop has perhaps the shortest episcopal signature, just three letters after the Christian name.
Would that be plain “Ely” or “Eli:” (from ‘Eliensis’)?
I was thinking that either is equally short (though I had forgotten the all-important colon).
Past Bishops of Ely signed themselves “Elien” after their Christian name, that Practice was stopped by Bishop Peter Walker who stopped signing himself “+Peter Elien” and started signing himself “+Peter Ely” a practice that Bishops of Ely have continued to this day. The Bishop who confirmed me as an Anglican, Bishop Edward Henderson of Bath and Wells signed himself “+Edward Bath Et Well” but his Successor Bishop John Bickersteth decided to shun the Latin and started signing himself from the Confirmation of his Election as “+ John Bath and Wells” and like the Ely Example, Bishops of Bath and Wells… Read more »
Alfred Monahan used to sign as Alfred Monumet, which I think is the only example of a bishop of a new see using a Latinised title.
Quite so. I think that some holders of the bishopric have shortened it a little to St Edm. and Ipswich or something like that.
Wasn’t Ipswich added to the name of the see only quite recently? How long will it be before we have ‘St Albans and Luton’, ‘Ely and Cambridge’, ‘Chichester and Brighton’ etc etc?
No, the diocese for the county of Suffolk, provided for by the Bishoprics of Sheffield, Chelmsford and for the County of Suffolk Act 1913, specifically says in the Second Schedule that “The bishop to be the bishop of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich”. The Act provides that the cathedral shall be at Bury St Edmunds but that the bishop shall live in (or near) Ipswich.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/3-4/36/pdfs/ukpga_19130036_en.pdf
Two sees have changed their names in recent years. Ripon became Ripon and Leeds (a see now suppressed); and Southwell became Southwell and Nottingham.
The Act of 1534 provides for a Suffragan Bishop of Ipswich. Ipswich was then in the Diocese of Norwich. I note from Wikipedia that there were three Suffragan Bishops of Ipswich.
Not all bishops have used the rather ridiculous but now almost ubiquitous plus or cross in front of their names. This cross originated as the “mark” or signature with which people traditionally marked their assent on a document. For an illiterate person a clerk would then write after each mark the name of the corresponding person. Bishops, being literate, were able to write their own name after their mark, and being highly conservative they continued this practice when the general population became literate and dropped the mark itself, just writing their own name to signify assent. So historically there is… Read more »
Compartmentalising people went out in the 1960’s with the song ‘little boxes’.
Alright Nige. Although I think your comment is a bit ticky tacky.
Tricia Hillas moved from Archdeacon of Westminster to Bishop of Sodor & Man in 2024. But you are quite right that the step from archdeacon to diocesan bishop is uncommon.
Was she an archdeacon in the usual sense? I thought it was a title given to a member of the abbey clergy. I don’t think it caries the usual archdiaconal workload – visiting parish churches every five years to inspect the maintenance, admitting churchwardens, presenting candidates for ordination, sitting on and chairing assorted Diocesan committées etc.
Interesting indeed, Anthony. Your comment on Durham in the earlier thread on the new Bishop of Edinburgh (Well it tried to get a card carrying evangelical again) was prescient, and it looks as if they may have succeeded, although I am not sure if ‘open’ evangelicals are entitled to carry the card.
Depends who’s holding the deck at the moment. Some confusion here, maybe.
Rick is a good egg. We need more like him.
In Canada internal appointments, which are actually elections, are quite common. No one expects every bishop to come from outside. Not a big issue.
An interesting procession up and down the east coast, bishop of Ely to Lincoln, acting of Durham to Ely, acting of Ely up to Edinburgh and then Durham keeping it local. In addition current bp of lincoln formerly chaplain to bp of Durham and one of new bp of Ely’s predecessors retired to be assistant bishop in Edinburgh. It’s an East coast conspiracy!
As far as Assistant Bishops in the Episcopal Diocese of Edinburgh are concerned the first one was Bishop Ernest Logie Danson, who had been a Diocesan Bishop in the far East, was Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in tandem with Being Assistant Bishop of Edinburgh, then he became the Diocesan Bishop of Edinburgh and was elected Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and died in Office. Then from 1968 to 1981 there was Bishop Neil Russell who was a Monk of my former Monastic Community at Roslin, we called him “Brother Neil” in the Community, who has previously been Assistant… Read more »
Patrick Rodger had of course previously been Bishop of Manchester. At the time he was living in Edinburgh another former Bishop of Manchester, Stanley Booth-Clibborn, was also living there. I don’t think he did any episcopal work in Edinburgh.
I seem to recall that prior to Bishop Stanley’s retirement from Manchester, he had a Heart bypass Operation, and then on a visit to Uganda, he was shot at, and there was an operation to remove the shrapnel and sadly he died whilst under the operation, so his Retirement was sadly very short. Jonathan
Decent man.
who retired to edinburgh
Train and road links very good up the east coast. Potential for seaborne public transport. As the Church Times ads nearly said (of Holy Trinity Reading) ‘fast boats from King’s Lynn’.
As Brandon Jackson said of Oliver Fiennes when he succeeded him at Lincoln and declined to live in the huge and draughty uphill Deanery. ‘It was alright for Oliver. He was the son of a Lord and was used to living in a castle. All he had to do was put a couple of extra sweaters on ‘. Perhaps there’s some church knitting club somewhere on the East Coast busy knitting sweaters for prelates. My guess is Skegness as its so bracing.
To me – this makes logical sense. If a diocese is going to lose its entire episcopal team, then some level of continuity, and local contextual understanding is needed. He doesn’t just have a love for the North East, but a proven track record of parish and wider ministry. Also, wherever he has been he has been for a fair few years. Prayers and good wishes to him.
I’m always intrigued as to how many people track the runners and riders in these beauty contests. The contestants always seem to turn out to be an homogeneous bunch. Risk averse and equivocal. That said I wish Bishop Rick well.
I maintain this is a courageous and unusual appointment. Is there another example of an archdeacon in a CofE diocese becoming diocesan bishop in their own diocese? By my calculation in the last 120 years or so Durham has had seven professors of Divinity / Philosophy as Diocesans, and those professors have generally been of a catholic / liberal mind. (Yes, some exceptions). Such appointments are very very rare now as the academy is far more separated from the church. Nevertheless the tradition gave an intellectual to the diocese and to the episcopate. The current appointment system no doubt will… Read more »