The Diocese of Edinburgh, in the Scottish Episcopal Church has announced the election as its next bishop, of Dr Dagmar Winter, currently suffragan Bishop of Huntingdon in the diocese of Ely, and acting Bishop of Ely.
New Bishop Elected for the Diocese of Edinburgh
The Right Reverend Dr Dagmar Winter was elected yesterday, 14 February 2026, as the new Bishop of Edinburgh. She will take up her new post later in the year.
Bishop Dagmar becomes the Bishop-Elect of Edinburgh following the retirement in August 2025 of the Rt Rev Dr John Armes who served as Bishop of Edinburgh for 13 years.
The Bishop-Elect accepted the post following a meeting of the Electoral Synod in St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, where she received over half of the votes in each house, with clergy and lay representatives from congregations across the diocese voting.
Bishop Dagmar currently serves as the Bishop of Huntingdon, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Ely. Since 2023 she is also Acting Bishop of Ely.
She is Vice-President of the Conference of European Churches which runs a number of projects, especially Pathways to Peace, a coordinated response of the European church fellowship to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With a particular interest in New Testament scholarship, she has contributed to a number of English and German books and journals.
Bishop Dagmar studied at the Universities of Erlangen, Aberdeen and Heidelberg. She was ordained as deacon in 1996 and as priest in 1997. From 1995 to 1999 she served as curate at St Mark’s, Bromley, Kent, and was Assistant Chaplain at Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust. From 1999 to 2006 she was Associate Vicar at Hexham Abbey and Deanery Training Officer in the Diocese of Newcastle. From 2006 to 2015 she was Priest-in-Charge of Kirkwhelpington with Kirkharle & Kirkheaton, and Cambo in Northumberland, and the Officer for Rural Affairs for the Diocese of Newcastle. In 2010 she became Area Dean of Morpeth and in 2011 Honorary Canon of Newcastle Cathedral. From 2012 to 2019 she was Bishop’s Adviser for Women’s Ministry, returning in 2015 to Hexham Abbey as Rector and Lecturer. She was consecrated as a bishop in 2019.
Following the election, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Rev Mark Strange, said:
“I am delighted to welcome Bishop Dagmar as Bishop-Elect into this new season of ministry in the Scottish Episcopal Church, and I am looking forward to welcoming her to the College of Bishops. The gifts she brings will enhance the life and mission of the Church.
“I would also like to thank everyone who took part in the process — those who offered themselves and tested their discernment, as well as members of the Electoral Synod, Diocesan Officers, Preparatory Committee, diocesan staff and Bishop Andrew, Convener of the Electoral Process, for their prayerful work.
“Please keep Bishop Dagmar in your prayers as we plan her installation and new beginnings in Scotland.”
The Bishop-Elect said:
“I am hugely honoured to have been elected as the next Bishop of Edinburgh and would like to thank most warmly all those involved in the thorough process, indeed, in electing me.
“I rejoice in the diversity and inclusivity of the Diocese of Edinburgh and can’t wait to get to know all the clergy and people in the charges from the Tweed to the Firth of Forth — your joys, your challenges, your opportunities. I firmly believe that the Scottish Episcopal Church has a unique voice to share in today’s world, and I am committed to supporting and encouraging all who contribute to its mission and ministry and to raising its profile further. I also look forward to joining the College of Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
“As I pray for you, please pray for me as I prepare to leave Ely and join you in Edinburgh.
“Only last night I confirmed some young people, preaching on John 20:19-end, and told them ‘as Jesus was sent, so he sends us’. It will be exciting to discover with you where God will lead us. The one who calls us is faithful — this is our joy, our hope and our strength.”
An excellent appointment for Edinburgh but a loss to us in East Anglia. Dagmar has a PhD in New testament for those who moan that we don’t appoint scholarly bishops anymore. She was chair of the governing body of the TEI on which I teach and was wise and supportive. Ely ordinands speak highly of how supportive she has been to them.
Some of us are really happy to welcome her Charles but do pray for her edinburgh and Ely.
I did wonder if she might become the next Bishop of Durham, given the history of the Diocese of Durham for scholarly bishops like Bishop Lightfoot, Bishop Foss Brooke Westcott, Bishop Michael Ramsey, Bishop Ian Ramsey, Bishop David Jenkins and more recently before Bishop Justin Welby, Bishop Tom Wright. Durham could yet get a scholar Bishop as its next Bishop. Jonathan
Well it tried to get a card carrying evangelical again. Don’t hold your breath, scholar or not.
Is this a verifiable and publicly accessible fact, or secret knowledge/rumour garnered by and from the privileged illuminati?
If you know how to connect the dots, it was all in the public domain. Anthony is nothing if not highly discreet.
Wink. Wink. Nod. Nod. Joins up the dots quite neatly.
That would be Brooke Foss Westcott rather than Foss Brook. Interesting aside, Westcott and Lightfoot were in the same class at school, and their other friend was Edward White Benson.
A huge loss to the Church of England when you come down to it. But as someone who is hard working, cooperative, unostentatious and definitely not homophobic arguably not the best fit south of the border if the recent Synod is anything to go by
Just looked the bishop of Glasgow, who moved north in a similar way recently.
My daughters all now live in Glasgow and are very eager that when we retire we will live near them, which we probably will. On our regular visits we have loved worshipping at St Mary’s Cathedral, and felt deeply a home in an SEC church culture that – whatever the challenges – has remained hospitable, liturgically rooted and much less afflicted by the factionalism south of the border
I’m delighted for her. Ely’s loss, but I think Edinburgh diocese is blessed in receiving a wise and faithful bishop.
Others will know more, but is this the second English minister receiving preferment in SEC in a short space of time? Is SEC devoid of many suitable candidates? Is it a tempting refuge for certain types of English priest? Answers on a postcard?
I am only aware of two previous translations from a suffragan see in England to a diocese in Scotland. One was Lumsden Barkway, who in in 1939 was translated from Bedford to St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane. The other was Brian Smith, who was translated from Tonbridge to Edinburgh in 2001.
This is certainly the Second time in the whole history of the Diocese of Edinburgh that a Suffragan Bishop of the Church of England has been translated to the Diocese of Edinburgh, the last time this took place was in 2001, when Bishop Brian Smith was translated from the Suffragan See of Tonbridge to the See of Edinburgh. He had been Bishop of Tonbridge from 1993 to 2001 and was Bishop of Edinburgh from 2001 to 2011. He was followed in 2002 by the most recent Bishop of Edinburgh , Bishop John Armes who retired last year. John Armes was… Read more »
Your right about not many bishops translates across borders but many further have experience of working in England or elsewhere and then become Scottish bishops I think the previous Primus came from ireland to be a bishop. Translation between Scottish sees happens too. The Previous bishop of Glasgow translated from Argyll and the Isles
Nick Bundock who was Rector of Emmanuel Church Didsbury in the diocese of Manchester was elected Bishop of Glasgow last year.
Given the relative sizes of the CofE and SEC (thousands of priests vs a few hundred and dozens of bishops vs 7) is it not simply the case that there will be a larger number of potential candidates down south? Certainly the SEC is an attractive prospect for anyone sick of the chronic homophobia of the CofE, and while the Aberdeen & Orkney debacle is a blot on the SEC’s copy book it’s nothing like the all encompassing bùrach of CofE safeguarding.
The SEC is a small province so I welcome it looks everywhere. Many of us recall the ministry of the late Bishop Keith Riglin (first a Baptist then URC minister before becoming an Anglican priest in London). In 2021 Keith became Bishop of Argyll and the Isles until his untimely death in 23. It’s not all one way traffic! In 1971 Kenneth Woolcombe, Principal of Coates Hall Edinburgh, became Bishop of Oxford.
Indeed, dear Keith wasn’t a case of straightforward CofE > SEC movement because he was involved with (and tremendously fond of) Argyll & The Isles for some years before his election.
The SEC’s official figures show about 8,500 weekly attendance across all its churches, and just a handful of ordinations every year (and most of these over 45 y.o) so yes it’s easy to imagine England is a major, if not THE, main recruiting ground for both clergy and bishops.
Do please share the average age of CofE ordinands?
According to the C of E’s 2025 ministry report there were 459 new clergy ordained (stipendiary & self-supporting) in the previous year, of whom 196 were under 45 – so about 42%. The SEC’s annual report (if I’ve read it correctly, there’s some jargon) says there were 6 new clergy ordained in the whole SEC in the previous year, of whom 3 were over 45 and 3 were under – so 50% by that reckoning. So I guess the proportions are comparable, with SEC ‘winning’, but my main point (and perhaps Despondent’s) is that with the major difference in absolute… Read more »
The numbers being ordained are one side, but I would guess that as a proportion of currently serving clergy the numbers are pretty similar i.e. some way short of replacement level.
Yes I know the C of E recognise the recruitment crisis and well imagine the SEC do.
Whether either church can change behaviours and culture that contribute to the crisis is another matter.
I think all denominations in the UK that have a rigorous discernment and training process are facing the same issue: having largely discarded the practice of encouraging vocations from an early age and (outside the RCC, which has its own issues) discontinued the tendency to ordain recent graduates in their 20s churches are faced with expecting people in midlife to upend everything for the better part of a decade before they might achieve some measure of stability, at a time when they may have young children and/or a mortgage, or older people near retirement, and suffering the double whammy of… Read more »
Yes – and, like many secular organisations working with young people, as a whole we’re seeing a fall-off of numbers of YP’s we’re connecting with. It does mean that even though we’re wiser about recruiting people younger the ‘pond’ is getting smaller.
All Souls Langham Place has an electoral roll over just over 1000. Compared to the entire SEC, one London church equates numerically to 1/8 of the total SEC attendance. Anyone thinking the SEC made some sort of error in its direction of travel.
Geoff, if you’re going to assert the overriding numerical superiority of All Souls Langham Place against any other form of obviously-deficient Pseudo-Christianity, the least you can do is use the *same* statistical measure on both sides of your comparison. Electoral Roll is not attendance.
Good point Paul but, as the good Old Testament bible account tells us “The writings on the wall” and however you want to discredit thriving vibrant churches with shadows of modernity, you and I know that the SEC is doomed and, with your incorrect assessment of All Souls, your branch of the C of E will follow it if it insists on incorrect theological positioning.
Episcopalians have been smaller in number, and shrinking, in the past. I wouldn’t be so quick to write off the work of the Spirit in situations not your own and of which you know very little, nor to underestimate the resilience of a small church that has endured worse than this in the past.
No, Geoff, the SEC is not doomed nor is it insisting ‘on incorrect theological posturing’. The decline in numbers is primarily a reflection of the precipitate drop in attenders in attendance at any Christian church in Scotland, most marked in the Church of Scotland which is selling off a large number of its churches.(See the work of Professor Callum Brown on secularisation) The SEC has always been tiny and poor and I don’t think it is about to disappear. Certainly not from my experience as a regular worshipper. All too often, commentators on the SEC do so through the prism… Read more »
Geoff, we have much to concern us in the SEC but it is completely pointless to compare us with ASLP or indeed the CofE more generally.The CofE and SEC have Anglicanism in common but are very different in history and experience. SEC has always been small in comparison and has a history of being formally discriminated against, which has a lot of consequences, some in my view positive. I am regularly astonished by how easily those who are not here think they understand what is happening in the SEC, reveal a blithe ignorance of history in this part of the… Read more »
You are not comparing like with like. All Souls being C of E is in a social setting where it is the ‘default’ denomination. North of the border, Anglicanism is not.
Those darn non-jurors. If only they’d given in to the Dutch invader and foresworn themselves.
I like the news. But can I ask a slightly off-topic (ish) question about women bishops (ish), and New testament scholarship, as at present I do not have any other suitable fora. I quite recently ran across for the first time the female Apostle Junia mentioned in Romans 16:7 by St Paul as “prominent amongst the Apostles”. This seems to me to put a modest bomb, or at least a question mark, under “no women Bishops” type claims asserting that that is the “biblical” view. Can anyone point me to any places (books, articles) where I can look into this… Read more »
My copy of the NRSV (copyright 1989) gives that as the translation; I’m sure other and more recent Bible versions do too. I have several books which provide commentary on this point, but they are old and probably out of print now. There will be newer ones – you might try e.g. Paula Gooder.
The classic book by Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza ‘In Memory of Her’ explores the question of ‘Junia’ and similar concerns. Now accessible via the Internet Archive.Well worth dipping into. Of course (as you are probably aware) some manuscripts masculinized her name to ‘Junias’, …. heaven forfend that there should be a female apostle!… but the evidence that her name was originally a feminine form is wide-spread
No manuscripts I think, only later translators and interpreters, mainly or perhaps exclusively in the West. John Chysostom, taking time off from hammering the Jews, celebrates her as a woman and an apostle.
The only ms variant is ‘Julia’, I believe
And there is the particular issue of the Intentionslly Conservative ESV (recently – and bizarrely adopted by the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales) whose translators refuse to recognise the possibility of women ministers and therefore insists on making Junia male.
The RSV is a favourite translation of mine but it surprisingly has Junias. The AV is correct with Junia !
B 59 Women and Authority: The Key Biblical Texts (2011)Grove Booklets
I had never heard of Junia, so was curious. I did a bit of googling. My main reaction was ‘good grief !!!’. Only men can be an apostle, so she cannot have been an apostle. Sacred Tradition says she cannot have been an apostle, as she was a woman. She was one of the 70, not one of the 12. Even if she was an apostle, she was not ordained, so has no effect on apostolic succession. As I say, good grief !!! The issue of authority and women in 1 Timothy in the letter to the church in Ephesus,… Read more »
‘Junia’ was a common women’s name; according to New Testament scholars like Paula Gooder (and those behind eg the NRSV), there are no known instances of ‘Junias’ from that period. Older versions such as the AV/King James changed Junia into Junias because, like you, they assumed that women couldn’t be apostles. But that is to read later traditions back into the early church. Paul was happy to call a woman not only an apostle, but a prominent apostle. Shouldn’t that be good enough for us?
because, like you,
It is difficult to convey sarcasm.
Good grief !!!
AV (KJV) has Junia in fact. Douai Rheims, RV and RSV have Junias.
There is no evidence that Junia was one of the 70, or indeed that she ever knew Jesus. The term ‘apostle’ does not denote only the twelve (however we define who the twelve were). For instance Paul was an apostle, and he didn’t follow Jesus within Jesus’ earthly lifetime. We don’t know whether Junia was ordained or not, because we don’t know if apostles were ordained in the early church. As for 1 Timothy, the word often translated ‘authority’ in 1:12 is not the usual ‘authentein’. It’s found nowhere else in the NT and means something closer to ‘domineer’ or… Read more »
i agree with everything you were saying. my ‘good grief’ is about how others reinterpret what is in front of their eyes.
My other surprise was that you seemed to ascribe to me views (changing the name) which any reasonable person would consider ridiculous.
To be absolutely clear, my bullets between my two ‘good griefs’ were held up as completely ridiculous views held at various times, not my views! They were set out in derision.
Thank you Nigel, that’s good to know.
I agree with you Janet. As I see it, in some traditions or understandings the word “apostle” is interchangeable with the word “disciple”and means one of the twelve, those specially commissioned and sent out by Jesus. A woman would not fit into this understanding. In other understandings the word apostle is simply the Greek word translated messenger, and refers to anybody in the mendicant tradition who wanders around the countryside with a begging bowl, offering teaching and healing in return for bed and board. It is entirely possible that a woman would fit in here, and be a prominent teacher… Read more »
Those who are unhappy with the status Paul ascribes to Junia say either she is not a woman or she is not an apostle. Others see this as clearly clutching at straws. Actually the Wikipedia article on Junia is pretty good.
I quite like David Shaw’s 2013 article ‘Is Junia among the Apostles?’
Good article the other day by Helen Paynter on “the power of translation” – and weaponisation of scripture through translation – https://mailchi.mp/6a1247bf171a/our-learning-library-12840767?e=1688da8161 Included this gem – Romans 16 contains some good examples. In the RSV Phoebe (v.1) is a “deaconess” (a position of some authority within the church). But the ESV opts for “servant”, even though it retains the RSV’s description of Epaphras as a “minister” (Col 1:7) for the masculine version of that word. And in verse 7, Junia is described by the RSV as “a man of note among the apostles”. By the time the ESV was produced,… Read more »
I think that ‘deaconess’ too is misleading because it suggests that Phoebe did not have the same status as did men who were deacons, whereas Paul uses the masculine-gendered term of her
Phoebe was clearly a powerful person in the church; Paul entrusted his letter to the Romans to her, and described her as a patron.
Not quite. Paul did not have a choice as there is no feminine form of ‘diakonos’. Latin does however distinguish between ‘minister’ and ‘ministra’, which is what Jerome uses for Phoebe.
Jerome lived some 3 centuries after Phoebe’s time. If Paul and the Corinthian church did not distinguish between a male and a female deacon (or, to put it another way, used the same term for both), there seems little warrant for modern translators to make that distinction. Especially where deacons and deaconesses are different orders of ministry, one lay and the other ordained. Phoebe was a deacon.
I think you miss the point. ‘Diakonos’ has the same second declension form whether it is masculine or feminine. Gender would be distinguished by the definite article or an accompanying adjective, neither of which apply in this instance. If Paul wanted to say deaconess he would have no choice but to use ‘diakonos’. It does not mean that Phoebe was exactly the same as Philip or Stephen, or even that her ministry was exactly the same as theirs.
I think it may be you who has missed the point. If being a deacon/minister/servant was a different office or form of ministry for women than it was for men, Paul was more than able to find a way to express that. And the church was more than able to find a way of distinguishing them. It didn’t.
Liddle & Scott- διάκονος, ´ο, ´η. There is no significance at all in the fact that uses this word in reference to a woman. It is regularly used for women elsewhere in Greek.
Yes, I get that. My point is that if it were important to Paul and the early church to reserve this office for men, or to maintain the distinction between the sexes in exercising similar offices, they could have chosen a different word for the office Phoebe occupied.They didn’t.
You know Greek far better than I do. What word would Paul have used?
The real issue is, why are you so keen to make a distinction which isn’t in the text?
Just a charitable question. Is this challenge what it is because of a certain understanding about how the NT is meant to function (without the OT; whence Christian priesthood, typologically understood, with Christ now as High Priest, and a priesthood of believers) and the earliest reception history of the scriptures in the lived life of the church catholic. With Bishop, Priest, Deacon, and extremely significant and powerful religious orders for women. Is the latter a falling away or declension from some NT pure isotope, grounded in etymology and ‘what did Paul mean’? My instinct is to ask why things developed… Read more »
I think the discussion below on the details of Greek words really is dancing on a pin head. The idea that whether women can be ordained or not depends on a word seems to be taking biblical literalism to the extreme. Fun for Greek scholars, but not so much for the rest of the modern world.
It is like p values and the null hypothesis in statistics. The issue is not whether the bible has verses which clearly forbids female ordination. The issue is whether the bible and reason does not, read as a whole, prohibit female ordination.
Bishop Winter will be moving to a beautiful city and will be spared the House of Lords. The SEC is way more inclusive too. I hope she will be very happy in Scotland.
Dean. It certainly is. Rest assured Bishop D will be. I have enjoyed living here for 10 ages. Ages since we met when you were in ?Hampshire !
Bishop Winter will also qualify for a bus pass in Scotland and not have to wait until she’s 67 as would have been the case if she’d stayed in England. Happy days!
Badshot Lea was just inside the Surrey border so Hampshire was only a stone’s throw away. About half of the congregation at St George’s were from Aldershot. I was very happy in Badshot Lea and was privileged to be the Team Vicar when St George’s celebrated its centenary. We even had a royal visit from HRH The Duchess of Gloucester that year.
Perhaps they are more inclusive in SEC because everybody knows each other.
Wunderbar! But as she’s (by the look of it) originally German she couldn’t have gone to Glasgow where they are often unintelligible, even before a few drams.
Gosh — do people look “German”? That’s sounds dangerously close to … well, I’ll leave you to fill in the missing word and concept.
I understand that Bp Dagmar is of German-British descent and she is fully bilingual. She has also lived in Northumbria where the Geordie dialect can be as unintelligible as Glaswegian.
Simon. May I remind you the cross borders ceased years ago. Other than CofE not fully recognising SEC decisions. In some respects SEC now closer to CofS!
Alistair – “ May I remind you the cross borders ceased years ago.” Can you please clarify what you’re referring to? Scotland continues to have a different church system to England, a very distinctly different legal system to England, an education system with very clear differences to that found even immediately south of the border, a devolved parliament that has no English equivalent, a distinct difference in the polity of the monarch, and even a different football league (that, uniquely among the things mentioned here, has managed to include the town of Berwick upon Tweed). Yes, people with much familiarity… Read more »
Anyone else the pair of you would like to insult, or is it just Germans, Geordies and Glaswegians?
And there was me thinking I was having a dig at myself for my inability to understand some other English speakers.
As a Geordie would say: Yer divvent kna wot yer tarkin aboot.
Swiss-German rather than German to be accurate, Simon.
Yes indeed. Thanks for the correction Mary.
Actually, a spot of googling reveals mixed parentage: English/Swiss German.
Long John Saliva, I am going to call you out on this deplorable comment…’Glasgow where they are often unintelligible….” I have to say, most of ‘us’ are highly intelligent and direct. Simon has risen to the bait, oh dear…. I’m still celebrating our team winning the Calcutta Cup….
Glasgow can boast a Nobel laureate in Chemistry, Alexander Robertus Todd who was born there in 1907. One of my tutors at Leeds in the 1970s had, about 25 years earlier, attended one of Todd’s lecture courses at Cambridge. He said that the experience was ‘like listening to a great symphony’.
Clifford, thank you, growing up in Glasgow (CofS) one of our members was Professor of Divinity and folks came in droves, including clergy, when he was invited to preach on the odd Sunday, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Tillich were mentioned frequently and everything was crystal clear. I’m now south of the border, have been for many years…….
Thank you. I was wondering whether you refer to William Barclay (though it is nearly 50 years since he died).
Clifford, it was Prof. Murdo Ewan MacDonald. He was a p.o.w. , escaped Stalag Luft11 and was the inspiration behind ‘the great escape’. His book ‘Padre Mac’ is worth reading.
Very interesting indeed.
How appropriate that the Scottish actor Gordon Jackson should have a lead role in ‘The Great Escape’.
I always found public school boys the most difficult to understand throughout my working life – they’d eloquently explain their highly moral motivations to you and then you’d find out later on they’d actually done the exact opposite of what they’d tried to persuade you was right. I’m sure this doesn’t happen these days…
As a resident of Edinburgh Diocese and a retired priest, I pray for the new bishop, and that she may know ‘The Land of the Book’ needs a move of the LORD’s Spirit and Word across our land, to draw people to Jesus Christ through His Gospel. NOTHING ELSE CAN DO! Just as Auld Reekie’s motto proclaims…” Nisi Dominus Frustra”, “Except the Lord… Frustration!”
Next year the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church Mark Strange, will have completed 20 years in Office as Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness and in June 10 years as the Primus and he will also be 65 years of age and it would not surprise me if he was to retire from both these offices next year. That leaves the field wide open for the Election of the next Primus. As the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney will reach 70 next year when she has to retire, it certainly will not be her. If the College of Bishops… Read more »