It has been announced from 10 Downing Street that the next Bishop of Leeds is to be the Rt Revd Toby Howarth, currently Area Bishop of Bradford in the diocese of Leeds. There is further coverage on the Leeds diocesan website.
Appointment of the Bishop of Leeds: 31 July 2026
This appointment was approved by The King on the advice of the previous Prime Minister.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published: 31 July 2026The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Dr. Toby Matthew Howarth, Suffragan Bishop of Bradford in the Diocese of Leeds, for election as Bishop of Leeds, in succession to The Right Reverend Nicholas Baines following his retirement.
Background
Toby was educated at Yale University, Birmingham University and the Free University of Amsterdam, and trained for the ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He served his title at St. Augustine, in the Diocese of Derby, and was ordained Priest in 1993. From 1995, Bishop Howarth served as a study partner with Crosslinks and The Netherlands Reformed Mission League in India and, in 2000, he was appointed Evangelist at the Pilgrim Father’s Church in Rotterdam. From 2002, Toby served as Tutor with the Church Mission Society at Crowther Hall, Selly Oak, in the Diocese of Birmingham and was made Vice-Principal in 2003.
In 2004, Bishop Howarth was appointed as Priest-in-Charge, Springfield St. Christopher, additionally serving as Inter-Faith Adviser to the Bishop of Birmingham from 2005. He served as Secretary for Inter-Religious Affairs to the Archbishop of Canterbury and National Adviser for Inter-Religious Affairs from 2011.
In 2014, Bishop Howarth took up his current role as Bishop of Bradford, and has been serving additionally as Acting Bishop of Leeds since 2025.
I don’t know the bishop of Bradford but this looks a strong nomination. The CNC didn’t need to go far to find him. Unusual and interesting breadth in his theological education (as well as having been a theological educator), completely up to speed with the complex diocese (which an outsider might have struggled with – he has been involved from the start in 2014) coupled with demonstrable inter-faith experience.
I’ve known +Toby 15 plus years from when he was interfaith advisor at Lambeth, and he’s also friend of a good friend since childhood. Top rate appointment. (And he was a name i put up for St A to appointment advisors when as GS members we met them.).
I really am unsure about these appointments from within dioceses. They seem too ‘safe’ It seems to me that some dioceses need change, new vision, new blood. As trust in senior leadership is so low is it really a good thing to appoint the local person from within the problerm? Appointing a ‘good chap’ that we know, and who knows us, isn’t always the answer. The internal candidate cannot easily challenge an unsatisfactory status quo, or reduce administrative staff – for, after all, they have been part of that status quo and supported it for years. It will be interesting… Read more »
Four brief responses.
A diocesan bishop is not an internal appointment. The process is a national one.
I happen to think, by God’s grace, they have made an outstanding choice.
I think the Diocese of Leeds is not helpfully or respectfully reduced to a ‘problem’.
And please, let’s give him more than a few months.
In my experience, internal candidates are not always the ‘steady as she goes candidate’. Sometimes they have been chafing to do things differently to their predecessor.
This means that the two Bishops of Leeds so far have both been former Bishops of Bradford. I agree with Dave and believe that this diocese is crying out for some fresh thinking and vision. Successive internal appointments make it look a bit like FIFA to me.
Yes, although of course it’s a different bishopric. The first had been diocesan Bishop of Bradford, while the second is a suffragan or area bishop, created after the diocesan bishopric was suppressed.
This is an excellent appointment.
All who know Toby will be delighted and those who don’t yet know him will grow to love him and to experience his love for Christ.
He is a humble, scholarly, pastoral Bishop, with profound experience in India, The Netherlands, Birmingham and Bradford.
He served both Rowan Williams and Justin Welby, nationally and internationally with deft advice and subtle wisdom.
Few bishops have his depth of insight into inter-faith relations and authentic dialogue at both grassroots and academic levels.
Internal diocesan appointments seem to be all the rage at present. Penrith to Carlisle – Archdeacon of Auckland to Durham – Bradford to Leeds. How about another internal appointment – Lewes to Chichester?
Could this be seen as a symptom of institutional anxiety? Better the **** we know?
I recall the uncle of the Bishop of Lewes from when I lived in Victoria, Australia.
He was John Hazelwood, Bishop of Ballarat. Finding myself in a remote rural location one weekend I went to the nearest Anglican church on the Sunday and he was preaching. His sermon was very suitably punctuated with humour.