Press Release from the Prime Minister’s Office. There is more on the Newcastle diocesan website.
Appointment of Bishop of Newcastle: 20 October 2022
Her Late Majesty The Queen approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, Suffragan Bishop of Ripon, for election as Bishop of Newcastle.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 20 October 2022
Her Late Majesty The Queen approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, Suffragan Bishop of Ripon, for election as Bishop of Newcastle, in succession to The Right Reverend Christine Hardman following her retirement.
Helen-Ann Hartley was educated at the University of St. Andrews and Worcester College, Oxford. She trained for ministry on the St Albans & Oxford Ministry Course and was ordained Priest in 2006. She served her title at St Mary the Virgin, Wheatley, in the Diocese of Oxford, and was appointed Curate at St Mary the Virgin and St Nicholas, Littlemore, in 2007. During this time she was also Director of Biblical Studies and Tutor in New Testament at Ripon College, Cuddesdon.
In 2012, Helen-Ann moved to New Zealand where she was Dean for the New Zealand Dioceses at the College of St John the Evangelist, Auckland, and in 2014 she was consecrated Bishop of Waikato, Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
Helen-Ann returned to the UK in 2018 when she was appointed to her current role as Suffragan Bishop of Ripon in the Diocese of Leeds.
Great appointment she is a rising star
Good to see someone appointed who has experience outside of the Church of England, and indeed outside of the UK.
I have nothing against the individual, but ‘yet another bishop’? I wish Helen-Ann well in her new post, as I wish everyone well. One fewer suffragan now, maybe? IIUC every vacant Suffragan post is reviewed by the Dioceses Commission. Is it not timely to take a ‘bigger picture’ overview. How many bishops/ congregants/ parishioners are ‘required’ per parish/ benefice/ deanery/ area/ diocese- to what end/ for what purpose?
I also wish the retiring bishop- one of the first female CofE’s first a long and happy retirement.
Who’s next onto the Lords Spiritual bench?
Bishop Helen-Ann is a great communicator and is well matched to her new diocese. A few years ago The Times published a graph depicting how the decline in the CofE communicant members matched the increase in the number of bishops!
Great nomination. The Lords Spiritual position is complicated. Bishop Helen-Ann will go into the Lords straight away, jumping men in the queue, but only when a vacancy arises. +Leicester has recently taken +Blackburn’s place; +Birmingham retired on 18 October, creating a vacancy, which will be taken by the next on the list, +Lichfield I think. Once +Helen-Ann’s election is confirmed, she is immediately eligible and takes her place at the head of the queue. I think the next vacancy will be created by the retirement of +Peterborough in January 2023. It is worth noting that the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act… Read more »
I expect I shall be unpopular, but I see no basis for extending the ten-year period. The preamble to the Act expressly states that it is “to make time-limited provision for vacancies among the Lords Spiritual to be filled by bishops who are women”. There is no provision in the Act to extend the period. It was intended to achieve a measure of parity and that has happened. With Bishop Helen-Ann joining, all of the women diocesan bishops will be Lords Spiritual. It’s frankly difficult to justify continuing a ‘leapfrogging’ system, especially in the light of equality legislation. Any disparity… Read more »
I don’t disagree with you in the sense that the provision gave the church 10 years to get its act together and that will have been enough. I believe the first CNC that could technically have considered a women was Southwell and Nottingham in 2014. Since then, there have been 22 vacancies, excluding Sodor and Man. Seven woman have been nominated (with Newcastle nominating a second woman diocesan). I regard that proportion as wholly inadequate. With only six women in the current House of Bishops, it must still feel a pretty male environment. Let’s hope the proportion can be materially… Read more »
I agree and, whilst wishing +Hartley well, I can’t help feeling that an opportunity has been missed. I remember that, at the time of Christine Hardman’s appointment, it was speculated that she might be the last diocesan bishop of Newcastle, and that the historic link between Lindisfarne and Durham could be re-established by merging the two dioceses. This would seem to be amongst the lower hanging fruit available in diocesan rationalisation, but nothing has happened. With C of E demographics and finances heading rapidly over the cliff edge, if not now, then when?
What is the present interface between the Newcastle diocese and Jesmond Parish Church? And also Hope Church, Holy Trinity Gateshead, and St Joseph’s Benwell? To what extent do these churches associate with the Anglican Mission in England, in seeking to establish Anglican churches in England outside the Church of England? If, as stated by St Joseph’s, AMiE is a Gafcon recognised Convocation, a Diocese-in-formation… How does that work, in practice, within the existing structures of the Diocese of Newcastle, to which Helen-Ann is being called as bishop? Are the Churches inside the diocese or outside it, subject to the bishop’s… Read more »
Holy Trinity Gateshead is not within the territory of Newcastle diocese, surely?
Ah, does that fall under Durham? Even so, do all these churches accept that they fall under C of E governance? “What do they mean by “a Diocese-in-formation”? And (this may vary church to church) who owns the physical churches if they switch to a non-C-of-E diocese? It all seems a bit unresolved (though of course that may be intentional).
According to their own websites Jesmond Parish Church and St Joseph’s Benwell are both Anglican. However the latter states that it is affiliated with Anglican Mission in England. See https://www.stjosephsbenwell.org.uk/about/our-connections/
I could see no such indication on the website of Hope Church Newcastle.
Worth noting over St Joseph’s Benwell that it has never been a C of E church – Jesmond Parish Church bought it off the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle when they closed it. Great piece of plant, but I suspect that the splendid parish social club / bar in the crypt is now put to more sober uses.
No indeed, it is within the Diocese of Durham. I shouldn’t think the relationship between any of these will be any different with +Helen-Ann in post than it was with +Christine, or is at present.
(I would also note that it is very clear from the PCC accounts of Jesmond Parish Church that they pay parish share in the diocese (just under £80k in 2021).
Two liberal catholics in a week. The evangelical takeover I keep reading about on here must be on hold!