The Prime Minister’s Office issued the press release below this morning. There is more information on the Truro diocesan website.
Suffragan Bishop of St. Germans: 9 March 2026
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend James Treasure BSc, to the Suffragan See of St. Germans, in the Diocese of Truro.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 9 March 2026
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend James Treasure BSc, Vicar and Resource Church Leader at St. Thomas and St. Luke’s and Team Rector for Dudley, in the Diocese of Worcester, for appointment as Suffragan Bishop of St. Germans in the Diocese of Truro, in succession to The Right Reverend Hugh Edmund Nelson BA, following his translation to the See of Worcester.
Background
James was educated at the Roehampton Institute, University of Surrey. He trained for ministry at Ripon College, Cuddesdon and served his title in the Kidderminster West Team Ministry, in the Diocese of Worcester. He was ordained Priest in 2017 and was previously a leader in a free church before his move back to the Church of England. He brings with him a wealth of experience in community engagement and growing congregations.
From 2018, James served as Vicar and Resource Church Leader at St. Thomas and St. Luke’s (commonly known as “Top Church”) in Dudley. In this capacity, he spearheaded a major redevelopment and mission project, supported by significant grant funding, to revitalise the historic Grade II* listed building and expand its community outreach.
In 2023, James was also appointed Team Rector for the wider Dudley parish. In this role, he maintained responsibility for four additional churches while continuing his leadership at St. Thomas and St. Luke’s.
I don’t know Mr Treasure – he may well be an excellent person. But looking at his CV, it really does seem that the message to the people of the diocese of Truro is that traditional Anglicanism is out and revivalist managerialism is very much in. Has any other bishop in the CofE officiated as ”a leader in a free church” after being ordained in the CofE? This does rather look like a slap in the face for ‘Save the Parish’, and for any remaining Anglo-Catholics in the diocese.
My diocese, Southwell and Nottingham, recently appointed the leader of a free church to be, ‘Head of Church Growth and Planting’. Hey Ho. Parishes are all but gone. Incumbents are missioners; churches have become worship centres. My local HTB funded church (what used to be regarded as the civic church) has a padlock on the gates. They unlock before worship. I strongly suspect the incumbent has a spread sheet to record numbers.
I read he was “previously a leader in a free church” to mean before being ordained in the C of E. Agreed that it could have been better and more clearly expressed. But nine years between ordination and episcopal appointment seems rather short. Is this any kind of record?
I knew someone who see sawed between a Baptist house group, which he founded and the C of E. 1. He founded the house group. 2. He left that to do bare minimum of ordinand training in C of E. 3. He walked out of his curacy after two years to go back to the house group. 4. A year later he was back in the C of E as a full time stipendiary! I also know someone who was a C of E full time priest for 30 years. He left for Rome, and became a Catholic layman. Two… Read more »
And now the Bishop of Truro has appointed a new Archdeacon of Bodmin who has only been ordained 6 years.
https://trurodiocese.org.uk/2026/03/new-archdeacon-designate-of-bodmin-announced/
People complain when the Church ignores and wastes a late ordinand’s prior experience in the world. And people complain when a late ordinand does not have enough experience as a priest.
I don’t know why this is addressed to me! My comment was primarily concerned with the chronology of the Bishop’s experience and my admitted guess about that was confirmed as correct by Anthony Archer’s researches.
I’m not sure why it is phrased like that, but his free church days were 100% prior to his ordination. He would have been hard pressed to fit in a free church between Priesting in 2017 and moving to Top Church in 2018.
Whilst I am sure that the Rev James Treasure has much to recommend him – on what grounds was it felt necessary to fill the See of St Germans at all rather than simply let it remain vacant? By Electoral Roll or Average Sunday Attendance Truro is the smallest mainland diocese in the country, and significantly smaller than either Hereford or Portsmouth – both of whom seem to cope fine without a suffragan bishop?
Sounds like a last roll of the diocese before it gets reabsorbed into Exeter as the Archdeaconry of Cornwall.
That is extremely unlikely, although I imagine diocesan jobs could be shared. It is a 2 hour journey from Truro to Exeter cathedral. Many other dioceses are far closer together. From many places in the UK you can visit 2 or 3 cathedrals in that time.
It’s all relative. The nearest Episcopal church (which happens to be one of the Cathedrals) in my diocese is 4 hours away from me. The CofE may just have to get used to what Scotland has always dealt with.
The closest two, Southwark and St Paul’s are a ten minute walk from each other.
One is either a North Londoner, or a South Londoner. Do not cross the river, it is foreign land.
That difference was encapsulated in the relations between the two Bishops, Henry Montgomery Campbell (who as Bishop of Guildford confirmed me 70 years ago), later Bishop of St Paul’s and Mervyn Stockwood at Southwark. Probably of limited interest to most readers now, Wikipedia spills the beans in its entry for Montgomery Campbell.
ha ha. My north London friends refuse to cross the river to visit, and I find North London a dark forbidding place, without the wide expanses of South London greenery.
Moreover, what is the North London equivalent of Surrey Hills and parts of Kent? I jump on a train and am at Epsom Downs in 30 mins or so.
Nearest countryside in North London is in the Peak District.
Well said!
LOL. “Sarf” as we call it!
In 1942 Bertrand Simpson went from being Suffragan Bishop of Kensington to being Bishop of Southwark.
If you understood Cornish geography, or the state of the roads, you wouldn’t be asking that question.
I continue to be amazed that we get bishops with so little normal parish experience and involvement across the wider C of E!. The diocese of Truro is complex and needs someone of broad and accepting churchmanship. Unless all the biographies are wrong, I do not see this. He should have had suffragan experience. Nothing against him personally but yet another example of dubious preferment.
except that he has been trained at Ripon College Cuddesdon which I assume has a Catholic ethos? I think the Bishop of Truro seems to have made a wide decsion not to get someone of the same Churchmanship as he is . Jonathan
Cuddesdon was once, of course, very much a Catholic college, but that ceased to be the case when it united with the liberal Ripon college many years ago.
How do you get suffragan experience without being a suffragan?
I feel obliged to counter the sadly predictable (on TA) barrage of negativity. I served for a while in the same deanery as James and know him to be an open, warm, inclusive person and priest as well as having a passionate heart for people and for God’s mission. Under his leadership Top Church has creatively developed a life and mission rather different from the stereotype of a resourcing church and the Dudley Team supports a variety of church traditions. I (an inclusive Anglo-Catholic) would be delighted to have James as my bishop. He and his family will be in… Read more »
My prayers are with James – warmly and genuinely hopeful. I’m an inclusive Anglican Catholic who had the privilege to work as his neighbouring vicar and rural dean some years back. I drew inspiration from his openness, and from an approach which valued charismatic prayer, evangelical preaching and a truly catholic approach to the sacraments, within a fully inclusive vision of what the church might be. At it’s best, it offers me a pattern for how we might better value the breadth of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church with a generosity of spirit we are going to need… Read more »
A truly lovely and encouraging comment
I wish to also thank you for this comment. Comments like this, based on knowing the person, not just reading a biography, are so valuable.
I don’t know James Treasure, but this looks like an interesting nomination and I can understand why it has been made. The Downing Street press releases look a bit flimsy these days, with no reference to the football team supported or the candidate’s personal circumstances. The announcement within the Diocese of Worcester when he moved from Kidderminster to Dudley gave a fuller picture. “James is married to Esther and they have three boys, Irenaeus, Wesley, and Atticus. James is a Franciscan tertiary and formerly a minister in the free church tradition leading vibrant churches in London and Stourbridge. Esther has… Read more »
The last time St Germans had a Franciscan Bishop and the last time one was Consecrated in St Paul’s Cathedral was Brother Michael (Michael Fisher) SSF, who as consecrated on April the 25th 1979 along with Bishop Barry Rogerson who was being Consecrated as the First Bishop of Wolverhampton (He was translated to Bristol in 1985). It was the last Consecration presided over by Donald Coggan before he retired as Archbishop of Canterbury in January 1980. Jonathan
I make no comment on the qualities of James Treasure; I don’t know him. I find it of some interest that Worcester Diocese thought it important to speak of the qualities of his wife, and to mention their three boys. I do however take issue with it not being realistic for a diocesan bishop to cover the whole diocese, it being 100 miles from Bude to Lands End. Truro Diocese is 150 years old. Before that Cornwall was served from Exeter, some 120-140 miles (depends on how measured). The railway reached Penzance in 1852. Prior to then, and beyond the… Read more »
“At this rate, all in the church shall be bishops …”
As in the splendid Palmarian Catholic Church.
Going so well until you said his resource church was called “Top Church”
you are aware (of course) that it’s called Top Church – and pretty much always has been locally – because it sits on the skyline of Dudley, can be seen for miles around, and is not Bottom Church, which can’t be?
Sadly my knowledge of Dudley is limited and I stand corrected haha!
This is a comment on the comments, not on James Treasure who I don’t know or know of. It’s wonderful that there are evangelical clergy who are open and inclusive, work well with priests of other traditions & value the sacraments. (Let’s leave aside the clear implication that there are many who aren’t all or any of those things.) But rather than having to settle for being grateful for evangelical openness to other traditions can’t Catholics & liberals have a few more from their own traditions actually made suffragans & diocesans?? After the drab, grey, evangelical manageralism of Welby’s appointments… Read more »
Who were the hardline con evos appointed by Welby? I can’t think of any. Lots of open evangelicals. Many ex-evangelicals. A few Charismatic evangelicals.
Out of 42 Diocesan bishops only 5 evangelical diocesans signed the letter opposing PLF in 2023 – Andrew Watson, Richard Jackson,Jonathan Gibbs, Pete Wilcox, Paul Williams. None are exactly hardliners.
You clearly disagree, and I am genuinely curious to know who you see as the “hardline con evos”.
Opposing even the minimal crumbs from the table offered by PLF to the point where you not only won’t use them yourself but want other forbidden to do so *is* a hardline position.
“Can’t Catholics and liberals have a few more from their own traditions actually made suffragans and diocesans?” I have previously commented several times on other threads that whilst I agree with the ordination of women, I nonetheless feel that people who think otherwise don’t get a fair crack of the whip. There was a gap of five years between the consecrations of two consecutive Anglo-Catholic bishops – Philip North to Burnley and William Hazlewood to Lewes. I cannot imagine there being a similar gap between the appointment of two consecutive women bishops – or rather, I can imagine the uproar… Read more »
Well the more I hear about this new bishop… i wish he was mine! Sounds like he has rather more depth and breadth than some predictable “nay-sayers” here would give him credit. I have worked in Truro… its challenging.. half the year you are a tourist destination, and the rest of the year you try and keep things on the kernow road. Poverty is very significant there as well. God speed to James – may be be the found treasure (sorry!) for Truro!
I know nothing at all of him, but however his appointment turns out, from what I’ve read here, it gives me hope that once again someone other than one of the usual collection of clone-seeming products of the institution who have networked merrily and shown the expected deference and loyalty to the existing powers that be has been tapped for preferment. There have been one or two unusual appointments recently, and it will be very interesting to see how they get on when they’re plunged into the shark pool of the politics of the House and College of Bishops and… Read more »
With all the talk of bishops, I thought this might be of interest. Part 2 & 3 follow. Small is Beautiful: A Study of Ecclesiology as if People Mattered How episcopacy is exercised quietly shapes the culture of a diocese, including ministerial formation. In The Bishop and the Baptized[ii], Justin Pottinger turns to the Common Worship Ordinal, in particular the Ordination of Bishops as the rite that sets out the model for this relationship with its defining metaphor of ‘shepherd’. But if it is to be a relationship of care and not control, he argues, the bishop must be both… Read more »
Historically, smaller and more relational dioceses were the norm, as they still are in much of the Anglican world. The bishop was known as ‘father in God’ because he knew his people and was known by them. A wholesale redrawing of diocesan boundaries, however, seems unlikely in the foreseeable future given the institutional, legal and financial obstacles. Any reform will need to begin more modestly. Currently the Church of England has nearly fifty suffragan bishops. Some of these could be given delegated episcopal oversight in a manner similar to area bishops, allowing them to function effectively as diocesans, with much… Read more »
By the Church, for the Church. This ecclesial orientation should shape the conduct of ordinations, with the rite manifesting both the catholicity of the Church and the significance of place and presence in Anglican polity. A clearer expression of presbyteral collegiality could also help recover authority as ontological rather than functional, sacramental rather than managerial: bishop, priests and deacons gathered around the Eucharist, their ministry ordered to freeing the people of God. Finally, Pottinger envisages bishops being embedded in the life of a parish church (a minster church, maybe?) where, through participation in the cure of souls, they… Read more »
The funny thing is that Welby is mythologised as being managerial, but in my experience (I was at enterprise Oil at the same time as him) he had a very limited, if zero, managerial responsibility in terms of managing other people. Enterprise Oil also had a very flat structure. Many had fled Shell because they didn’t like the heavy management culture there.
Allan, thanks for these two posts which I have found fascinating. They expand on an understanding of Episcopal and priestly relationships which I can understand at a “head” level but struggle to be comfortable with. It seems to me (and I accept my understanding may be incorrect) that in your model the only relationships that matter are between the bishops, between the priests, and between the priests and their Bishop. Yet where do the laity and congregations fit into your model? What responsibilities or part do they have to play? This is not to criticise your model, which I know… Read more »
Thank you, Simon. In stressing a relational understanding of ministry I was trying to avoid clericalism which obscures the baptismal vocation of all and an egalitarianism which collapses ministerial distinctions. With the decline of the Catholic tradition and the ascendancy of Evangelicalism, it seems to me that the latter distortion is more prevalent in today’s CofE. My third post – which you may not have seen – does speak of “ministry ordered to freeing the people of God”! The Ordinal expresses the ecclesiology of a college of presbyters – that this has gained little traction in the CofE may have… Read more »
Simon, I should have made it clear that my piece was deliberately about bishops and priests, their formation (or lack of it) and how they relate to one another (or fail to) – on the basis that if this relationship is poor it benefits no one. The CofE is struggling to attract vocations and gifted priests are leaving, or have left, parish ministry for sector ministry, cathedrals, academic posts and suffragan posts. Others are just leaving. I could have said more about the ministry of the baptized, but this would mean another 1,000 words and, in any case, much has… Read more »