The Church of England’s House of Bishops met in York this week, and following the meeting issued a press release, which is copied below. The agenda of the meeting, but not the papers, is available online.
House of Bishops meeting May 2026
21/05/2026
The House of Bishops met in person from 19th to 21st May in York.
The House spent time discussing the Church of England’s Faith and Order Commission’s (FAOC) theological response to the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals.
Produced by the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith, and Order (IASCUFO), the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals make recommendations for updating the description and Instruments of the Anglican Communion.
The House commended FAOC’s response to the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals. The FAOC paper and an introductory reflection from the House of Bishops will be published in due course.
On the first proposal of the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals, regarding the description of the Anglican Communion, the House believed that FAOC’s language – which would continue to emphasise the significance of eucharistic communion – would be the basis for further reflection in this area.
On the second proposal, which considers the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury among the primates, the House supported FAOC’s judgment that an open dialogue process among the Primates that does not presume any specific outcome would be welcome.
The House received an update from the Bishops’ Working Group on ‘Promoting Unity in our Nation’. The group, chaired by Bishop Martyn Snow, has been convened to help equip the Church to understand and respond to political and social polarisation in our country. It is working on resources to support parishes wanting to respond to division pastorally, practically and theologically, as well as equipping church leaders to participate constructively in the national debate.
The Bishops agreed on the importance of this work and were keen to encourage local churches to offer spaces to listen, to be courageous in speaking truth to power and naming injustice, as well as actively seeking opportunities for community cohesion.
The House reflected on trends in Church of England attendance between and across dioceses in the light of five consecutive years of growth. The House welcomed the increased church attendance and paid tribute to the clergy, laity and volunteers across the country offering people a warm welcome and encouraging their faith.
The Bishops unanimously endorsed Hope for All Creation, produced by FAOC, as its teaching document on understanding and responding to the climate and environmental crises, drawing from the faith, life and worship of the Church. The document is expected to be published before the July Synod.
The House discussed the start of work on a review of the definition of safeguarding, to examine whether the Church’s structures and processes are established in a way that can best ensure everyone it comes into contact with is kept safe from harm.
Bishops heard an update on the evolution of the population of stipendiary and self-supporting clergy. They discussed ongoing work on clergy wellbeing and deployment as well as the significant work which is currently being undertaken to support the renewal of ministerial vocations across the church.
The House discussed ongoing research work nearing its conclusion on trust and trustworthiness in the Church of England alongside a separate item on strengthening accountability for Bishops and clergy. Bishop Debbie Sellin, the new Lead Bishop for Accountability, will be taking this work forward.
“Lead bishop for accountability”: that’s a satire on “2012” and “W1A”, right? Yea, cool, yes, no. So that’s all good.
Two interesting and hopefully positive snippets in the final paragraph. There is now a lead bishop for accountability, and bishop Debbie Sellin has that task, after her experiences in Winchester. I hope both are positive signs.
Is this role fixed-term, renewable etc. To whom is +Sellin ‘accountable’? Quis custodiet?
How many ‘Lead bishops’ are there? Are they like lead toy soldiers?
In passing, is there still a Bishop to the Archbishops; a ‘Bishop at Lambeth’?
Valid questions to ask.
But any psychoanalyst will say that the key to solving a problem is to admit that the problem exists. And that paragraph is evidence that the bishops have made that step.
It’s not the end, or the beginning of the end, bit the end of the beginning.
Or to quote the Rt Rev Ian Fletcher, lead bishop for values, a big problem is s big solution waiting to happen
Being thus reminded of the Winchester affair I thought to look up Tim Dakin, & see that he has a PTO in Exeter Dio. However, he is not an Hon Assistant Bishop – perhaps a step too far?
Tim Dakin was the ‘Lead Bishop for Education’ and I heard him give a speech in The House of Lords in that capacity. There are other Lead Bishops for various topics, including notably, for Safeguarding. I can’t readily find a C of E list of them. I find it hard to believe that regular TA readers can seemingly be unaware that these roles exist.
Is an I reading too much into it, or is there a pattern here? The men move on, or are moved on, and the women are left to pick up the pieces.
Winchester, Salisbury, London?, Canterbury?.
You may think that, I couldn’t possibly comment!
How was the Archbishop of York held accountable for appointing a known paedophile as an Honorary Canon and reappointing him as Rural Dean?
Come on! Get with the programme!
There was no-one in post way back then – and he wasn’t ABY so biggest- but – one – fish….
I wish Bishop Sellin well but it sounds to be an impossible task. And what the world, lead by the COf E really, really needs is a new definition of safeguarding… why not get on and apply the JFDI mantra ?
The image of the world led by the C of E is a concept I have difficulty getting my head around!
Pilavachi, Fletcher and Brain have been held accountable by the dogged determination of their survivors not through the concerted efforts of the institutional church. Were it not for the criminal justice system their victims would have had only scraps from the CofE. Bishop Sellin will no doubt give us warm words but otherwise the thinnest of gruel. My advice to survivors is to go straight to the police and not to waste their time, spiritual wellbeing and emotional energy on the CofE’s in house arrangements.
Quite. But I don’t think Pilavachi was ever dealt with by the judiciary for his ‘wrestling’ with interns was he? Presumably they were over 18 and ‘consenting’ despite the power
imbalance? So as ever the victims remain just that though the police were involved .
I haven’t seen Bishop Sellin’s JD but given the hierarchy of the COf E I’m sure it’s warm words and no teeth for dealing with her peers , and who are most likely to be men
Presumably Paper No HB(26)15/16 (which we are not given) “Accountability of Bishops and Clergy: interim update (including Updating the Guidelines for the Professional Conduct of the Clergy)”
Fr Dean the suggestion at the end of your statement is sound advice. I have a further one. The Sunday Telegraph 26 April reported that the former archbishop. Justin Welby opened a new business venture called JPW Mediation Services. He is understood to want to “help people in society” and continue his reconciliation mission. He intends to charge people for his services and to be reimbursed for travel costs (it is to be a global venture). Rosie Gillum, an employee of JPW Mediation, said on LinkedIn that the company would “facilitate some beautiful work of peace and reconciliation globally”. Really??… Read more »
Actually. I am rather pleased to see ++Welby’s new work. His work in reconciliation has been pioneering and very much part of his excellent ministry. Coventry, Canterbury and the Anglican communion very much benefited from his work in this area. I am not belittling the mistakes for which he has taken corporate and individual responsibility, but I think he should be given the best chance to do what he does really well.
Homeless Anglican, As I understand, Welby is now charging for what he should have done as a Christian leader. To the Sunday Telegraph, Graham a well known victim of Smyth said:
“Justin Welby is trying to relaunch himself as a force for good, when there is unfinished business. He first has to make his peace with victims of his friend John Smyth.”
I don’t think Smyth was ever his friend. Let’s not get carried away.
You have completely misunderstood my point. You appear hell-bent on kicking a man when he is down. He can chose who and when he makes peace with.
If for a moment, any of us as Christians went to bed without making total peace and reconciliation with all those we had wronged unconsciously or not, then I dont think any of us would sleep.
Everyone has unfinished business, and that might make him more a force for good because – not despite of of his wounds and scars… now who does that remind me of?!
It’s surely worth remembering in the context of his having “taken corporate and individual responsibility” that he was not even ordained when Smyth was abusing victims in England.
Nor was Smyth ever ordained.
Nigel, that I well know! I ‘knew’ Smyth when he was junior counsel, I knew the vicar and organist and other congregation members of the church where (it is claimed) he trained as a lay reader. For more than two decades I served as deputy organist of the church literally next door to his house where the abuse took place, although by then he had already left for Zimbabwe. The 2017 documentary was the first anywhere I heard about his abusing. It was only an encounter in the Winchester County Court approximately 47 years earlier (on opposite sides in the… Read more »
Quite. I may have said at one time that I slept in Welby’s bed for a year. Plus I worked for the same company as him for 2 years. Neither made me a friend!
[Calm down everybody, I slept in the same bed 2 years after he had occupied it, at Kiburu secondary school in Kenya.]
Private Eye points out in 15-28 May edition on page 38 the disastrous situation of so many dioceses being without a Bishop.
I quote: seven have no bishop; two more are suspended; one is on long term sick; five have set a retirement date and seven living former archbishops have either been refused PTO or decided not to take it.
Is this publicly realised when such a report as the one above is published?
I don’t think those statistics are entirely correct. The reference to dioceses limits this to the C of E. There aren’t seven living former archbishops. Canterbury numbers three, Justin Welby, Rowan Williams and George Carey. Archbishop Carey’s PTO was reinstated (and there’s a strong case for saying it was wrongly removed in the context of the Smyth case). York, I think numbers two, David Hope and John Sentamu. Archbishops Hope and Williams are retired, as they are perfectly entitled to be. Archbishop Sentamu has had PTO removed in some dioceses – I think his is the only case which partially… Read more »
Thank you for that correction Rowland. My information was taken solely from the Private Eye article.
You can check the status of CofE clergy in the National Register of Clergy. Neither Sentamu nor Carey are listed there, which means that they are not authorised or licensed to minister as clergy in the Church of England.
I believe that there are two living former Archbishops of Wales without PTO, but the Church in Wales does not have a public register of clergy where I can check this. But these two would make the total of seven given in Private Eye.
Yes, as an afterthought, I considered the Church in Wales, Church of Ireland and the Scottish Episcopal Church as possibilities, but my TA comment edit was ‘out of time’; SEC does not have archbishops of course. I don’t know how Private Eye reported this, i.e., whether specifically C of E or Anglican former archbishops. Archbishop Carey’s PTO was reinstated, but it would seem it has lapsed. It’s quite understandable if he has chosen to join Archbishops Hope and Rowan Williams in retirement.
A reminder, if we needed it, that anything Private Eye can’t resist spinning, and always needs checking for accuracy.
Without Private Eye many scandals, not least those that are church related, would not have seen daylight. Nitpicking & cries of ‘Fake News’ are standard defence.
In this case the crux of the matter is that CofE does have a lot of diocesan vacancies to fill, and the selection system is neither swift nor infallible. Moreover even one retired archbishop failing to gain PTO should be cause for concern & serious reflection.
I don’t disagree, but saying that seven retired archbishops “have either been refused PTO or decided not to take it” is factually wrong and a misleading inference. I don’t consider pointing this out to constitute ‘nit-picking’. We can’t rehearse the case of Archbishop Sentamu here.
I am a regular reader Private Eye and strongly support the importance of investigative journalism. But even its best comes neither fact or agenda free. When I question the accuracy or evaluative assumptions of what I read I am not nitpicking. I am trying to be responsible.
We all have agendas & bias, and rather than complaining about criticism it is far better to take it on the chin & do something about the root causes. The clear issue is that CofE has more diocesan bishops to replace than normal, and getting excited about exact numbers, or how many archbishops have PTO, or desire PTO, is clouding the issue, not being responsible. To be brutal the CofE gene pool of priests is ever declining, & the conflict between the various factions in the church seems to be getting worse & worse, so filling all these posts to… Read more »
Indeed. I don’t subscribe to Private Eye and cannot check it specifically, but ‘Google’ has just come up with this:
“The “Priest Holes” column in issue 1675 of Private Eye (on sale until 27 May) features the Church of England’s unprecedented House of Bishops vacancies”. At face value, this article was directed solely to the C of E. There are not seven retired C of E archbishops without PTO – for whatever reasons.
There are survivors who are glad of its investigative journalism.
What is there to spin? The institutional CofE is in a parlous state!
I checked what Private Eye actually said (I also don’t subscribe but it’s not that difficult to find a copy – I was able to be reading a copy within an hour of reading this thread, and it’s a bank holiday at that…). I think they are entirely accurate in what they say. The article starts with the comment on dioceses and bishops, which is labelled as applying to the CofE. It then goes on to talk about former archbishops, and explicitly widens the criteria by saying “There are in England and Wales 7 former archbishops…”, naming them (3 Canturbury,… Read more »
Sorry, I missed that. Google chose not to include it when I searched although I phrased the question carefully. I maintain the implication of some culpability in the cases of four of the C of E archbishops having “either been refused PTO or decided not to take it” is unfounded, and won’t be drawn into a re-hearing about Archbishop Sentamu.
Rowan Williams is retired, but still has PTO and offers cover for services around Cardiff when he is asked or able.
The rumour is that John Davies does not have PTO; this is unconfirmed and so remains a rumour.
Forgot to add – Barry Morgan also has PTO and takes services in Cardiff.
I seem to be one of the few TA readers who does subscribe to Private Eye, and I look forward to seeing whether any correspondents have commented on the ‘Priest Holes’ item when—subject to Royal Mail—I receive Eye No.1676 in the post tomorrow (Wednesday). Having now re-read the Priest Holes item, I would qualify John S’s comment that it is ‘entirely accurate.’ Going by Peter Owen’s very useful spreadsheet of English Diocesan See Vacancies (English Episcopal Vacancies), currently, there are six C of E dioceses that have ‘no bishop in post’: St Albans, Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds, London and Guildford, though… Read more »
Thank you David for making these numbers absolutely clear and giving the details of them.
I must now amend the above in the light of the announcement by the Diocese of Bristol on 27 May that the person due to be announced as its next bishop was no longer able to take up the position “due to family reasons”. (See separate post by Peter Owen ‘Update on Bristol Crown Nominations Commission process’ and the comment by Anthony Archer.) This means (assuming that the CNC has nominated a bishop for Leeds who does not, also, withdraw) that currently there are nine, not eight, vacancies or pending vacancies for the CNC to fill. By way of further… Read more »
“The House discussed the start of work on a review of the definition of
safeguarding……..” Steady chaps, no need to rush.
‘Five years of growth’ is very disingenuous. Five years that have got some dioceses nearly back to where they were before the pandemic would be more accurate. And there is evidence that the growth curve is flattening off. The problems have not gone away, and I am not sanguine about the prospects: We live with a House of Bishops where we cannot make up the numbers – We are still saddled with a ‘mixed ecology’ (nonsense term) that has totally failed to do what Mission-Shaped Church said it would do, while we have starved parishes of personnel and resources –… Read more »
‘Five years that have got some dioceses nearly back to where they were before the pandemic would be more accurate.’ I think even that is overly positive. ‘Five years that have nearly (but not quite) got the church back to the position predicted by the pre-pandemic decline curve.’ is perhaps the best way to put it. Yes, it’s growth in some sense. But that’s not hard when you shut the churches and tell people they can’t go to church at all – or even when you graciously allow them to worship again, make sure they think it is very very… Read more »