The next Bishop of Jarrow in the diocese of Durham is to be the Reverend Dr Jitesh Patel. The announcement from the Prime Minister’s Office is copied below. There is more information on the diocesan website.
Appointment of the Suffragan Bishop of Jarrow: 23 October 2026
The King has approved the nomination of the Reverend Dr Jitesh Krisnakant Patel, MA, MPhys, PhD, to the Suffragan See of Jarrow, in the Diocese of Durham.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published: 23 October 2026
The King has approved the nomination of the Reverend Dr Jitesh Krisnakant Patel, MA, MPhys, PhD, Acting Director of St Mellitus College East Midlands and Associate Vicar at Holy Trinity Church, in the Diocese of Leicester, to the Suffragan See of Jarrow, in the Diocese of Durham, in succession to the Right Reverend Sarah Clark, MA, following her translation to the See of Ely.
Jitesh was educated at Jesus College, University of Oxford, and obtained his PhD through the Lambeth Research Degrees in Theology. He trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He served his title at Christ Church, Abingdon, in the Diocese of Oxford and, in 2011, he was ordained Priest. In 2015, Jitesh was appointed Associate Vicar at St Jude’s Church, Southsea, in the Diocese of Portsmouth. From 2018, Jitesh served as Diocesan Director of Contextual Training, additionally serving as Associate Vicar (Training & Development) at Holy Trinity Church, in the Diocese of Leicester.
In 2019, Jitesh was appointed as Assistant Director and Lecturer in Theology at St Mellitus College East Midlands, alongside his role as Associate Vicar at Holy Trinity Church. Additionally, Jitesh currently serves on bishop’s council, on a national patronage board, as a board member of the 30K Project, and is an author.
Jitesh is married to Bridget, and they have two daughters.
Another Wycliffe, HTB style bishop. The Archbishop needs to stop this trend. Has anybody heard from her since she was installed?
Wycliffe is not HTB and the ABC ‘s varied public activities have been discussed here on TA and elsewhere.
David, Thank you for your sarcasm.
Dr Patel will be a suffragan, and in the northern province. Nothing to do with the Archbishop of Canterbury. Good to see a minority ethnic appointment.
I’m sure evangelical Bishop Rick will feel happy a fellow evangelical is continuing their take-over of Durham diocese leading it into further demise.
Did you not hear the clamours for your happiness? Resist and desist.
Bless.
I’m very happy, thank you. Just not clappy.
Father, the entropy is not of course confined to Durham. It’s not just grim oop north but dahn sarf as well.
This is harsh. I have known Rick for many years and have the highest regard for his gifts and competence. An excellent parish priest who demonstrated over many years an ability to work effectively across the different tribes of the C of E with grace and love, and someone who really doesn’t fit neatly into the “evangelical” box. I was absolutely delighted when he was made Bishop of Durham – someone with exactly the right gifts, skills, and breadth to take on the multiple challenges of that role and Context.
Jarrow is in the northern province, so I’m not sure why Dame Sarah would be involved.
‘Dame’? This is someone who throughout her whole time as Bishop of London was called ‘Dame’ by conservatives and traditionalists who simply did not like her and/or did not believe in the validity of her priestly and episcopal ministry simply because she is a woman.
No offence meant on my part. I’m an enthusiastic supporter of women in all three orders.
I put into AI ‘Have any Church of England Bishops also been physicists?’. I was informed that amongst others Bishop Richard Cheetham, former Bishop of Kingston, is a Cambridge physics graduate. There was a member of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield who before joining the Community had done a degree in physics. After joining the Community as a lay brother he did two further degrees. They (I think) were in philosophy. All of this is in Alan Wilkinson’s Centenary History of the Community, so I see no reason why I shouldn’t name the brother. He was Dunstan Jones… Read more »
Holy Trinity Leicester is not part of the HTB network. What’s happening in the C of E is much bigger than the HTB and is not led by HTB. If there is a trend the simple fact that 66% of Christians in the UK are evangelical and 70% of C of E ordinands are also evangelical points to the direction of travel. Maybe the C of E is just catching up.
What is the source for your figures?
Where can we find those statistics? And how is ‘evangelical’ defined here?
The “fact” is I believe in a report by the Evangelical Alliance. I would guess that if you asked the congregation at the church where I worship if they are evangelical most would not understand the question.
That’s why the researchers asked a series of questions, not do you consider yourself evangelical. If you did the same in your church you might be surprised by some of the answers.
So, the statistic isn’t very significant unless we know how ‘evangelical’ and ‘Christian’ were defined.
Surely most of the congregations and communities we serve are much more diverse than this suggests. In our Deanery we do have the obligatory large town centre evangelical church but most of the rest of us are not “catholic” or “evangelical” but – in the wonderful words of St Augustine – a “corpus permixtum” – I.e. a thoroughly mixed up body of people. T The Church i serve would be quite typical – some people cross themselves and genuflect; quite a few dont appreciate incence; a good percentage of our congregation are RC but choose to worship in their local… Read more »
And of course where an ordinand starts Churchmanship wise isn’t often where they are 5, 10 years later. I was a DDO for 13 years and saw over 120 through the system. Keeping an eye on them has seen many surprises. I remember one chap from an evangelical college writing to the bishop after 12 months there to say he wanted a title in an anglo- catholic parish. And especially in rural parishes clergy have to fit in with a mostly middle of the road churchmanship.
Very true. I trained at Wycliffe myself, and I and a number of my then fellow students have obviously changed our views somewhat in the intervening years. Even while we were there there was a very wide range of churchmanship among the students.
I remember Janet, my late Father Canon Khalil Jamal who was trained for the Priesthood at Wycliff Hall, before being ordained in the Diocese in Jerusalem, once saying that he knew quite a few who trained alongside him at Wycliff who later moved in a more Anglo Catholic direction, further down the line after their Ordination, so it proves that where one starts is not necessarily what defines one for the rest of one’s life as far as Churchmanship is concerned. Jonathan
I think an appreciation of both Anglo Catholic and Evangelical traditions should be mandatory for any ordination. It might reduce the ridiculous sniping.
We gain more rounded attitudes as we get older, whether in business or family or spiritual domains.
Well yes it is mandatory that Evangelicals are trained in the Anglo Catholic tradition. But are Anglo Catholics trained in the Evangelical tradition? Short answer no!
What makes you think Evangelical ordinands have to train in an Anglo Catholic tradition? I have been in diocesan gatherings where Evangelical clergy regard any view from a more Catholic perspective as an interesting alternative rather than part of the mainstream of Anglican thinking. And I’ve occasionally had an Evangelical come to my church for their mandatory visit to a church of a different tradition: they are welcome, of course, but I fail to see that a one-off visit can count as widening one’s perpective of the C of E.
Adrian, when my Father started out in ministry in the Diocese in Jerusalem in 1939 with his ordination as a Deacon in Jerusalem in 1939, then his Priesting in Haifa, he started out as Curate of St Andrew’s Church Ramallah, then went on to be Vicar of Nazareth, the Theological Tradition of the Diocese was very Evangelical and the liturgical practice was very Low Church, Cassock, Surplice, Hood and Scarf and my Father was the first Priest in the Jerusalem Diocese to dare to wear liturgical Stoles over his Surplice to administer the Sacraments, much to the annoyance of his… Read more »
Haha. A friend of mine told me of a bishop ( now retired) who told him, ” I am Catholic at the altar, evangelical in the pulpit and liberal in the confessional” Comprehensiveness at its best! But perhaps rare?
Adrian, you claim evangelical ordinands are being forced to train in the Anglo-Catholic tradition – but not the other way round. This is simply not true and never has been. t would become accurate to say that all ordinands being trained for ministry in the CofE are expected to have a basic understand of its various expressions. The majority of CofE ordinands now train on non-residential regional courses which means that folk from across the range of Anglican traditions study and worship alongside each other, which is as it should be. Theological training that is tribal/party based is not Anglican. For what… Read more »
Yes things change which is why monitoring trends is
useful. But a 70/30 split is a very significant change. 1960 was the exact turning point when Evangelical ordinands, who were in a distinct minority, began moving away from Oxbridge colleges to specific theological institutions like Clifton and Tyndale colleges in Bristol. Add Trinity College in Bristol to St Melitus and that’s how the facts on the ground have changed within 3 generations.
The Montreal Diocesan Theological College a few years ago absorbed the United Theological School, and now operates as a joint Anglican-United Seminary. Among this past spring’s graduates, one had started on the track for ordination in the United Church, and earlier this month was ordained a transitional deacon in the Anglican Church. And another began as an aspirant to Anglican orders, and is now a candidate for ordination in the United Church.
Seminary, at its best, is a place to challenge assumptions and practices, and being open to the movement of the spirit in one’s heart.
Why are we still using the term ‘churchmanship’ ?
Perhaps because to the outsider the Church of England looks tribal?
And how is Christian defined?
That would depend on who compiled the statistics (David suggests above it was the EA).
Yes the EA report – 64% is the actual percentage of evangelicals I was going by 2/3 rds headline figure. Those who are practicing Christians are defined by whether or not they attend church at least once a month and read the bible and pray at least once a week.
Thanks. What percentage are Roman Catholic?
Are Anglo-Catholics not being made Bishop’s anymore? Also traditionalist are not long eligible either?
Chichester will be interesting in this regard. Will the next Bishop be of the same Catholic stamp as his predecessors? In particular, will he ordain women priests?
Here in Chi in 2026 we ‘celebrated’ 52 years of unbroken Ultra-High Anglican Bishops – Kemp, Hind, Warner, and the acting bishop (Hazlewood) is also from that wing. Indeed we always have one suffragan from that wing – though Sowerby did go rogue & accept women priests towards end of his time at Horsham. As to the future it would be nice to have someone who was genuinely pastoral & just a little bit more middle of the road, whether Anglo-Catholic or Evangelical. However, the long track record does not lead one to be wildly optimistic, and an ‘Ordainer’ would… Read more »
So, in a diocese with one suffragan a newly appointed, evangelical diocesan appoints another evangelical as his suffragan. Hmm.
Yet the few remaining liberal or catholic diocesans feel obliged to appoint at least one evangelical suffragan “for balance”.
And of course, the pool of suffragans is the main recruitment source for future diocesans.
Does anyone keep/publish a table of the churchmanship of episcopal & suffragan appointments and the change over recent years?
And a male diocesan appoints a male suffragan. But possibly a female BAME Anglo-Catholic who would have met all the diversity criteria was not available.
If we’re going to base appointments on identity criteria rather than the gifts and calling of each individual, then trouble and disappointment await us.
Yes, that’s part of my point. But we also need to keep an eye on whose gifts we might be overlooking, because they don’t look like us or express themselves the way we do.
Durham Diocese has undergone great change in the last fifty years, and it looks set to continue on the path it is following. Once a ‘prayer book catholic’ diocese with, by tradition, an academic bishop (thing Hapgood, Jenkins, Ramseys…) it is now moving rapidly to be an evangelical diocese. Now two bishops and dean from definite evangelical positions. The status of Bishop of Durham has declined and “Rick,” an in house appointment, does not appear to have been selected to be a bishop who will speak much on the national scene. This new appointment confirms this direction of travel. A… Read more »
Though a vacancy at Durham occurred fairly late in his own episcopal career, I think John Moorman of Ripon was considered for Durham in 1966. That would have enabled the scholarly tradition at Durham to continue. In the event another outstanding scholar, Ian Ramsey, was appointed. Moorman lived in Durham when he was retired.
Fwiw the doctoral thesis sounds fascinating
Jitesh currently serves on bishop’s council, on a national patronage board
Which one?
I cannot find an entry for Dr Patel in Crockford’s – but I do know clergy can choose not to be in.
The Revd Dr Patel is listed as a director of
I think the first two of those are patronage trusts, and they are both registered at the CPAS office in Coventry.
I noted that and wondered why the Board(s as it seems to have turned out) were not named.
This looks an intelligible nomination but like others I do feel that in a diocese with only two bishops, both of them coming from the same tradition is bound to lead to criticism. Of course it’s not unusual. Southwell and Nottingham is an example, both (conservative) evangelical and male; as is Carlisle. Coventry will be the same (although the suffragan appointment has been postponed sine die). The process for appointng suffragans is largely honoured, but the reality is that the diocesan bishop has the patronage. The provincial archbishop (in this case ++Ebor) will have sent the letter to Downing Street,… Read more »
What does GMH stand for?!
Global Majority Heritage, as opposed to say BAME. Some don’t like either. ‘Ethnically diverse’ is probably better.
It’s another way of saying ‘non-white’ – as if white people weren’t part of the ‘Global Majority’. Note the exclusion. No race or ethnicity is a majority in the world – there are more Indians than Africans, for example – so what is the point of the expression except as a may of demeaning white British people?
I think the point is that the majority of people around the globe are not white, and the term is therefore a reminder to all of us that people who might in this country be labelled “ethic minority” in our context are actually a majority of the human race. According to Wikipedia (so take with appropriate salt) some 75% of the world population are not white. That makes such people, taken together, a clear majority.
The majority of people in the world are non-black. The majority of people in the world are non-yellow. The majority of people in the world are non-brown. I’m actually non-white. My skin tone is pink.
What you say may or may not be true, but it is irrelevant. The point is surely, as I suggested, to remind us that what is a minority in the UK is collectively a majority around the world. It challenges a white or European dominated view of the world and world history.
in simple terms, some racists worry that black athletes dominate certain athletic events, and therefore there must be positive discrimation and/or black people are better (and thus worse in other pursuits). That is a white or European dominated view. It is nonsense. It is nonsense because whites are not the most populous worldwide, it is nonsense because the statistics do not support it, it is biological nonsense, it is just nonsense. My embarassing cousin expounds these views on https://academia.martinsewell.com/ There are probably, unfortuately, more people than we imagine who hold to these views. They are not normally in our social… Read more »
The chosen basis of collectivisation is an ideological, not a neutral, choice.
I havent added up the numbers, but should guess that adding together the populations of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka would show ‘South Asian’ to be global ethnic plurality at least.
2 billion isn’t more than half of 8 billion.
You are confusing plurality with majority?
The new bishop of Durham has appointed a traditional catholic ( and member of SSC ) as Archdeacon of Auckland. In my lifetime the traditions in the C of E have moved further apart and also fragmented. Some seem to have disappeared: the older broadchurch civic tradition, the prayer book evangelical, non evangelical “Low Church” ( does “Lancashire low” still exist.?) Until the mid sixties there were many dioceses ( especially in the South, though including Newcastle in the North) that were solidly prayer book catholic. As a church historian this interests me at least. Given the little attention to… Read more »
Perry,
How much has the demise of prayer book Catholicism been due to the ordination of women and the creation of the Ordinariate? The Church of England voted for these changes constitutionally, believing that it mean an influx of new life into the ministry. Some argue that it staved off decline. But the overall picture is decline everywhere nationally. But for many it is heresy even to ask this question.
Obviously the ordination of women and later the Ordinariate affected the definite anglo-catholic constituency. But I think other factors have resulted in the decline of PBk catholicism. As I said changes in theological education and the demise of so many theological colleges of that tradition ( like Lincoln where I trained). The rise of evangelicalism within the Cof E and esp the Charismatic movement when it was in full swing in the 80s. But also the way liturgical reform went. ( and perhaps the lack of adequate liturgical training in ministerial formation). The BCP held us together along with shared… Read more »
The ordination of women meant the end of the traditional Catholic movement in the Church of England. The adoption of a pro-homosexual outlook among ‘Affirming Catholics’ meant the end of celibacy as a spiritual value among Anglican Catholics, so I don’t think you can easily dismiss the sociological significance of women’s ordination. Almost nowhere has it brought more people into church. I don’t know what the strength of Catholicism is in Argentina, but I know evangelicalism has grown there a lot in the past generation. I can’t see how RC women in Argentina could be more involved in the mass… Read more »
(James:)
“The adoption of a pro-homosexual outlook among ‘Affirming Catholics’ meant the end of celibacy as a spiritual value among Anglican Catholics.”
I think celibate Anglican Catholics would disagree.
I’m in agreement with Perry about all this, especially the demise of a common form of worship. On the other hand, however, the RC Church in Britain also seems to be in freefall whilst the common form of worship has remained. It would also dangerous to blame everything on the obligation of celibacy for the priesthood. For example, the Archdiocese of Liverpool has approximately 1/5 of the priests it had 60 years ago. ‘Sunday’ mass attendance, however, is only 1/10 of what it was at that period. (As someone has put it, it is not more priests that are needed… Read more »
How would you define Prayer Book Catholicism?
We are one of the handful of churches that use the English Missal. It is largely BCP but I’m not sure how well we’d fit the Prayer Book Catholic category.
I always understood it to hinge precisely on whether or not a church stuck to the BCP (including 1928 variations) or used the English Missal, the latter being the way of feeling more Roman in those days. (I had written, “appearing more Roman“ but of course it didn’t since Rome was still in Latin when these labels were emerging.)
Agreed. And the modern equivalent would be a church that uses Common Worship versus a church that uses the Roman rite.
A blind archdeacon should be satisfied that he is attending a BCP service even if the deaf archdeacon is convinced that he is witnessing a Tridentine Mass.
BCP and English Missal are not ‘either/or’. The English Missal (originally an English translation of the whole Roman Missal by an Edwardian vicar’s wife) is mostly used for supplementing the Prayer Book where it might be thought to be deficient. For example it provides the silent prayers at the offertory, before the priest’s communion and elsewhere in the mass, as well as the propers for holy days etcetera not provided by the BCP.
Either/or is precisely how they were seen. Your words, “where it might be thought to be deficient”, capture the difference exactly. A “Prayer Book Catholic” found no such deficiencies in the BCP and might well feel offended by the suggestion.
I didn’t understand the archdeacons allusion.
I suspect you have not much experience of BCP use and adaptation. The addition of silent offertory and pre-communion prayers was common and witnessed by the provision of such material in the altar book published in Monmouth diocese under Bishop Monahan which I am sure you must be familiar with. This provided a lot of other supplementary material in the form of common propers and extra propers including for yhe Assumption which many Prayer Book users would want to observe. It also contained all the introits, graduals etc from the English Gradual. I always said the priests silent parts when… Read more »
Thanks. I did get your archdeacon allusion, on reflection.
I couldn’t quite work out how you came to your greatly misguided suspicion about my experience or BCP adaptation. That as if may, Bishop Monaghan’s missal, like his churchmanship, was barely a memory when I arrived as Dean of Monmouth/Newport.
Surely the closures of those colleges was a consequence of fewer people seeking the formation they offered, rather than a driver of fewer people getting such formation?
I thin the next appointment due for a Suffragan Bishop will be the Suffragan See of Dunwich in St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, which is due to be announced very soon, it will be very interesting to see what emerges from this when the New Bishop of Dunwich is announced. Jonathan
Problem: The Diocese of Durham is in freefall. Its clergy have had little accountability and leadership in recent years. The neighboring Diocese in Newcastle is not much better They have appointed two people – regardless of churchmanship/tradition who might provide some strategic solution to begin to address those problems Tradition will not address this, but people on the ground with the commitment to provide solutions might. This seems like a wise and strategic appointment. To hell with tradition and background and to heaven with a plan to make things work. As a direct relation to a former Bishop of Durham,… Read more »
Which diocese is not in ‘freefall’?
Over the years the number of dioceses has declined, the number of stipendiary clergy has plunged, the number of confirmation has all but disappeared – but the number of bishops has doubled.
Is there really enough work for these suffragans and assistants to do? Why so many admirals when the fleet is half the size it was?
As pointed out in the recent Gill/ Craven report. But I fear the C of E will just try muddling on..
The more dignitaries and diocesan officers you have, the more work you create in communication, strategizing and meetings. There’s always stuff to do, but whether it cuts any ice is debatable.
I’m not sure that the creation of the one Diocese of Leeds from its three predecessors, as a single example, really supports ‘The number of dioceses has declined’. There have been no other reductions in the number of English or Welsh Dioceses in any of our lifetimes.
From when to when has the number of bishops doubled (or, to put it another way – at what date was the number of bishops last half the number of current sees)?
I suggest a start date of 1 February 1870. On that date there were, in addition to four Welsh sees then still part of the Church of England, 24 diocesan bishoprics if I have counted right (9 with Old Foundation cathedrals + Sodor & Man, 8 formerly monastic New Foundation cathedrals, 4 surviving Henrician sees, plus Ripon and Manchester). There were no suffragan bishoprics. The following day, 2 February 1870, Henry Mackenzie was consecrated to Nottingham as the first modern suffragan, and a few weeks later on 25 March, Edward Parry was consecrated to Dover. The number of diocesan bishops… Read more »
Thanks, Simon, for those points of reference. Current number would seem to be approximately 41+69=110. When were there 55? Sometime around the First World War, on the information above (I don’t currently have access to a printed Crockford to pin down all first suffragan dates). I think that makes my original point sufficiently!
In addition, Dr Podmore makes the point that the increase in suffragans was partly driven by a decrease in the availability of stipendiary assistant bishops, who very frequently were retired colonial bishops — who in some cases had retired fairly young to come “home”. So some of the increase in the number of bishops is more apparent than real. For example, in my own home diocese of Coventry there was no suffragan bishop until as late as 1980. When I was growing up there were two assistant bishops who had formerly been bishops abroad: John McKie (who had been Bishop… Read more »
Were these assistant bishops needed for confirmations mostly? I was confirmed by one, Bishop J C Mann, in the Rochester diocese ( where the Dean was a former bishop of Woolwich). The number of confirmations is much smaller now. Did these bishops have much to do with the pastoral care of the clergy?
Their purpose was simply to confirm. When they weren’t doing that they got in with their main jobs of being archdeacons, provosts, residentiary canons or incumbents of parishes.
Since you mention the outset of WW1, I note that in 1914-15 there were, in addition to the 40 diocesans some 32 suffragans (including the bishop for North & Central Europe, Herbert Bury). Only one of these suffragans was in Wales (Swansea). However, in addition to these, there were some ‘extras’ who happened to be in episcopal orders: (i) the dean of Manchester (Welldon, former headmaster of Harrow and bishop of Calcutta); and (ii) assistant bishops at Newcastle (who was also archdeacon of Northumberland) and Peterborough, plus another who was a residentiary in the same diocese, and another who was… Read more »
… which I think moves us towards the conclusion that one has to go rather further back in time to find the moment when the Church of England had half the number of bishops that it now does. The bald assertion that the number of bishops has doubled since time X is looking less and less of a point well-made about modern expansion of episcopal ministry.
No, the point remains, because if all these ‘extra’ bishops in the past were basically employed as incumbents or canons, they weren’t an additional charge on the Church. Creating new posts with staff but without parochial responsibilities is only another financial burden, and a burden in other ways to those at the coalface.
The stipends, expenses and pensions of suffragan bishops are, like those of diocesan bishops, paid from the funds of the Church Commissioners, not from diocesan funds, and therefore not from current or historic parish funds. I think I’m right in saying that dioceses do fund the housing of suffragan bishops, whereas the CCs fund the housing of diocesan bishops. The CC funds that pay for bishops derive from the historic endowments of bishoprics, i.e. assets that were historically given to individual bishoprics to fund that bishopric, and are now pooled to fund all bishoprics. (And the funding of the diocese… Read more »
Dioceses fund housing and secretarial support for suffragans.
If there were fewer there would less diocesan expense, funded by Parish Share, and there would be more CC funds available to apply to parishes. In 1836 large amounts of episcopal and cathedral endowments were redirected by Parliament to fund parish ministry when the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were established. Could it happen again?
The Bishop of Penrith was also Rector of Langwathby in the old days.
There is no historical or current record of a Bishop of Penrith serving as the Rector of Langwathby. From AI. Please clarify, Matthew.
I think Earle was in fact a London suffragan until he moved to Exeter, because of the difficulty about suffragan titles under the 1534 Act.
Yes — Marlborough was (bizarrely) a suffragan of London. There was no requirement (and I think in law there still isn’t) for a suffragan see to be somewhere within the territory of the diocese within which the bishop serves. The only requirement is that titular sees be within England (because English titles are subject to English law and the English Crown, and the Crown cannot create titles outside its jurisdiction).
I think the first Suffragan Bishop for East London had to be consecrated as Bishop of Bedford. Stepney had not been created and Bedford was in abeyance.
As Gilbert and Sullivan put it:
Bishops in their shovel hats
Were plentiful as alley cats
In point of fact, too many.
Only rank and file clergy wore shovel hats. Bishops wore top hats with strings connecting the crown to the brim. Theses were replaced by hombergs in the twentieth century.
Apparently Gilbert wrote “shovel hats”. Perhaps he meant to imply the bishops had been promoted so fast they hadn’t had time to buy appropriate new headdress.
It seems I misremembered alley cats as it was in fact tabby cats.
The ever reliable Wikipedia suggests that shovel hats were “an instantly recognisable accoutrement of senior Anglican clergy”, “particularly archdeacons and bishops”.
The Daily Telegraph today points out how lay people like churchwardens are being pushed to do more and more, while Church Office staff, many of whom are not churchgoers, grow in number. Many congregations are small and elderly. Many churchgoers have their own way of doing things and work hard in Durham Diocese. The Diocese of Durham is in severe decline. Parish churches on the whole have fewer than 20 attendees. In this context I wonder when Dr Patel says (as he has on his appointment) “I’m really excited to see what God is going to do across the Diocese… Read more »
My roots are very much in Durham over many generations, though it is a quarter century since I served there (ordained, and as an organist and choir member before). It’s never (never!) been an easy patch for mission and ministry, as numerous analyses, histories of the Diocese, and biographies of almost all its bishops, have underlined for many, many years. I would now have to leave the analysis to others, but I think that ‘Cushie’ (not Butterfield, surely?) may simply be reporting a situation that many of the rest of us are to varying degrees not that far away from….
It was never going to be in Durham but when will we see some courageous appointments around LGBTQIA+ inclusion? Where are our out bishops? Bishops in civil partnerships? Surely an inclusively minded diocesan could be moved to be brave
Am I right in thinking Nicholas Chamberlain (+Grantham) is the only out civill’d bishop?
I believe that there are more “out” Deans than there are “out” Bishops. Maybe Deaneries are safer places to be “out” in than Episcopal Palaces?