The CNC’s nominated candidate for the vacant see of Bristol has withdrawn. The official Church of England announcement is copied below.
Update on Bristol Crown Nominations Commission process
27/05/2026The Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) for Bristol met in April and nominated a candidate for the See of Bristol. The individual has since decided, with regret, to withdraw from the nomination for family reasons.
The existing CNC for Bristol will reconvene as soon as possible to decide how to proceed.
The Bishop of Swindon, Bishop Neil Warwick, will continue to serve the diocese as Acting Bishop of Bristol.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said: “I know many will be disappointed by this news and will appreciate how difficult the decision to withdraw was for the candidate.
“Please pray for them, their family and all those affected by this decision.
“I want to thank the Bishop of Swindon, Neil Warwick, for his ongoing service as Acting Bishop of Bristol, and everyone in the Diocese of Bristol who is working hard in this period of vacancy.
“Please also continue to pray for the Crown Nominations Commission as it reconvenes to seek God’s discernment for the next Bishop of Bristol.”
The Diocese of Bristol has issued this statement: Update regarding the appointment of the next Bishop of Bristol
Heavens! Am I right in thinking that this happened elsewhere relatively recently too. It reinforces the veracity of the recent claims in Private Eye about the difficulties in finding good people for senior positions in the CofE.
This appears to be another example of a CNC in this 2022-2027 quinquennium failing to be able to make a nomination. One candidate will have secured 10 or more votes in the final process, but as with Durham in November 2024 (that candidate withdrew in February 2025 for reasons unknown) there was no reserve candidate. It is disappointing for the diocese of Bristol (and of course for the candidate who felt the need to withdraw) but is also a sad reflection on the intense politics of the process currently that a second candidate could not seemingly be identified. Assuming four… Read more »
Thank you, Anthony, for your view, informed as it is by much previous experience. I am concerned though by your suggestion that candidates are being invited for interview who ‘will never be able to command the requisite majority’. You have often pointed out here that the CNC is supposed to be a process of discernment and not just a vote along party lines. If all candidates who are likely to be rejected by the often dominant conservative faction are not even invited for interview, does that not leave too little room for the Holy Spirit to work through the discernment… Read more »
It must be very disheartening to be invited for interview more than once and not be appointed. I imagine many people going through this process more than once might simply give up.
Maybe it is disheartening, and I am sure it is exhausting. But it is a process of discernment, and the discernment might well be “not this See, but another”.
I think the records show that very few candidates who come to, say, three or four CNCs (and they are a very small group) are ultimately not successful. I can think of one or two who got weary of the process (because they told me), but were eventually nominated. Sees are different and the views of, in part, each set of diocesan representatives can be different. The Secretaries are sensitive to this and give personal advice. However, the unpredictability of the current CNC central member cadre (or perhaps the predictability) has changed the landscape. Worse than never being nominated has been… Read more »
I wonder if it is the case that the current CNC is successful when the six diocesan reps talk to one another and are either of one mind (in which case that view will very likely get the 10 required votes); or else they will have to work hard to find and propose at least two candidates they can all agree on, in which case, provided they stick together, they will again likely get the 10 votes needed. It seems to me that the diocesan reps are perhaps more likely to to do this as they know each other and… Read more »
Certainly CNCs where the diocesan six come with at least one candidate they agree on are usually bound to succeed. They can find two central members and perhaps both bishops. But it doesn’t look much like discernment to me. Might as well conduct the CNC by email.
I suppose it is possible that the preferred candidate in Bristol had a family disaster after all the other candidates were stood down; I imagine it would be quite hard for any of them to reignite their interest in the role after that.
Yes, it is possible that the second agreed candidate declined when they were offered the position after the first candidate withdrew. Nowhere does that seem to be implied in the short statement from the CofE. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but we have no evidence for it. More likely that the CNC could not reach consensus on a second name. Or chose not to, which would be disappointing.
I agree with this, and other comments, that the outcome in Bristol is disappointing. No doubt the issues about the functionality or otherwise of the CNC can be re-visited, with relevance and propriety. Though whether there is a ‘quick fix’, as the HoB attempted a little while ago, or even a longer term solution, I somewhat doubt. Because I suspect that the underlying issues behind episcopal vacancies, stress, suspensions, withdrawals, illness, non-appointment etc. etc. are deeper and broader. A humble suggestion for a healthier church – bishops who don’t seek to shoulder the whole task and responsibility of fixing the… Read more »
I do beleive that the process needs to be revised and perhaps the voting should be open. The danger of a secret ballot is that if I chage my vote to break and impasse, someone else can chage theirs and so negte what I have done – and so the impasse remains. The C of E seems so hooked on secrecy in so many ways, including the appointment of an incumbent. What is there to fear about openness, except perhaps for limiting the infuence of vested interests? Acts 1 in this post-Pentecost week should be the model!
I have no experience or knowledge about selection of bishops but did serve for some years as Chair of Civil Service Selection Boards – for Fast Stream entry to various parts of the civil service. I would endorse this view of secret ballots and as someone trained to some extent in “selection” more broadly am also far from convinced by interviews as a tool of selection. And as for “discernment….” that can cover a multitude of sins.
Anthony, I’m not sure that Bristol should be labelled as an example of a CNC “failing to be able to make a nomination.” ‘Candidates’ do not apply for a particular diocesan post, but, their names having been suggested (in some cases, ‘mandated’, for consideration by CNC members), are approached and consent to taking part in what is a mutual discernment process. It could be (and, because of the understandable confidentiality of the process, we don’t know) that only one of the candidates invited for interview ultimately decided that he/she was called to be the next bishop of Bristol (logically, only… Read more »
A CNC either makes a nomination (that leads to confirmation of election et al) or doesn’t! You either have points on your licence, or you don’t. We cannot know the precise facts, but no-one has disabused me of the implicit suggestion that there was not a reserve candidate, which I regard as a failure. Part of the initial discernment is that candidates (having been voted onto the shortlist) agree to come for interview. It’s rare mercifully for candidates to pull out at any stage. But if the reserve candidate cannot secure 10 votes there cannot be a reserve candidate. Having… Read more »
That makes four failures in this quinquennium, I think. Carlisle failed to appoint, as did Ely. Durham managed to agree on one candidate who withdrew, and the same has now happened in Bristol. It would seem that the membership of the CNC is sufficiently divided among themselves that they frequently cannot agree on two candidates, or sometimes even on one. The one mostly fixed factor in all these failures has been the central members of the CNC, elected from the General Synod. (I say “mostly” because substitutes are now allowed.) If enough of those six can’t agree with enough of… Read more »
As a Bristol incumbent this is depressing, though unsurprising. The whole process is ridiculously drawn out and opaque. We are asked to pray for the withdrawn candidate, whom we know nothing about or their reasons for withdrawal – really? Is this the best we can do? What other organisation works like this or thinks it acceptable to spend so long dithering about what should be a crucial role. BTW I would like to say Bishop Neil is and has been doing an excellent job. I believe he is widely appreciated.
We could do much worse for the top job.
Perhaps there should be an assumption that the senior suffragan should become the next diocesan unless the diocesan synod resolves to go to open competition or the bishop in question is at retirement age / is unable to serve as diocesan.
That would be a bit unfair on the suffragan — to have their ministry publicly voted on by the diocesan synod: “no, you’re not good enough to be our diocesan bishop, we think we can do better than you”.
I think a wise suffragan would have taken soundings on whether there was likely to be a feeling in favour of competing the role, not least as they probably wouldn’t want to become diocesan if they knew there was a significant bunch of irreconcilables. In practice, I think they’d only let their name go forward if they thought it was likely to be welcomed by the diocese, but the possibility of a vote would be a safeguard against the deluded who thought they had been a brilliant suffragan, while the diocese had seen quite enough to know they didn’t have… Read more »
That would be a ghastly prospect in some dioceses.
No names; no pack drill.
I’m sure it will be disappointing for both the Diocese and the nominated candidate, but I just want to say ‘well done’ to the candidate for putting their wellbeing and that of their family above the needs and demands of the institutional church. Just to be clear, I am deliberately saying the institutional church as my view is that by doing so, the person’s commitment to the primacy of God in their life is demonstrated rather than undermined, given that having family responsibilities is as much a calling to a vocation as being ordained, to me. In my experience, a… Read more »
Without any knowledge of the family reasons behind this, it should hardly be labeled a ‘failure’. Family challenges can take many forms, come anytime and can affect anyone. It is hardly the fault of the CNC.
Indeed, that is not the failure, The failure is that of the CNC to be able to agree on a reserve candidate.
They are not expected to under the present process as I understand it..
They are not required to. But they may, and I suspect they usually do, or at least usually try to. Not to at least try and do so is — as we have seen — rather foolish.
The “reserve” candidate would never know unless, several weeks later, they got a call from the archbishop (or whoever makes these phone calls).
I stand to be corrected but that is not the process CNC are currently required to follow. So they are not at liberty to keep a ‘reserve’ list .
Standing Orders for the CNC are a subset of those for General Synod. The latest version can be found here (the CNC section starts at the foot of the page) https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2026-05/standing-orders-updated-feb-26-v2.pdf#page=89 SO 136(3) and (3A) read as follows: (3) The Commission must agree upon the name of one candidate for submission to the Prime Minister.(3A) The Commission may also agree upon the name of a second candidate for submission to the Prime Minister, but with that candidate’s name to be kept in reserve for the contingency that it becomes impossible to appoint the candidate whose name was agreed upon under… Read more »
Thank you for correcting me – though clearly the practice of having a reserve is not in use or in this case they did not feel the other candidates were what the diocese needed.
It’s also a matter of record that the CNC for Sheffield met in November 2016 and that Philip North was announced as the next bishop on 31 January 2017. On 9 March he withdrew and just 4 weeks later Pete Wilcox was announced. Presumably he was the second candidate and did not feel that he should also decline the offer. (Dates from Peter Owen’s webpage.) Though that was perhaps under the old rules which required two names to be given to the Prime Minister. Are there any other occasions when the reserve candidate is known to have been appointed? I… Read more »
I recall reading something by Pete Wilcox, in which he said he was disappointed not to be the one appointed to Sheffield, because he had definitely felt called there. So when Philip North withdrew his acceptance and the post was offered to Pete Wilcox, he was happy to accept, and took it as vindication of his call.
The Secretaries will always now ask the CNC whether they wish to vote on a reserve candidate. It makes no sense not to, and obviously in most cases only the CNC knows they have done so (and the reserve candidate, who will receive the feedback). The reason why a second voting cycle is sometimes not conducted is because the CNC knows a second candidate will not secure 10 votes. Or they try, and fail. That is more likely these days.
Maybe the CofE should maintain a list of people qualified to become bishops, and identify and develop those people with a view to all future appointments being from that list. I do wonder whether some of these failures to appoint have been blighted by parties lobbying for people who simply don’t have the gifts and experience to flourish as bishops.
There are at least two such lists, one of those considered ready to be diocesan bishops, and another of those considered ready to be suffragans. But these lists are advisory only and the members of the CNC can add other people into the discernment.
I suspect that is an unhelpful flexibility for the CNC.
I think that the time has come to move to open and free elections of Bishops. My proposal: -Any clergy with PTO in the CofE can stand, with no age limit. -Once any clergy who wish to stand are deemed safe by the diocesan and provincial registrars, the election can begin. -Candidates are free to campaign as much or as little as they wish, perhaps with a rule in place that all campaigning must be on the candidate’s own plans, with attacks on opponents’ plans forbidden. -All clergy, and laypeople on parish registers, are eligible to vote. -Once voting has… Read more »
They used to have this open process in the Scottish Episcopal Church, where everyone knew who the Candidates were, but the Scottish Episcopal Church decided to revert back to a more Confidential process to safeguard the candidates who do not get elected.
Jonathan
Any prayer involved?
Does the Archbishop get a veto if the election produces a candidate s/he cannot in conscience consecrate?
With such a large number of voters there could be any amount of prayer involved! Whether they’d all discern the same – or indeed any – response is another matter.
There is no need to re-invent the wheel. Various forms of election are widespread across the Anglican communion which we could study, copy or learn from.
Sensible but a fixed term of 7 or 10 years might make more sense. Fixed retirement ages need to go and fixed term appointments make age much less salient.
The CofE ran an expensive talent pool programme ten or so years ago. This was meant to nurture future leaders for the church, what proportion of those bright young things are now ready for preferment?
Hopefully very few.
Those of us who pray for a more inclusive Church of England should pay much more attention to the process that nominates our Bishops. The absolutely outstanding Archbishop of Wales is English and would never have been nominated to an English See. I always leave St Woolas Cathedral Newport envigorated in my faith but I am more discouraged by a mean spirited and narrow Church of England that seems increasingly to have lost it’s way.
It seems to me many dioceses can manage for a long time without bishops. This raises several questions for me. Firstly, just what is their work and so what kind of candidate is needed. We may expect too much of them and when there is not one realise they are not a much needed as we thought, and could usefully dedicate their time to being pastors to the flock in a gentle and present way. Secondly, do suffragans, who may be good folk go about doing work that could be just as easily done by competent laity (chairing boards etc).… Read more »
It could well be that many dioceses could manage without a bishop but the Church of England nationally could not function without a bench of bishops. Because of this we all should worry very much about who is appointed and the criteria used for the appointment. Conservatives have long realised that and Liberals like me should pay much more attention to the nomination process.
If suffragans are chairing boards that could be chaired by lay people, is that because they are misdirecting their time, or because there are insufficient lay people with the skills, experience and interest available? Other denominations have seen a significant withering in the availability of such people due to wider demographic trends including greater participation in the labour market by women (a good thing), increasing work demands and so on.
Private Eye has highlighted that there are now 5 vacant sees (Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds, London, Guildford), 4 more which will become vacant this year (Oxford, Southwark, Chichester, Lichfield), and 1 next year (Manchester). +Lincoln has been suspended (and is also not far from retirement age) and +Salisbury has voluntarily stepped back from his role. So more than a quarter of sees are or will shortly become vacant. However, the only new bishop we can expect to be announced this year is +Leeds. There are no CNC meetings scheduled over the summer. The final meetings for London and Oxford are in… Read more »
Another Pretty Vacant (See) – the Sex Pistols got it about right:
“There’s no point in asking, you’ll get no reply
Oh just remember I don’t decide
I got no reason it’s all too much
You’ll always find us
Out to lunch”
God save the King!
Sam, six days ago I wrote about these facts from Private Eye, as I understood them, and it led to a lengthy exchange of views in Thinking Anglicans. David Lamming eventually wrote detailed and accurately about the situation.
Sam, my previous message about Private Eye was published six days ago on Thinking Anglicans 21 May. Apologies I forgot to give the date.
This situation will not change until we have come to a conclusion about how to deal with the deep divisions between conservatives and inclusives as both parties must be represented.
Maybe A1 could help here with a few algorithms? Oh silly me- it’s called discernment…..
But that doesn’t necessarily mean the votes have to be secret? From the outside (or at any rate the fringes) it seems to me that you have encapsulated the entire problem – which is that “the Church” really isn’t at all sure what it “believes”. And some parts of it are more bothered about that than others. The much wider voting – more open democratic process, including the laity – suggested in this interesting thread might help make that theological divide less influential. It’s not everybody who spends much time considering substitutional atonement or what God might think about what… Read more »
I have worshipped in Anglican churches in England and Episcopal one in Scotland. Yet never engaged in Episcopal elections in Scotland. No knowledge about recent Anglican impasse. However might I commend the SEC engagement with Place for Hope which has resulted in many Anglican priests crossing border including current (and former) Bishops of Argyll, Glasgow. Moreover Edinburgh who arrives tomorrow.
There’s quite a lot to admire about the SEC these days – Dagmar Winter in Edinburgh and Nick Bundock in Glasgow. Both very different but very able and – mirabile dictu- both know what its like to be a parish priest because they have been there! They actually know how to lead and run churches, iin Dagmar a serious theologian bishop! And in Nick someone whose work in South Manchester has been a living parable of what a radically inclusive church can look like Your point about the SEC engagement with Place of Hope is also well made. Its a… Read more »
I am finding it increasingly difficult to understand this fascination with the politics of senior church appointments.
The person who is appointed to a senior post can make a big difference to church people in that diocese, for better or worse.
Quite. I’m from Bristol. I can easily envisage the possibility where the current difficulties might be the Holy Spirit’s way of diverting us from a serious mistake. Sooner or later someone will be appointed. All of this will then be part of the process.
Yes and no. I have worked with 10 very different bishops over the last 40 years and I would say that the balance between “better” and “worse” has not always been in the right direction. My favourite Diocesan Bishop of all time (who I won’t name) once said at a clergy gathering “a really amazing bishop can do a bit of good; a really bad bishop can do a bit of harm, but most of us don’t really make much difference at all”. I think my own take on that would be to refer to Jim Collins’ fantastic study of… Read more »
A very, very long time ago, I was confirmed by Bishop Henry Montgomery Campbell who said this about himself “one who is no figure in public life and no scholar, but simply and solely a Father in God who goes round the parishes visiting the chaps – the only thing I am any good at”.
When I quoted this on another blog, issue was taken to “Father in God” and even to “chaps” as ‘very dated’.
If he only visited ‘chaps’ he was failing in his duty.
Of course he did much more. An old-fashioned expression of humility and you can almost guarantee in 2026 people might scoff. That’s a reflection on our age, not his.
I get that he did much more, and that he was genuinely humble – but did he really only visit men? That reminds me of Bp David Jenkins, who told me he hadn’t visited someone who was dying since his college chaplain days. I prefer pastoral bishops.
He didn’t say that! He said it was what he was best at, and it’s only shorthand for being a C of E bishop visiting his parishes where all of his clergy were male. Goodness, there are enough grumbles on TA that this doesn’t happen enough (at all, in some cases?) nowadays and I was responding specifically to Nicholas Henshall’s experience. Clearly Montgomery Campbell was a pastoral bishop, that’s evident from what I quoted. As a young boy, by sheer chance, I saw him arrive at the rectory in the village where I lived (this was more than 70 years… Read more »
Those of us whose safeguarding complaints were ignored or mishandled by bishops and archdeacons – and even more, those who were sexually abused by bishops – have found that the quality of senior appointees makes an enormous difference.
Totg- might you be suggesting that senior church appointments make no difference?
I couldn’t possibly comment …
Quite. I’m from Bristol. It’s easy to pick up from this lengthy thread of comments that somehow Person X who was nominated was ‘The One’ and therefore Ought to have come. (Regardless of the personal circumstances which don’t seem to have featured very much).
I rather take the line that for reasons we shall never know (and ought not to), the Holy Spirit has intervened and possibly averted a serious mistake being made.
Why not let the Archbishop take soundings and then just appoint the person she thinks best suited.
Why not let the Archbishop appoint diocesan bishops? Perhaps because our archbishops are not popes. And perhaps because in the Anglican tradition, lay people have always been involved in the appointment process. (Admittedly for a long time “lay people” meant the monarch, but subsequently ministers of the Crown, responsible to Parliament.qq)
And some very good bishops were appointed by the Crown who would never have a chance of being chosen now ! If you can’t go back to that, how about letting my down-under Diocese choose in return for (un) goodly sums. It is no secret that there seems to be a precedent here.
Then we would have had even more Welby clones
It’s a defence mechanism to avoid the state of entropy in the CofE. Fretting about the runners and riders and studying their form gives an illusion of an institution that is, if not thriving at least ticking over.
If you need any evidence of how dire things are: the CofE’s stand at the Suffolk County Show consisted of a muppet show; Bishop Joanne is featured on the diocesan website posing with the muppets. Why didn’t the expensive PR guys gently point out the unfortunate messaging in that to the bishop, and kill the idea at the outset?
Maybe the PR guys are muppets too?
Most of the comments here seem to reflect an obsession with status. process and protocol, and contribute little to the personal issues surrounding the current situation. Here in Bristol we need a Bishop. People have loyally given of their time skills and insights to work through the required processes. An Acting Bishop (already a Suffragan in the Diocese) has been working hard and with considerable credit to build on +Viv Faull’s insightful and valuable ministry. (I would echo the opinion that +Neil should be appointed). Somewhere there is Someone who is extremely disappointed. It may be that person suddenly finds… Read more »
The Catholic Church is usually able to elect a Pope within three weeks. Why is the C of E so inefficient?
In the Roman Catholic Church the electorate consists entirely of high-status elderly males, choosing the next leader from among themselves. Is that a model we want to follow?
Slightly tongue in cheek, but I don’t think the Conclaves have produced recent disasters as Pope similar to the CofE’s experience in Winchester and Liverpool?
There may be some merit in having a closed list of candidates who are known to the electors over a period of years, so that the electors can have honest conversations about their gifts, weaknesses – and the skeletons in their cupboards.
Many of my RC friends thought Benedict was a disaster.
Almost all my RC friends think that Francis was a disaster.
Perhaps they are members of Opus Dei?
No. Ordinary parish clergy and pew sitters.
I suppose it depends how you define not producing disasters. From the point of view of the high status elderly males who have power in the RC church, then the recent choices have been good on balance. Both have appeared to move just far enough down the liberal road in such things as the inclusion of women and the acceptance of LGBTQIA people to give the impression of change and disarm their liberal critics. But both have made absolutely no actual concessions or changes in important doctrine or practise. There are many women and LGBTQIA people who have been bitterly… Read more »
I wasn’t personally a fan of Benedict (or Jean Paul II for that matter) either – my point was rather that all four of the Popes who have served in my adult lifetime have appeared to be essentially capable of discharging the responsibilities, at least at the beginning of their service, and were not brought down by their personal behaviour. The reason I am pushing the argument for a closed list is that it allows discernment over a longer period about whether someone has the pastoral, theological, leadership and other gifts required to be a bishop, and would allow a… Read more »
Thanks for the response Gordon. As always there are arguments either way. The problem with a closed list is asking who gets to put names onto the list. It tends to end up as a list of those who fit the establishment idea of what a candidate should like like People who might be a bit unusual or “wild-card” can be excluded from consideration. In practise control over who gets to run the institution is exercised not by the selection boards, but by the secretive and back office functionaries who produce the list of candidates for the selection boards. This… Read more »
“I acknowledge that CNC members can add wild-card names for consideration, but I wonder how often this happens.” I think you have this completely the wrong way round. The CNC process is that the voting members of the CNC can each “mandate” one name into the process, and can suggest other names. There is no other way of getting into the process, no list produced by “back-office functionaries”. There is indeed a list maintained by the secretariat of people considered “ready now”, and this list is available to the CNC members. But those names are not automatically on the long… Read more »
Thanks for the clarification Nick. I am very wary of closed lists for the reasons stated, so it is good to hear that the process is as you describe.
I agree there are swings and roundabouts, and the process for compiling a list would need careful design. However, if a meaningful list existed it would also enable scrutiny – for example, as to why it was predominantly men, or people from a particular social background, or why theologians had been excluded etc etc etc. I’m not sure that’s quite the problem the Labour Party has. I don’t think they really worked through the reality of what taking power in 2024 would mean (i.e. there would be no money, and a massive backlog in public spending, even without Trump declaring… Read more »
Well, at the very least it produced a Pope who has not been afraid to stand up to power by speaking the truth of the gospel.
Tempting?
The college of cardinals, can, in theory, elect someone from outside the college. He doesn’t even need to be a bishop.
But they don’t. They elect another elderly high-status male from among them.
I thought we were promoting non-classist,non-agist gender blindness?
Appointing a Pope is one matter. But Catholic Bishops are appointed following widespread consultation amongst interested parties, after which three names are put to the Pope, from which one is chosen. If that individual declines the appointment, the whole process starts again. Bishop Thomas McMahon of Brentwood reached retirement age in June 2011, but nearly three years elapsed before the appointment of his successor, Bishop Alan Williams. Similarly, in the Diocese of East Anglia, Bishop Alan Hopes reached retirement age in March 2019, but it was three and half years later that his successor, Bishop Peter Collins, was appointed.
With a new Synod in the autumn will there be new elections for the central members of the CNC?
The CNC quinquennium ends in 2027. Central members (pairs) are elected for five years. So the new synod will have an opportunity to get to know candidates and hopefully weed out the tribal ones. Elections in or around September.