What we want in a new bishop

I attended the open meeting for the people considering the appointment of a new bishop for Newcastle  Diocese.

Edward Chaplin

We met with Caroline Boddington (Appointments Secretary of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York) and Edward Chaplin (Prime Minister’s Appointments Secretary) Oxford Mail photo They made copious notes and explained a little of the process. They gave nothing away.

Over 80 people were present and everyone who wanted to was able to have their say.

Most people who spoke were Anglicans but there were also contributions from City Church and from Colin Carr OP, from the Roman Catholic St Dominic's Priory Church.

A representative from Jesmond Parish Church spoke first. She mentioned the size of the church (1,000 regular attenders and over 5,000 at peak) and then said that they were looking for someone who would emphasise evangelism and support the teaching that marriage was between one man and one woman. Someone else from the same church made the same point later, citing scripture.

However I think they were the only people who tried to say: 'the next bishop must fit to what we think'. And as this was a meeting for people who didn't have a direct line into the appointment process I suspect their view will not have much sway.

From the other end of the Anglican spectrum the representative of the Bishop of Beverley asked only that the new bishop (male or female, he didn't mind) would respect the guidelines put in place for parishes which would not accept a woman bishop.

Most people asked for their particular area of concern to be taken into account: sustaining small churches, the particular needs of rural churches and of those in poorer areas, mission and evangelism, ecumenism, the mothers' union, education, interfaith work, lay people and Readers, links with Norway and Winchester, links with the voluntary sector, Christian Aid and poverty.

Others were looking for particular qualities: an enabler, someone who would invest in leaders - especially young leaders, a pastor to the clergy, someone who'd cherish diversity.

A few wanted a spokesperson for the North East, well-connected in London, not least in negotiations over money.

Overall, I thought, the meeting did a good job of allowing anyone who wanted to to have their say. I also thought that very little was suggested that couldn't have been said for almost any diocese,

What did strike me was the occasional tone of being sorry for ourselves: that the diocese was poor, marginal, a long way from London, apparently unattractive to clergy from south of the Tyne. And yet (in a contradictory way) several people introduced themselves as incomers. Some told the meeting how many years they'd been here, perhaps to establish a right to speak while recognising that this right was limited.

Paul Bagshaw