Justin Welby new Bishop of Durham
So, Rowan Williams didn't step sideways to Durham, as I hoped he would. Instead the lately-maligned Crown Nominations Commission has made the very interesting choice of Justin Welby, Dean of Liverpool. I don't know him personally (I did meet him once, when he was an ordinand at Cranmer Hall and I was just a stripling, but it's just possible he won't remember that), but his biography, read carefully, reveals the following:
1. He forged a career in the oil industry before ordination. This is unusual among Bishops, who are mostly cradle clergy. While that too has its advantages, it means they have little direct experience of leadership and management outside the church.
2. He has risen through the ranks of the clergy, as we might expect, but his ministry has been of the hands-on leadership type, not in the backroom bureaucracy or the corridors of power. His time as the director of Coventry's ministry of reconciliation is a particular highlight in a CV which is is not really done justice by the Diocese of Durham's bigging up of how many people he gets to come to church.
3. Nevertheless, we can see that he is an evangelical who understands the importance of local mission but also works comfortably within inherited church structures. Always Hope approves of people like that.
4. He has a successful record of leadership, another much under-rated asset in Bishops.
5. He appears to be quite brainy, which will help.
Good news for the Diocese of Durham, I reckon. Bishop Welby will be well worth keeping an eye on.
UPDATE: 9th November 2012. Since he is now to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury, I've written a new post by way of an update.
1. He forged a career in the oil industry before ordination. This is unusual among Bishops, who are mostly cradle clergy. While that too has its advantages, it means they have little direct experience of leadership and management outside the church.
2. He has risen through the ranks of the clergy, as we might expect, but his ministry has been of the hands-on leadership type, not in the backroom bureaucracy or the corridors of power. His time as the director of Coventry's ministry of reconciliation is a particular highlight in a CV which is is not really done justice by the Diocese of Durham's bigging up of how many people he gets to come to church.
3. Nevertheless, we can see that he is an evangelical who understands the importance of local mission but also works comfortably within inherited church structures. Always Hope approves of people like that.
4. He has a successful record of leadership, another much under-rated asset in Bishops.
5. He appears to be quite brainy, which will help.
Good news for the Diocese of Durham, I reckon. Bishop Welby will be well worth keeping an eye on.
UPDATE: 9th November 2012. Since he is now to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury, I've written a new post by way of an update.
Comments
During his spell at Coventry he also gave the best talk I ever heard at a local Reader conference because he talked to us as equals. (Readers get astonishingly talked down to by a lot of clergy.)
I'm not sure if his official biography has pointed out that he was also the chair of a health trust for while before he took on the residentiary role at Coventry.
A helpful post though, thank you. I went hunting and you were what I found, and gladly so.
One wonders if a 'catholic' will ever find seniority in the CofE again, though. I doubt it.
This, of course, does not apply to the Vernacular Curate, who will bring all his experience of whatever industry he worked in to Twickenham.
As to catholics, does that to a certain extent depend on how you define that term? Our new-ish Bishop is at least partly that way inclined. Anyway, these things are quite faddish. At the moment evangelicals are all the rage, but perhaps not for ever.
It is no secret that Liverpool was a somewhat poisoned chalice when he bravely took us on, but in his three and an half years with us, he has transformed us into a welcoming and spiritually active community, working together in a way that would have been impossible in 2007. We now offer theological education courses, cutting edge weekly bible study with regular attendence in three figures, Alpha, an active Asylum seekers support service. His tenure also welcomed (at his personal invitation) a pilgrimage day FROM Walsingham, complete with the statue of Our Lady, over 1300 pilgrims and a youth rock mas, and we now have a regular Vigil Mass as well as a cafe style all age service. Justin took his vision of the Cathedral as the mother church of Liverpool Diocese very seriously, and as a result both of the above services can co-exist quite hapilly.
Whilst we are not far short of devistated by his departure, we have to accept that his appointment has been an inspirational one from the point of view of the wider church. Durham's gain is very definitly our loss.