Downing Street has…announced the appointment of the Reverend Jonathan Baker as Bishop of Ebbsfleet and the Reverend Norman Banks as the Bishop of Richborough, both of whom will be consecrated at a service at Southwark Cathedral on 16th June.
Downing Street has…announced the appointment of the Reverend Jonathan Baker as Bishop of Ebbsfleet and the Reverend Norman Banks as the Bishop of Richborough, both of whom will be consecrated at a service at Southwark Cathedral on 16th June.
Very interesting to read the comments over at Thinking Anglicans – they mostly are very unhappy about these appointments! They are particularly unhappy about the relative youth of the two new PEVs, i.e. that they will be around for a long time.
As one commenter on TA also points out, neither PEV has an evangelical background, which some might think curious. But it makes a lot of sense:
Many anglo-catholics are prepared to live with female bishops in CofE, so long as they can have their own male bishops. That works for ABC who still holds to the compromise position that he outlined last year, that the CofE should permit women bishops but with appropriate provision for those who disagree.
But many evangelicals are opposed to women bishops on any basis (and the doctrinal reasoning that leads them to that point usually means that they eventually want to see the back of women priests from CofE as well). That doesn’t fit with Rowan Williams’ plans at all.