The prominent gay cleric Dr Jeffrey John has been long-listed as a candidate to succeed Archbishop Justin Welby as Bishop of Durham.
If appointed Dr John, the Dean of St Albans, who is in a civil partnership with his partner the Rev Grant Holmes, would become the first openly gay bishop in the Church of England.
He has been long-listed before and blocked for dioceses such as Southwark, but this is the first time his name has been put forward since the Church dropped its ban on clergy in civil partnerships becoming bishops.
Just what my former Diocese needs at this moment!
Not that it hasn’t suffered from theological schizophrenia in my lifetime; how else to explain David Jenkins and Tom Wright both occupying the see of Durham?
I was planning to visit Durham Cathedral in January to pay respects to the great evangelists of the north, Cuthbert, Aedan and Oswald.
I sincerely hope that Jeffrey John has not been given the bishopric by then – what an affront to the memory of those mighty saints! I might have to wipe the dust of the cathedral from my feet and head out to Lindisfarne instead.