The Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell, has been named as the favourite to succeed Richard Chartres as Bishop of London.
Cottrell is 3/1 favourite with bookmakers William Hill for the Church of England’s third most senior job after Archbishop of Canterbury and York.
Although the formal appointments process has not yet begun, his name is increasingly being spoken of in Church circles as someone with the experience and charisma to lead the Church of England’s fastest-growing, most diverse and most complex diocese.
Read it all from Christian Today.
One of the founding trustees of Inclusive Church. Made up to be a diocesan in the closing years of Rowan Williams’ reign, along with other Inclusive Church founding trustees, Nick Holtam at Salisbury and Stephen Conway at Ely and several others.
The rot in London started a while ago. On the website of St Mellitus which serves both London and Chelmsford, Cottrell was quoted: “As we seek to train men and women for ministry and mission in a rapidly changing context, St Mellitus College offers the Chelmsford Diocese a flexible and inclusive approach for theological and ministerial education and formation. It is very exciting to be part of this pioneering initiative.â€
http://www.stmellitus.org/history
Looks like some are out to wreck the Diocese of London, one of the only faithful and growing dioceses in the Church of England by someone who oversees with a few exceptions, a diocese which, like Southwark, is run by liberal loonies and propped up only through massive subventions from the rest of the church and the Church Commissioners.
Completely unsuitable, but typical of what is making the House of Bishops so completely useless to the Church and unfit for purpose.
Back in the 90s I knew him slightly. A great communicator, very funny with great emotional intelligence. Easily likeable. Worked extraordinarily hard. Committed to evangelism. Pretty adept at navigating the politics of the institution (I don’t mean that cynically).
Trained at St. Stephen’s – and so can get on with the Anglo Catholics – even though he’s, in fact, a liberal catholic activist. Genuinely interested in accompanying people to faith – and so can get on with the HTB etc. folks. Suspect slightly tense relationships with conservative evangelicals and the few remaining non modernist Anglo Catholics.
On every ethical issue of the day – Guardian editorials will be a close approximation of his views.