Toby Howarth was born in Kenya and went to school at Haverstock Comprehensive in North London. He received scholarships to study at high school and Yale University in the United States, including a summer working with Afghan refugees in northern Pakistan. On coming back to Britain, he was a research assistant for the Revd Dr John Stott for two years before becoming a postman in the East End of London.
After training in Oxford, Birmingham and Uganda, combining Christian theology with an MA in Islamic Studies at the University of Birmingham, Toby was ordained and served in an inner-city parish in Derby. He then moved to India with his family for five years, during which he did research in Islamic preaching for a PhD from the Free University of Amsterdam.
Returning to Europe, Toby served with a Dutch church in Rotterdam before moving back to Birmingham where he taught Islamic studies and worked as Tutor and then Vice Prinicpal at Crowther Hall in Selly Oak.
In 2004 he took up parish work again as Vicar of St Christopher’s, Springfield, a church in a majority Muslim area of Birmingham. In addition to the parish role, Toby was the Bishop of Birmingham’s Adviser on Inter Faith Relations until April 2011 when he became Interreligious Affairs Secretary for the Archbishop of Canterbury.
His Majesty The King has approved the nomination of The Rt Revd Toby Howarth as the 2nd Bishop of Leeds. Leeds is a remarkable diocese.
— Archbishop of York (@CottrellStephen) July 31, 2026
I am delighted that he will lead the next chapter of the life and witness of the church in this place. Bishop Toby’s passion for sharing the… pic.twitter.com/ewZNGfkEL9
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