Flying bishops reorganization plugs hole in Canterbury
by George Conger, Anglican Ink:
News Analysis: The Church of England’s plans to move one of its two ‘flying bishops’ for Anglo-Catholics from Ebbsfleet to Owestry in the Diocese of Lichfield has been given a polite raspberry by the bishops of the Society under the patronage of of Saint Wilfrid and Saint Hilda. Moving the flying bishop north to Owestry, and shifting the evangelical flying bishop of Maidstone to Ebbsfleet, will be a great inconvenience for the Council of the Society. But it will enable the Most Rev. Justin Welby to douse the fire now burning in the diocese of Canterbury.
On 30 June 2022 the Church of England Media Centre released a statement saying: “A series of changes have been announced to the names of bishops who offer extended episcopal care to parishes that cannot accept the priestly or episcopal ministry of women.
“Under these changes, now approved by the Dioceses Commission, the Bishop of Maidstone Rod Thomas’s successor will now be known as the Bishop of Ebbsfleet. Meanwhile the role of the previous Bishop of Ebbsfleet – whose ministry was to traditional catholic parishes – will move to become that of the Bishop of Oswestry in the Diocese of Lichfield. Bishop Rod, who will retire in October, has had a special national ministry since 2015 providing a voice in the College of Bishops and advocacy for those who cannot, on the grounds of complementarian evangelical theology, accept the priestly or episcopal ministry of women. The future Bishop of Ebbsfleet, who will take on this responsibility when Bishop Rod retires, will live either in London or the M4 corridor for ease of travel and will minister nationally to complementarian evangelical parishes.”
The press release added, almost as an afterthought that as the See of Maidstone will become vacant, “it could potentially revert to local use within the Diocese of Canterbury in the future.”
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