THE person nominated to be the subsequent Bishop of Durham has withdrawn from the method, it was announced on Monday. It has not been publicly revealed who the nominee was, or why they declined to take up the appointment.
An announcement released by Church House on Monday afternoon said that the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) for Durham had nominated a candidate, after interviews in November last yr, but that this person had now “decided to withdraw from the nomination”.
The Durham CNC had agreed to reconvene “later within the yr to proceed the technique of discernment”, the statement said, with a timetable to be issued in the end. A reserve candidate had not been chosen, which implies that the method is prone to need to restart from an early stage.
The Suffragan Bishop of Jarrow, the Rt Revd Sarah Clark, will proceed in her position as Acting Bishop of Durham, which she has held for the reason that retirement of the Rt Revd Paul Butler last yr (News, 29 November 2024).
On Monday, the Archbishop of York thanked Bishop Clark, together with others within the diocese, for taking up additional responsibilities in the course of the emptiness.
“I will likely be praying for them, and please pray for the CNC as they reconvene to hunt God’s discernment for the subsequent Bishop of Durham, and for everybody served by the Church within the Diocese,” he said.
In a letter to the diocese on Monday, Bishop Clark and the diocesan secretary for Durham, James Morgan, also asked for prayers.
“Even though the candidate’s identity will remain unknown please do pray for that person and all those affected by this decision,” they wrote, emphasising that the choice had been made by the candidate.
“Clearly that is each unexpected and disappointing news,” they said. An evening of prayer will likely be held at St Brandon’s, Brancepeth, on Wednesday.
In the letter, Bishop Clark quoted Christ’s injunction in Matthew 14: “Take heart; it’s I; don’t be afraid.”
She wrote: “Taking heart is a call to courage and hope; to take courage because Jesus is with us even in essentially the most unlikely situations after we cannot see clearly. In such stormy conditions we glance to Christ who calls us on in faith and trust.”
The Bishop of Durham is fourth in the normal order of precedence amongst Church of England bishops, after the 2 Archbishops and the Bishop of London.
