THE next Suffragan Bishop of Taunton within the diocese of Bath & Wells is to be the Ven. Dr Fiona Gibson, currently the Archdeacon of Ludlow, within the diocese of Hereford.
She will succeed the Rt Revd Ruth Worsley, who earlier this yr was appointed the Interim Bishop of Liverpool, slightly below a month after the resignation of Dr John Perumbalath (News, 27 March). Bishop Worsley is serving because the Suffragan Bishop of Wigan, after the Archbishop of York petitioned the King to revive the see.
Dr Gibson, 55, was born in north London and studied for a B.Ed. (Hons) in history and education at Homerton College, Cambridge, before becoming a primary-school teacher. She later moved from teaching to turn into a lay children’s minister at her home church, working closely with the church school; and it was suggested that she consider ordained ministry.
She trained at Oak Hill Theological College before her ordination as a deacon in 2011 and as a priest in 2012. She served her title at Christ Church, Bedford, within the diocese of St Albans, until 2014, when she was appointed Vicar of All Saints’, Cople, in the identical diocese.
In 2021, she became Archdeacon of Ludlow and was installed as a Prebendary of Hereford Cathedral. She also chaired the Hereford Diocesan Board of Education. Until July, she chaired The Junia Network, a bunch supporting ordained Evangelical Anglican women, and was a General Synod member.
During the February Synod sessions, she chaired the revision committee for the draft Mission and Pastoral Measure, which covers church closures and pastoral reorganisation (News, 28 February). Both her current and next diocesan Bishop have led calls for more of the Church Commissioners’ money to be distributed to dioceses to stop stipendiary clergy cuts (News, 1 July). In 2023, the diocese of Bath & Wells announced plans to make savings of £450,000 every year by reducing stipendiary parish posts from 178 to 150 (Features, 18 October 2024).
Dr Gibson also chaired the revision committee for the national Redress Scheme for abuse survivors (News, 12 July 2024).
She received her doctorate in divinity from the University of Aberdeen earlier this yr. Her doctoral thesis was with reference to accidie (sloth, one in all the Seven Deadly Sins), or, as she puts it, “the sin you’ve probably never heard of but are almost definitely committing!”
Dr Gibson is married to David, who works in financial services, and so they have two adult children. She enjoys reading, playing board games, listening to podcasts, walking, photography, and wild swimming.
She said that she was “absolutely delighted” to return to the diocese wherein she had holidayed with family as a baby. She had, she said, “many blissful memories of exploring Exmoor and further afield in Somerset. To have the opportunity to return to such a gorgeous place, while serving its people as Bishop of Taunton, is each deeply humbling and an awesome joy.”
Dr Gibson hoped that her ministry in each urban and really rural settings would help her to serve the range of individuals within the diocese.
The Bishop of Bath & Wells, Dr Michael Beasley, said that she had “done an impressive job because the Archdeacon of Ludlow and has an enormous amount of experience that may help us as we seek to grow our church and our increase our work inside our communities across Somerset. Her rural experience and academic background will, particularly, be an exquisite gift to us.”
