“A DISCERNMENT process relatively than a variety process” is how the chairman of the Canterbury Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), Lord Evans of Weardale, describes the seek for the subsequent Archbishop of Canterbury.
A former director-general of MI5 and a cross-bencher within the House of Lords, Lord Evans was appointed late last 12 months (News, 17 December 2024) to chair the CNC. “From an obligation viewpoint, I felt that it was the proper thing to do, and up to now it’s also been extremely interesting, and even, on occasions, joyful,” he says, interviewed for the Church Times on Thursday.
Brought up a Baptist, but confirmed as an Anglican in his twenties, Lord Evans attends the parish church within the village where he lives. As with many parish churches, it “brings together people from quite a lot of different traditions for worship together”, he says: something that he considers a strength of the Church of England.
It can be a characteristic that should be reflected in the subsequent Archbishop, in his view: “They should be any person who can accommodate and help to thrive the varied traditions throughout the Church.”
The part that he plays as chairman is to “help the commission to return to a typical mind on the discernment of who we should always be asserting to the Prime Minister”, and this involves “enabling everybody to have their views heard and reflected”.
Members of the CNC usually are not, he hopes, “there because the delegate of their particular little bit of the Church”, but, as an alternative, “there collectively to grasp what God may be wanting from a latest Archbishop. And we should always be coming, subsequently, with open minds.”
He can be chargeable for ensuring that the processes decreed by the General Synod are followed, which was not straightforward when it got here to the number of the representatives from the diocese of Canterbury. The election of the Canterbury vacancy-in-see committee needed to be rerun several times (News, 30 May), but Lord Evans is evident that there was “no malice aforethought” in what went flawed.
“I do know that within the media there have been suggestions that this may be some cunning ruse by some particular party throughout the Church to attempt to maximise their influence, or something, but I don’t consider that was the case,” he says.
The election, eventually, was performed appropriately; and he emphasises that it was “a Canterbury process”, although he “went all the way down to Canterbury” in the middle of it (a mission that was to “give advice and support”, a Lambeth Palace spokesperson said). Ultimately, the representatives were appointed before the primary meeting in May.
“We’re on course” for a latest Archbishop to be announced within the autumn, he says. The conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV may need been quick compared with the just about year-long means of selecting a latest Archbishop, but there have been advantages to the Anglican approach: “It’s a more open process, and it’s a more inclusive and consultative process.” And, appropriately for a “national Church”, the consultation included people outside of the Church in addition to inside.
The earlier-than-expected departure of the previous Archbishop, the Rt Revd Justin Welby (News, 12 November), also left the CNC process “more within the highlight”, Lord Evans says, than it might have been had Bishop Welby continued in post to the tip of this 12 months, as originally expected.
The time between the beginning of the method and the CNC’s first meeting in May has not been squandered: since his appointment, Lord Evans has spoken to many of the diocesan bishops, “in order that they may give their view as to the direction they wish to go”.
The formal process will involve interviews further down the road, but this is just not a case of “sizing up candidates against a set of criteria”. Instead, it’s a “shared discernment process” of the CNC and people who may be the subsequent Archbishop.
“I believe being the Archbishop of Canterbury is a particularly difficult job, and anybody who’s willing to tackle that quite sacrificial role must be confident that God is looking them to it,” he says.
Lord Evans is candid, up to some extent, about a number of the identity-based questions which might be on people’s lips. Could the subsequent Archbishop be a lady? “Yes, they may,” he says. “There isn’t any reason why a lady mustn’t be appointed, but whether a lady will likely be appointed is one other query.”
The public consultation (News, 8 May) “pretty clearly demonstrated that there are a variety of individuals who think it might be really good to have a lady Archbishop for quite a lot of reasons, one among which is the safeguarding issues, but that is just not by any means the one reason”, he said.
As the archbishopric has a compulsory retirement age of 70, some have speculated that the subsequent Archbishop will likely be someone of their fifties, or early sixties. This is just not, nevertheless, an “absolutely key issue”, Lord Evans says, and he acknowledges the arguments in favour of a “transitional figure”.
There are “quite a lot of people whose names got here up quite rather a lot” within the consultation, and that is being “taken in consideration” by the CNC, he says.
But the overarching message from the 11,000 responses to the general public consultation is to have an Archbishop who can offer “real spiritual leadership” and can “speak in a gracious way, but an authoritative way, with a Christian voice, into the lifetime of the nation”, he says.
At next week’s General Synod meeting, members will hear from a military brigadier, and be asked to take into consideration how the Church might respond if the UK were to go to war (News, 27 June).
“We hope it won’t be the case, but there may be a possibility that we might be talking a couple of wartime situation in the subsequent ten years,” Lord Evans says. In his view, there would “absolute confidence” that, in such a situation, “the Church would have a vital role in providing support and luxury to people.”
As for the attributes that may be needed in a “wartime” Archbishop, Lord Evans said that the CNC “wouldn’t wish to nominate any person, if for some reason that may be a challenge they couldn’t rise to”; but he doesn’t see it as “considered one of the important thing issues”.
Lord Evans admits that he’s “very removed from being a church historian”, and has needed to learn rather a lot in regards to the processes of the Church of England since his appointment last 12 months.
While acknowledging the advantages of an Established Church, he suggests that it is just not obligatory to being “successful in bringing the Gospel and giving people the chance to worship”, but adds a disclaimer: “I don’t have strong or developed views on establishment.”
Given his previous position as head of the Secret Service, it’s unsurprising that Lord Evans is adept at saying only as much as he desires to say in regards to the process, even though it is evident that he’s committed to communicating how it really works: he’s, as he points out, “giving interviews to the media to discuss this”.
In February, the Synod considered proposals for change in the way in which during which the CNC operates, including the removal of the key ballot inside meetings (News, 28 February), but opted to take care of it.
Lord Evans refuses to be drawn on what he thinks in regards to the secret ballot: “I apply the principles as they’re laid down by Synod . . . and what I take into consideration that’s neither here nor there, really.”
About the method as a complete, during which the names of those being considered usually are not publicly released, and CNC members usually are not permitted to discuss their deliberations, he prefers the word “confidentiality” to “secrecy”.
“We’re more prone to give you the option to succeed in the proper point if that is refrained from those external pressures of speculation within the media,” he says.
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