Video for October 23rd, 2025
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video.
I expect most of you will have heard the news by now that Archdeacon Fiona will be leaving the diocese early next year to take up a new role as the Suffragan Bishop of Taunton. We’re delighted for her and for the people of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Fiona’s considerable gifts as a pastor, leader and theologian have been rightly recognised by the wider church. She has been a great servant of the diocese, helping to draw us together as united family across two counties. I know many of you will have reasons to thank her for her pastoral care and wisdom. Bath and Well’s gain is our loss. We are going to miss her hugely but know she will be as amazingly fruitful in Somerset as she has been here.
Leadership is often a mixture of joy and sadness. There is joy when you see someone flourishing and growing into their vocation; but the inevitable sadness when that means they need to leave to minister on a bigger stage. There is a particularly poignant moment in Acts where Paul takes leave of the Ephesian elders. These are the people in whom the Gospel has taken deep root and are showing many fruits of the Spirit. He entrusts the leadership of the Church to them as he leaves to go onto his next phase of service. Their deep sadness is compounded when they realise many of them are unlikely to see him again. From a purely selfish perspective, that won’t be my experience as College and House of Bishops meetings seem to happen every few days or so! I shall be seeing plenty of Bishop (which has a nice ring to it) Fiona in the future.
I’ll shortly call together an advisory group to reflect on the needs of the northern archdeaconry going forward. Experience tells me that you can survive without a Bishop for a long time, but for far less without an Archdeacon. I want to proceed to an appointment as soon as we can. In the meantime, Archdeacon Derek will have oversight of archidiaconal matters, ably assisted by the two Stephens our Assistant Archdeacons. In the Church of England these activities are guided by an established process. In haste I could just appoint someone, but that would be an abuse of power. It would exclude consultation, limit ownership and put the new person in a very difficult position when they started. Our activities in the C of E as the established church are governed by a web of law and canons. St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, talked of doing things decently and in order. I frequently contact our diocesan Registrar for legal advice. The national Church is guided by independent legal officers in good process. We have Canons which describe our doctrines and beliefs. Some argue that these are not only cumbersome but restrictive, stopping us from moving forward when the majority have decided on a direction of travel. But doctrine is not just abstract theological dogma, it says something about the nature of Christian belief and its implications for Christian conduct. When we move, we try to move together with as much consensus as possible. When I was a vicar, I would not have advised my PCC to move forward on contentious issues if the voting had only a tiny majority for change, even if I believed the proposal was correct. Paul in his letter to the Romans spoke of the need to respect conscience, even of the weaker brother, i.e. the one who was probably wrong. Its for that reason that changes in doctrine and significant liturgical practice in the Church of England require a two thirds majority in each of the three houses of Synod to proceed. There is a temptation in our hyper-individualised society to press ahead irrespective of due process, particularly in areas where we have a keen sense of justice, pastoral concern or the imperative to make the church more accessible in mission. And I can completely understand that from a variety of different perspectives. I frequently encounter situations where I wish I could act in a certain way but am prevented from doing so by canon law. In those situations, I have been thankful in retrospect that I didn’t violate due process. The consequences would have been dire. Ultimately, frustrating and even hurtful though it can feel sometimes, order and process is our friend.
But going back to where I started, there will be details shortly of our opportunities to say goodbye to Fiona. But for now, we give thanks for her and prayer for the transition which will be hard for her and for us. But amid those feelings we know God is with us and will lead us forward in the next phase of our life together.
+Richard