The Church of England (CofE) has been having a turbulent time. The issue of same-sex marriage is still causing deep pain and disagreement. The publication on 7 November last year of the Makin report exacerbated the collective trauma and led to Archbishop Justin’s resignation a year earlier than the statutory retirement age of 70.
The Makin report
The report exposed historical abuse – both sexual and physical – by a senior lawyer, John Smyth. Smyth, a member of the Evangelical wing of the CofE, was a leading figure in the Iwerne [pronounced you-wern] holiday camps run by an association of evangelical Anglican organisations. These camps were for boys (only) at elite public schools who were notionally being trained to be the church leaders of their generation. As a member of that generation, Justin Welby attended Iwerne in the 1970s. The Makin report identifies occasions when Welby might have been able to pick up on the growing rumours and misgivings around Smyth and his activities. It notes that he was first made aware of positive allegations in 2013, yet failed to react appropriately and promptly. On 12 November he announced his early resignation in acknowledgement that he had failed to do this.
Archbishop of Canterbury: a huge role
In an article (£) in the Church of England Newspaper ten days later, Bishop Philip North of Blackburn quoted Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester, saying that candidates to succeed Welby “need their heads reading.” As head not only of the CofE, but of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury has nominal oversight of 42 provinces (England has two, Canterbury and York) in over 165 countries. North’s thought-provoking analysis is that the job, which involves not only spiritual leadership but also governance responsibilities, has become a “simply impossible” load on just one person, especially under “relentless media and social media scrutiny”.
Until the new archbishop is appointed, Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York is sharing the responsibilities of the role with Bishops Sarah Mullally of London and Rose Hudson-Wilkin of Dover.
Appointing a new archbishop
The decision is made by the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), taking into account the views of the archbishop’s own diocese of Canterbury, of the CofE, and of the provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Representatives from each of these are members of the commission. Consultations by the commission among those its members represent will take several months. Because the King is the formal head of the CofE, the name of the CNC’s preferred candidate is then submitted via the UK prime minister to the King for approval, and only then is the name made public.
Two candidates, both from East Anglia but with very different histories, have been widely identified as leading the field of possible successors: Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, and Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford. Both, however, are from the liberal tradition, which would fit the usual alternation between evangelical and liberal archbishops.
Graham Usher
Usher, appointed bishop of Norwich in 2019, is 54. He studied ecological science at the University of Edinburgh before his theology studies and ordination. A keen beekeeper, in 2021 he was named lead bishop for the environment in the CoE. As Pippa Bailey pointed out in the New Statesman (£), “environmentalism is one of the few issues on which many Anglicans agree, and might also commend him to those who wish to press the Church’s relevance to young people.”
Usher has been a member of the House of Lords since October 2023. He gave his maiden speech in November 2023, highlighting his strong commitment to environmental issues. He has written on spirituality and landscape.
In many ways a ‘safe pair of hands’, he belongs to the ‘Affirming Catholicism’ branch of the CofE, so he welcomes the ordination of women, and voted in favour of the blessing of same-sex marriages in the CofE. These views may not endear him to Anglican provinces in the global south that favour more traditional teaching. Usher has strong links with Ghana, however: he has an honorary position (canon) in Kumasi, lived in Ghana as a young child, and completed part of his theological training at St Nicholas Seminary in Cape Coast, Ghana.
Guli Francis-Dehqani
This would be an altogether more radical appointment. Francis-Dehqani, the 58-year-old Bishop of Chelmsford, would be the first woman archbishop of Canterbury. This could be a difficult sell to the many parts of the worldwide Anglican Communion where more traditional views hold sway. Her father and her maternal grandfather were both bishops of her native Iran. Francis-Dehqani, aged 13, fled the country with her parents and sister after the 1979 Iranian revolution and following an assassination attempt on her parents and the murder of her brother.
She is the first ethnic-minority woman to be appointed Bishop in the CofE. Her diocese includes parts of East London. It is second only to the diocese of London in terms of population (over 3m) and is also one of the most diverse English dioceses. She is the national lead bishop for housing.
She entered the House of Lords in November 2021, and gave her maiden speech during a debate on the detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Her background makes her highly sensitive to the ongoing agony of the Middle East, and gives her an especially personal empathy for the injustices suffered by refugees and immigrants, for the marginalised, and for the many persecuted Christians in the Anglican Communion and the Christian Church around the world. Her speech highlighted her strong desire to promote forgiveness and reconciliation between peoples and religions.
Other candidates
Because of the statutory retirement age of 70, it is conventional for the field to be restricted to bishops not yet 60. Other names that have been suggested include Martyn Snow, Bishop of Leicester, and Martin Beasley, Bishop of Bath and Wells.
Share this article on Bluesky
