by Alan Quick

THE public is being invited to have a say on who should be the next Bishop of Crediton.

The Diocese of Exeter says it wants to hear the public’s views on the vacancy following the translation of Bishop Sarah, the current incumbent, who will be leaving on March 8 to become Bishop of London.

Bishop Sarah will be installed as the Church of England’s 133rd Bishop of London at a service at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on Saturday, May 12.

The Bishop of Exeter has appointed the following to advise him on the appointment of the Suffragan Bishop of Crediton:

The Rev’d Preb Mike Partridge, Chair of the House of Clergy; Mrs Marguerite Shapland, Chair of the House of Laity; Mrs Anne Foreman, Chair of Vacancy-in-See Committee and Bishop’s Council; The Rev Peter Bevan, Incumbent of Great Torrington; The Rev Rosie Austin, Incumbent of Shirwell; Mr Andrew Southall, Churchwarden of Cullompton; The Rev Preb Giles King-Smith, Incumbent of Woolacombe and The Rt Rev Nigel Stock, Former Bishop at Lambeth.

While having a number of advisers, the Rt Rev Robert Attwell is asking if anyone wishes to comment on the role, or to propose candidates, they should write to him by February 25 at The Bishop’s Office, The Palace Gatehouse, Palace Gate, Exeter EX1 1HS.

Details of the roles and responsibilities and duties, etc can be viewed on the website: http://exeter.anglican.org/vacancy-see-crediton/ .

You can download the details which have been submitted to the Diocese Commission about the See on the same website.

The See of Crediton was founded in 909 following the break-up of the old Anglo-Saxon Diocese which covered much of south and west England.

In 1050 the then Bishop, Leofric, moved the See from Crediton to Exeter, and the See of Crediton was suppressed. In 1897, however, the need for a Suffragan Bishop in the Exeter Diocese resulted in the creation of the Suffragan See of Crediton, the name being chosen because of its historical significance. Since 1897 there have been nine Bishops of Crediton and the See has been filled continuously since 1954.

Both Suffragan Bishops, the Bishop of Crediton and the Bishop of Plymouth, operate across the entire Diocese.

However, the area over which the Bishop of Crediton exercises specific delegated responsibility comprises the Archdeaconries of Exeter and Barnstaple.

Exeter is the fourth largest English diocese by area, just behind Leeds, York, and Lincoln; the fourth in terms of the number of parishes; and the fifth in terms of church buildings behind Oxford, Lincoln, Norwich and Leeds.

It was announced by 10 Downing Street that the Rt Rev Sarah Mullally DBE, would become the next Bishop of London on Monday, December 18.

Bishop Sarah will succeed the Rt Rev and Right Hon Richard Chartres KCVO, who retired as Bishop of London last year.

She will become the first ever female Bishop of London and the most senior woman appointed by the Church of England.

It has also been said that she now becomes the third most important person in the Church of England.

Married to Eamonn and with two children, Bishop Sarah was a senior civil servant in the Department of Health before ordination.

A trained nurse, she became Chief Nursing Officer for England in 1999, the youngest person to be appointed to the post.

She was ordained in 2001 and served her curacy in St Saviour’s Battersea Fields, initially as a self-supporting minister, before leaving her Government post in 2004, subsequently taking up full-time ministry in the London Borough of Sutton.

Bishop Sarah was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2005 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to nursing and midwifery.

In 2012 she was installed as Canon Treasurer at Salisbury Cathedral, before becoming Bishop of Crediton in the Diocese of Exeter in 2015. She is also a member of the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Steering Group.