Next Bishop of Repton announced
CANON Malcolm Macnaughton (above), Chief of Staff to the Archbishop of York since 2007, has been announced as the next Suffragan Bishop of Repton in Derby diocese. He trained at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, was ordained priest in 1982, and served his title in Durham diocese. He then served in London and Oxford dioceses, as both incumbent and area dean. He has been a Canon and Prebendary of York Minster since 2016. He is married to Pam, an ordained pioneer minister and a leadership specialist with the Church Pastoral Aid Society. He succeeds the Rt Revd Jan McFarlane, now an Hon. Assistant Bishop in Lichfield diocese (News, 31 January), and is to be consecrated by Archbishop Welby early next year.
Devon drug gang to be sentenced
THREE men who ran a £250,000 cocaine ring from a Church of England property in Devon face sentencing of up to 16 years in custody, after last week admitting a drug conspiracy from February 2019 to May this year. The house in which the men were arrested in Ide, near Exeter, in May was on the site of a former rectory and owned by the diocese of Exeter. Lester Purdy, aged 66, and his son Jake, aged 25, both of Station Road, Ide, and Julian Eslick, aged 46, of Cliff Bastin Close, Exeter, who admitted the drug conspiracy, were arrested with Trevor Forbes, aged 58, of Brasenose Driftway, Oxford, who admitted conspiracy to transfer criminal property, a charge that relates to cash police seized from his car. They will be sentenced at Exeter Crown Court on 27 November.
Westcott House The Revd Dr Helen Dawes will be the new Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge
New Principal of Westcott House
THE Revd Dr Helen Dawes has been appointed Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge, from February, taking over from the Acting Principal, the Rt Revd Tim Stevens. Dr Dawes has been the Team Rector in the Shaftesbury Team Ministry, in Salisbury diocese, since 2015, and diocesan Dean of Women’s Ministry, since 2016. Before training at Westcott House, she worked in strategic and regulatory consulting. She was ordained priest in 2003, served in Ely and St Albans dioceses, before taking up the post in 2009 of Deputy Public Affairs Secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and then becoming Archbishop Welby’s Social and Public Affairs Adviser. Her academic work focuses on the intersection of theology with economic life and public policy.
Adoption-case magistrate’s appeal heard
A FORMER magistrate, Richard Page, of Headcorn, Kent, who believes that he was wrongly sacked and discriminated against owing to his Christian beliefs, has taken his case to the Court of Appeal. Mr Page, aged 74, was removed from the bench and dismissed from his post as non-executive director at the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust in 2016, after saying that children should be raised by a mother and a father when he was considering an adoption application by a same-sex couple in 2014. The hearings began on Tuesday. Both bodies have said that his appeal should be dismissed.
Archbishop Welby featured in podcast series
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has contributed to a podcast series focusing on seclusion and isolation, run by Queen Mary University in London as part of a research project funded by the Wellcome Collection. The project, “Pathologies of Solitude, 18th-21st Century”, examines the health benefits of solitude for individuals and society. Archbishop Welby said in an extended interview that solitude was “essential” for every person to develop. The episode was released last Friday.