Canon Jonathan Goodall appointed Suffragan Bishop of Ebbsfleet


It was announced today that the new bishop of the Suffragan See of Ebbsfleet will be the Revd Canon Jonathan Goodall. Fr Jonathan is well known to this diocese having served as Chaplain to Bishop John Hind and then to Bishop Geoffrey Rowell. Since 2005 he has been Chaplain and Ecumenical Secretary, first to Archbishop Rowan Williams and then to Archbishop Justin Welby.

In line with the 1993 Act of Synod, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet is one of the two Provincial Episcopal Visitors for the Province of Canterbury, who give extended pastoral care and sacramental ministry, on the Archbishop’s behalf, to those parishes, clergy and people who are not able to accept the ordination of women to the priesthood.

Canon Goodall is married to Sarah. They have two children, Thomas (24) and AnnaMary (19).

He will be consecrated on 25 September in Westminster Abbey. We rejoice with him on this appointment and pray for him as he prepares for this his ministry.

Comments

  1. The Revd Canon Peter Edwards5 August 2013 at 18:47

    I saw this news on Saturday, initially on Thinking Anglicans, but I resisted the temptation to comment until I had worked out on which site to post the comment, and what the purpose of the comment might be. I think this is more creatively a diocesan comment, so I’m sending it in here, where there will be little response, or even argument, but I will feel I’ve said my piece.

    I assume that a number of people who know Fr Jonathan well had also thought that he was a potential candidate for the Diocese in Europe. I really only knew ‘of‘ him; and I had no idea of his position on the ordination of women. So that bit of his appointment was a complete surprise – a shock even.

    I really don’t want to get into the whole Ebbsfleet thing – that would have been for Thinking Anglicans – but I do want to make a plea (at least to the minds of those who read these pages) that the Diocese in Europe should (after 33 years with its own fully diocesan bishop) have someone at the helm who is both willing and able to ordain women. I’m sure there will be other opportunities to say how many bearded diocesan bishops we might want in sequence; and I shall suggest a clean-shaven woman (since there is such a long queue of vacant dioceses that it may be possible by then!)

    But I do think it is time to leave the RCs and the Orthodox in no doubt about the credentials of the C of E (of which this diocese is a member, as well as the Anglican Communion) and liberate ourselves (and our bishops) into the truth of our identity, rather than hiding behind any pretence of never having laid hands on one of ‘them’, and cosying up by saying it's all a big mistake.


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