Bishop of Durham election confirmed

Bishop Paul Butler at his confirmation of election service(Photo: Keith Blundy)

The election of the Right Reverend Paul Butler as the 74th Bishop of Durham was confirmed at York Minster on Monday.

The service was led by the Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, and bestows legal title as Bishop of Durham to Bishop Butler.

Bishop Butler, formerly Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, will not start his public ministry in Durham until he has met the Queen and taken an oath acknowledging her as Sovereign and Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and is enthroned and installed at a service of inauguration in Durham Cathedral on 22 February.

He will later enter the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual, one of five automatic members alongside the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishops of London and Winchester.

Bishop Butler with the Archbishop of York, who led the service(Photo: Keith Blundy)