Worshippers help to choose new Bishop of Portsmouth

Church of England worshippers are among those who will help to choose the new Bishop of Portsmouth.

The Rt Rev Kenneth Stevenson will retire in September after 14 years in the job. The process of choosing a successor has already begun, with the vacancy-in-see, the group guiding Portsmouth Diocese through the process, meeting since March.

The Prime Minister’s appointments secretary Paul Britton and Archbishops’ appointments secretary Caroline Boddington will be in Portsmouth’s Anglican diocese this week to hear from worshippers and representatives of the local community.

Their visit will include a trip to the Isle of Wight and public meetings in Ryde and in Portsmouth Cathedral to help both archbishops and the Prime Minister to know what kind of bishop local people are looking for.

The diocese’s vacancy-in-see committee is also charged with putting together a profile of Portsmouth’s Anglican diocese and the qualities they hope to see in the new bishop.

Six members of the vacancy-in-see committee will work alongside the Crown Nominations Commission, which includes the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and which will submit two names to the Prime Minister, who will then ask the Queen to approve one of them.

It is expected that the appointment of a new Bishop of Portsmouth will be announced by the end of 2009 and the new bishop will be enthroned by next summer.

The Ven Peter Hancock, chair of the vacancy-in-see committee, said: “As we continue to give thanks for the continuing ministry of Bishop Kenneth among us, we must, as a diocese, look forward.

“The process of choosing a bishop takes longer than it did when Bishop Kenneth was chosen in 1995, because there is more consultation. But we are grateful that there is a greater opportunity for people to say what they think we need in a new bishop."