Andrew John Watson (born 16 July 1961) is the

Bishop of Guildford The Bishop of Guildford is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Guildford in the Province of Canterbury. The title had first appeared as a suffragan see in the Diocese of Winchester in 1874. The Bishop suffragan of Guildford assi ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. He previously served as

Bishop of Aston The Bishop of Aston is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Birmingham, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after Aston, an area of the City of Birmingham; the See was ere ...

, the

suffragan bishop A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led b ...

of the Diocese of Birmingham, from 2008 until 2014.

Early life and education

Watson was born, the son of Angus and Alison Watson, in

Bicester Bicester ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of Oxfordshire, England, north-west of Oxford. The town is a notable tourist attraction due to the Bicester Village shopping centre. The historical town centre � ...

, Oxfordshire, and was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

. A keen musician, he played the bassoon in the

National Youth Orchestra Of Great Britain The National Youth Orchestra (NYO), formerly the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, is the national youth orchestra of the United Kingdom, consisting of 164 members of ages 13 to 19 years. Auditions take place in the autumn each year at va ...

from 1974-6. He went on to study Law at

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

,Church of England press release
/ref> where he also held a music exhibition and sang in the chapel choir. He received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1982, which was later promoted to a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA Cantab) degree. Following two years working as a caretaker and youth worker at St Mary’s Islington he returned to Cambridge in 1984, where he completed a second degree (in Theology) whilst training for the ministry at

Ridley Hall, Cambridge Ridley Hall is a theological college located on the corner of Sidgwick Avenue and Ridley Hall Road in Cambridge (United Kingdom), which trains men and women intending to take Holy Orders as deacon or priest of the Church of England, and members ...

Ordained ministry

Leaving Ridley in 1987, Watson was ordained deacon that

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in many Western Christian liturgical calendars on 29 Se ...

(27 September) at St Stephen's,

Redditch Redditch is a town and non-metropolitan district with borough status in Worcestershire, England. It is located south of Birmingham, east of Bromsgrove, north-west of Alcester and north-east of Worcester. In 2021, the town had a population of ...

, and priest the following

Petertide Petertide (also known as St Peter's Tide) refers to the Sunday nearest to St Peter's Day on 29 June and to the period around that day. In Anglicanism, Petertide is one of two major traditional periods for the ordination of new priests (the other ...

(3 July 1988) at

Worcester Cathedral Worcester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and Blessed Mary the Virgin, is a Church of England cathedral in Worcester, England, Worcester, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Worcester and is the Mother Church# ...

, on both occasions by Philip Goodrich,

Bishop of Worcester The Bishop of Worcester is the Ordinary (officer), head of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Worcester, Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title can be traced back to the foundation of the diocese in the ...

. His first positions were curacies at St Peter's

Ipsley Redditch is a town and local government district in Worcestershire, England. The town is divided into separate districts. All street-name signs in Redditch have the street name in white lettering on a blue background and the district name in bla ...

in the Diocese of Worcester (1987–1991) and at St John's &

St Peter's, Notting Hill St Peter's Notting Hill is a Victorian Anglican church in Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill, London. Designed in the classical style by architect Thomas Allom, work was begun in 1855 and completed in 1857. History Until the mid nineteenth cen ...

in the

Diocese of London The Diocese of London forms part of the Church of England's Province of Canterbury in England. It lies directly north of the Thames, covering and all or part of 17 London boroughs. This corresponds almost exactly to the historic county of ...

(1991–1996). During his time in Notting Hill, he oversaw the restoration of St. Peter’s, a Grade 2* listed building, as well as developing a community cafe on Portobello Road and a Prison Fellowship team at Wormwood Scrubs. Watson then moved to be

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of St Stephen's, East Twickenham (1996–2008), overseeing the building of the CrossWay Hall, and sending out three church grafting teams to All Souls St Margarets, St. Saviours Sunbury and the Ivybridge estate.BBC announcement
/ref> Whilst at Twickenham, he was also Area Dean of

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia * Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria ** Hampton railway station, Melbour ...

from 2003 onwards.

Episcopal ministry

In 2008, Watson was appointed as

in the Birmingham Diocese, and was consecrated a bishop on 28 October 2008.Worcester Diocese — New Bishop of Aston...
There he designed the Diocesan mission strategy ‘Transforming Church’, as well as developing the diocese’s historic links with the church in

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

. He also engaged in interfaith work, especially in response to the death of three young Muslim men in the summer riots of 2011. On 26 September 2014, it was announced that he would be translated to

. The

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant (religion), covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on o ...

of his

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

to the See of Guildford occurred on 24 November 2014, and his ministry was inaugurated at

Guildford Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford, commonly known as Guildford Cathedral, is the Anglican cathedral in Guildford, Surrey, England. Richard Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow, Earl Onslow donated the first of land on which the cathedral ...

on 28 February 2015. Watson was introduced into the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

as one of the

Lords Spiritual The Lords Spiritual are the bishops of the Church of England who sit in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom. Up to 26 of the 42 diocesan bishops and archbishops of the Church of England serve as Lords Spiritual (not including retired bish ...

on 9 February 2022.

Views

In 2023, following the news that the House of Bishops of the Church of England was to introduce proposals for blessing same-sex relationships, Watson signed an open letter which stated: During the Church of England's February 2023

General Synod The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organizations. Anglican Communion The General Synod of the Church of England, which was established in 1970 replacing the Church Assembly, is the legislative body of the Church ...

meeting, Watson was one of four bishops in the house to vote against the successful proposal to introduce blessings and prayers for same-sex relationships. He also voted against introducing "standalone services for same-sex couples" on a trial basis during a meeting of the General Synod in November 2023; the motion passed.

Family and interests

Watson married in 1986, and his wife Beverly was ordained a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

in 2008 and a priest the following year. They have four children. He is the author of ''The Fourfold Leadership of Jesus'', ''Confidence in the Living God'' (2009), ''The Way of the Desert'' (2011) and ''The Great Vocations Conversation'' (with Magdalen Smith, 2018). He has variously chaired the CPAS Trustees, the Panel for World Mission & the Anglican Communion, and the Ordained Vocations Working Group, which oversaw a considerable rise in the number of ordained vocations over the years 2015 to 2020. The grandson of

CMS CMS may refer to: Computing * Call management system * CMS-2, a programming language implemented for and used by the United States Navy * Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta * Collection management system for a museum coll ...

missionaries in China, Watson has a strong commitment to the global church, especially in those parts of the world where Christians face discrimination and persecution. As a young adult he met with Christians behind the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to the So ...

, and has since travelled to China, India, Pakistan and parts of Africa where religious extremism is on the rise. He preached at the 70th anniversary of the

Church of South India The Church of South India (CSI) is a united Protestant Church in India. It is the result of union of a number of Protestant denominations in South India that occurred after the independence of India. With a membership of over 4.5 million, it ...

in Chennai in 2017 and at the Sialkot Convention in Pakistan in 2019. On 10 November 2018, he and his wife took a walk on Longsands Beach in

Tynemouth Tynemouth () is a coastal town in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the north side of the mouth of the River Tyne, England, River Tyne, hence its name. It is east-northeast of Newcastle up ...

exactly a hundred years after his grandfather received his call to missionary service there. Watson is also a regular contributor to renewal conferences in Sweden. Watson wrote a setting of

George Herbert George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was an English poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as "one of the foremost British devotio ...

’s ''Love bade me Welcome'', which was sung at his consecration, and a choral Mass for the 60th anniversary of the consecration of

, which was first sung at the feast of Christ the King in 2021. Three instrumental settings of children’s worship songs appear on the albums ''God’s Wonderful World'' and ''Thankyou God for Snails''. In February 2015, his handling of the controversy over anti-semitic material that was shared online by Stephen Sizer was praised by the Jewish community. In February 2017, he said that as a young man he was beaten by John Smyth.

Styles

*''

The Reverend The Reverend (abbreviated as The Revd, The Rev'd or The Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. There are sometimes differen ...

'' Andrew Watson (1988–2008) *''The

Right Reverend The Right Reverend (abbreviated as The Rt Revd or The Rt Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian ministers and members of clergy. It is a variant of the more common st ...

'' Andrew Watson (2008–present)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Andrew 1961 births Living people 20th-century Anglican deacons 20th-century Anglican priests 20th-century evangelicals 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British non-fiction writers 21st-century Church of England bishops 21st-century evangelicals Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Anglican writers Bishops of Aston Bishops of Guildford British evangelicals British male non-fiction writers Evangelical Anglican bishops Lords Spiritual People educated at Winchester College