The Bishop of Ebbsfleet is a
suffragan bishop who fulfils the role of a
provincial episcopal visitor 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, ...
.
[ From its creation in 1994 to 2022, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet served traditionalist Anglo-Catholic parishes that reject the ordination of women as priests and bishops. Since 2023, the bishop has served conservative evangelical parishes that reject the ordination and/or leadership of women due to complementarian beliefs.
]
Traditionalist catholic bishop
The see was erected under the Suffragans Nomination Act 1888 by Order in Council dated 8 February 1994 and licensed by the Archbishop of Canterbury as a "flying bishop" to provide episcopal oversight for parishes throughout the province which do not accept the sacramental ministry of bishops who have participated in the ordination of women. The position is named after Ebbsfleet in Thanet, Kent. In the southern province, the bishops of Ebbsfleet and of Richborough each ministered in 13 of the 40 dioceses; the Bishop of Ebbsfleet served the western 13 dioceses: Bath and Wells, Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
, Coventry, Derby, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield, Oxford, Salisbury, Truro and Worcester. Until the creation of the suffragan See of Richborough in 1995, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet served the entire area of the Province of Canterbury with the exceptions of the dioceses of London, Rochester and Southwark which came under the oversight of the Bishop of Fulham
The Bishop of Fulham is a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of London in the Church of England. The bishopric is named after Fulham, an area of south-west London; the see was erected under the Suffragans Nomination Act 1888 by Order in Council ...
.
Jonathan Goodall was announced as the fifth Bishop of Ebbsfleet on 2 August 2013. His episcopal consecration took place on 25 September 2013 at Westminster Abbey. He had been the chaplain and ecumenical secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the fourth of the five bishops to be affiliated with the Society of the Holy Cross. On 3 September 2021 he resigned his episcopacy in order to be received into the Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
.
Conservative evangelical bishop
In June 2022, it was announced that, from January 2023, oversight of traditionalist Anglo-Catholics in the west of Canterbury province (formerly the Bishop of Ebbsfleet's area) would be taken by a new Bishop of Oswestry, suffragan to the Bishop of Lichfield. Oversight of conservative evangelicals would be taken by the next Bishop of Ebbsfleet; the See of Maidstone (the original conservative evangelical flying bishop) would be left vacant, available for other uses.
List of bishops
See also
* Bishop of Beverley
* Bishop of Richborough
* List of Anglo-Catholic churches in England
References
External links
Bishop of Ebbsfleet website
Crockford's Clerical Directory – listings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop Of Ebbsfleet
Ebbsfleet
Christian organizations established in 1994