Downing Street has announced that the next Bishop of Ebbsfleet will be the Rev Dr Rob Munro, the Rector of Cheadle, Cheshire,
Rob trained for ministry at Oak Hill College, studied for his doctorate at Reformed Theological Seminary in the USA, and has been the Rector of Cheadle for 19 years. He has also served on General Synod, is a member of the Dioceses’ Commission, chairs the House of Clergy for Chester Diocese, is the Chair of the Fellowship of Word & Spirit, and is on the Councils of Latimer Trust and Church Society.
Rob has been appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury since the Bishop of Ebbsfleet is a suffragan of that diocese. An Advisory Group consisting both of conservative evangelicals and of the wider Church of England conducted short-listing and interview processes and made their recommendations to the Archbishop. It is expected that he will be consecrated in Canterbury Cathedral in early-February.
Please give thanks to God for this appointment and pray for Rob (and his wife, Sarah) as he prepares to take on this new role. Do please also remember in your prayers the church family in Cheadle.
Further detail and comments are available from the Downing Street press release here and Church of England press release here. The Bishop of Chester, Rt Rev Mark Tanner, welcomed his appointment here.
Rob will continue the ministry established by the recently retired Bishop of Maidstone, Rod Thomas, providing extended episcopal oversight to parishes which, on the grounds of complementarian evangelical theology, are unable to receive the priestly or episcopal ministry of women. Further information on the Bishop of Maidstone can be found here. Under changes announced in June, the Bishop of Maidstone’s successor is known as the Bishop of Ebbsfleet. Meanwhile the role of the previous Bishop of Ebbsfleet – whose ministry was to traditional catholic parishes – has moved to become that of the Bishop of Oswestry in the Diocese of Lichfield.
