The Vacancy in See Committee is a standing committee of the Diocesan Synod, but only becomes active when the retirement of a diocesan bishop is announced.
The committee is made up of 24 people, including the diocese’s General Synod representatives, the Chairs of the House of Clergy and House of Laity, the Bishop of Dudley, Archdeacons and elected lay and clergy representatives from across the Diocese.
Once the committee is convened, it has two tasks – to write a Statement of Needs for the diocese (a document similar to a parish profile) and to elect six of its members to sit on the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) alongside six representatives from the national Church.
The Statement of Needs is drafted following considerable consultation across the Diocese, with which we hope as many people as possible will engage.
The CNC is a national Church of England body, which will be responsible for compiling a shortlist of candidates and discerning which nominee should be recommended to the King and Downing Street to be the next Bishop of Worcester.
Current members of the Vacancy in See Committee
- The Bishop of Dudley, Martin Gorick
- The Dean of Worcester, Stephen Edwards (Interim Dean)
- The Archdeacon of Worcester, Mark Badger
- The Archdeacon of Dudley, Nikki Groarke
- The Revd Wyn Beynon
- The Revd Victoria Barlow
- Harriet Chimani
- John Dentith
- Kasmir Garton
- The Revd Adam Hadley
- The Revd Laura Handy
- The Revd Rich Johnson
- Paul Latham
- The Revd Claire Lording
- Robin Lunn
- Lynn Nichol (Chair)
- The Revd Fraser Oates
- Hugh Richards
- Sam Setchell
- David Sims
- Clare Stockford
- Irenaeus (Iren) Treasure
- Eric Wiles
- Secretary to the Committee - Andy Todd
Read more about the process for appointing the next Bishop of Worcester
Meetings of the Committee
The Committee met for the first time on Saturday 22 June. We spent time in worship and prayer, got to know one another better, and began to sketch an outline plan for the key deliverables with which the Committee is officially tasked. One of those deliverables is the Statement of Needs document for the Diocese, so we began discussing a plan to gather feedback and views as widely as possible across the Diocese in the coming months.