Bishop of Hulme axed, as cuts threatened

From the Church Times (England)

THE POST of the Suffragan Bishop of Hulme has been axed, on the eve of a motion at the General Synod next month which could pave the way for cuts in the number of bishops and senior clergy within three years.

The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, announced this week that he would tell his diocesan synod on Tuesday that he would not seek a reappointment to the suffragan bishopric, after the Rt Revd Stephen Lowe retires next month. Bishop Lowe has been seconded for the past three years to be Bishop of Urban Faith and Life.

The cut follows the recommendations of the Bishop of Manchester’s Council Working Group in 2005, a spokesman said: “This will reduce the cost of suffragan bishops from three to two.”
The General Synod motion, which originates from the Bradford dio cesan synod, seeks to balance the loss of stipendiary clergy in the parishes by cuts in senior posts. The Revd Dr John Hartley, Vicar of Eccleshill, who will propose it, said this week that his hope was that “we can ask whether we can find a new way for the hierarchy of the Church of England working.”

  “Should we have archdeacons at all, or would it be better to make them all bishops?” he continued, “instead of us simply continuing with the same number of chiefs, when the indians like me on the ground are being reduced.”

The motion calls on the Arch bishops’ Council to “formulate pro posals for reductions in the numbers of Episcopal and senior clergy posts, taking into account the reductions for the number of stipendiary clergy since 1979; and submit a report with recom mendations to the General Synod within three years”.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=77185