The Crown Nominations Commission, the group tasked with discerning who will be the next Bishop of Chester, has held its first meeting.
The CNC is made up of six elected members from the diocese, six members of the General Synod, and the two archbishops.
The purpose of the first meeting, held on Monday 03 February, was for the CNC to develop a general understanding of the process and to agree on the role profile.
The profile, drafted by the Archbishops’ Secretary for Appointments, is based on the diocesan Statement of Needs and other documents, including a statement from the archbishops on the needs of the Church of England as a whole.
National guidance states that when a CNC meets for the first time it will discuss and finalise the role profile before shortlisting candidates against it.
The first meeting of the CNC comes a few days after a prayer meeting was held at Foxhill. Led by the Bishop of Birkenhead, Keith Sinclair, the prayer meeting was an opportunity to put the vacancy process before God and to pray for the diocese, the CNC, and the person God has called to be the next Bishop of Chester.
Attended by people from across the diocese and from different churchmanship and tradition, the prayer meeting was a valuable opportunity to bring people together during what has been described by Bishop Keith as a time of “transition and change” for the diocese.
Bishop Keith concluded the meeting with the words of the diocesan prayer written for the vacancy process:
Almighty God,
who sent Jesus Christ
to be the cornerstone of your Kingdom
and calls us to follow him:
guide your Church, by the Holy Spirit,
to show love and mercy as we build your Kingdom.
We pray for the person you are calling
to be the next Bishop of Chester;
bless, guide and strengthen them to answer your call;
in the name of Jesus Christ
and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Praying for the diocese
Please download and use any of the prayer materials below in any way you like. You could include the words in your service sheets, project the images on to a screen at church, and download and print them as posters and place them around the church.
A second prayer meeting will be held in the week before the CNC meets for the second and final time. It will be led by Archdeacon Ian Bishop on Thursday 12 March from 2 pm at St Michael's and All Angels' Church, Macclesfield.
