David Stancliffe

David Staffurth Stancliffe (born October 1, 1942 in Devizes , Wiltshire ) is a British Anglican clergyman . He was Bishop of Salisbury from 1993 to 2010 .

life and career

Stancliffe's family has been involved in the Church for several generations. His father, Michael Staffurth Stancliffe , and his grandfather had been priests in the Church of England . He attended Trinity College at Oxford University , where he studied philosophy . There he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1965 and a Master of Arts in 1968 . During this time he gave up his original plans to become a church musician . To prepare for the priesthood, he attended Ripon Hall College in Cuddesdon from 1965 .

He was ordained a deacon in 1967 and a priest in 1968 . From 1967 to 1970 he served as auxiliary vicar of St Bartholomew in the district of Armley in Leeds operates. From 1970 to 1977 he was a chaplain at Clifton College in Bristol . From 1977 to 1982 he was cathedral pastor with residence obligation ( Canon Residentiary ) at Portsmouth Cathedral . At the same time, as diocesan director, he was responsible for training candidates for priesthood and for lay training in the diocese .

From 1982 to 1993 Stancliffe was Provost of Portsmouth . One focus of his work in this task was the structural completion of the expansion of the cathedral planned in the 1930s and interrupted as a result of the Second World War. In addition to his pastoral duties in the Diocese of Portsmouth, he was vice chairman of the Governors of Portsmouth Grammar School , director of Chichester Theological College, and a member of the governance of Salisbury and Wells Theological College in Salisbury . From 1984 to 1989 he was again chairman of the Southern Regional Institute , whose direction he had held from 1979 to 1981. From 1982 to 1993 he was also chairman of the Diocesan Advisory Committee .

In 1993 Stancliffe became Bishop of Salisbury . He was ordained bishop on November 30, 1993 at Westminster Abbey , and inaugurated on December 9, 1993 at Salisbury Cathedral . In January 2010, Stancliffe announced that he would be retiring in 2010. He delivered his last sermon as Bishop of Salisbury in July 2010 . On September 30, 2010, he officially retired; his duties in the General Synod of the Church of England and in the House of Lords he still performed up to this point.

During his church career, Stancliffe also held numerous other offices in church organizations and charitable institutions. Stancliffe has been a member of the General Synod of the Church of England since 1985 . From 1991 to 2001 he was a member of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England . In July 1993 he succeeded the Bishop of Winchester as chairman of the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England . He held this position until 2005. He had been a member of the commission since 1986. The work of the commission included in particular the publication of the liturgy manual The Promise of His Glory and the preparation of a common liturgy for worship . For this work, Stancliffe was awarded a Lambeth Degree as Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury and thus received an honorary doctorate in theology .

Stancliffe is a member of the Council for the Care of Churches , president of Affirming Catholicism , a group that defends Catholicism within the Anglican Church , and vice president of the Royal School of Church Music .

Stancliffe received awards from several universities. In 1993 he received an honorary doctorate as Doctor of Letters ( Hon DLitt ) from the University of Portsmouth . In 2000 he was from St Chad's College of the University of Durham for Honorary Fellow appointed, and in 2003 from Trinity College of the University of Oxford . In 2001 he was made a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music .

Private

Stancliffe has been married to Sarah Smith since July 1965. They have two daughters, a son and eight grandchildren. The couple visited Sudan in January 1996 and December 1999. Stancliffe last returned to Sudan on two visits in 2006. As part of a provincial synod, he was initially a guest of the Sudanese Church , on his second visit in 2006 he accompanied the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams .

Membership in the House of Lords

Stancliffe was from November 7, 1997 to September 2010 as Spiritual Lord of the House of Lords . He gave his inaugural address on February 27, 1998. His political interests included cultural heritage conservation , international trade and agricultural affairs, and arms trade . Stancliffe named Sudan as a country of particular interest . He was succeeded in the House of Lords by John Pritchard , Bishop of Oxford .

Working in public

Stancliffe criticized the bombing of Afghanistan in 2001 and condemned the Iraq war in 2003 . Stancliffe criticized the fact that the invasion of Iraq by the armed forces of the United States , the armed forces of the United Kingdom and allied states in the so-called Coalition of the Willing was not legitimized by a mandate from the United Nations .

In June 2003, Stancliffe was one of the Bishops of the Church of England who expressly supported the nomination and solidarity of Jeffrey John , an openly gay priest in a committed relationship, as Auxiliary Bishop of Reading by the Archbishop of Canterbury , Rowan Williams manifested with the decision of Williams.

In 2006, Stancliffe sparked public controversy when he married his own, once divorced, son again in a church ceremony. According to a resolution of the General Synod of the Church of England , a second church wedding of divorced people can only take place if exceptional circumstances exist. Stancliffe was particularly accused of breaking church rules in favor of his son. The criticism of Stancliffe arose in particular because Stancliffe had designed the liturgy as a church blessing ceremony that was not an official church wedding in 2005 on the occasion of the remarriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles due to the previous adultery.

In 2009 David Stancliffe wrote the foreword to a new edition of the Wessex Psalter with all 150 psalms from the Book of Common Prayer after the original manuscripts were destroyed in a fire in St. John's Church in Devizes in 2006 .

In November 2009 there was a debate in the House of Lords on Sudan . Stancliffe pledged support for South Sudan , regardless of the outcome of the referendum on the political independence of the South.

2009 Compatible Stancliffe at the second reading in the House of Lords, the Law on the Prohibition of scattered mines , the Government's Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Bill . Stancliffe said he hoped that the convention banning cluster munitions in the UK had ratified until November of 2010.

On February 11, 2017, 14 retired bishops signed an open letter to the incumbent Bishops of the Church of England. In it they expressed their rejection of the report on sexuality that the House of Bishops had submitted to the General Synod and which did not recommend any changes to canon law or ecclesiastical practice with regard to sexuality. By February 13, nine more retired bishops signed, including Stancliffe, and one incumbent bishop ( Alan Wilson , Bishop of Buckingham). On February 15th, the synod rejected the report.

Web links

• David Stancliffe at Hansard (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vita David Staffurth Stancliffe ( Memento from November 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Biography at Debrett's (excerpts available online)
2. ^ The Rt Revd David Stancliffe ( Memento of August 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Biography of David Stancliffe at the Diocese of Salisbury
3. ^ Retirements and resignations in the clergy ; The Daily Telegraph of January 18, 2010
4. ↑ Bishop of Salisbury retires at 67 BBC News, July 2, 2010 (video)
5. ^ Bishop Dr David Stancliffe to retire after 17 years BBC, July 5, 2010
6. ^ The Bishop of Salisbury ( January 20, 2009 memento in the Internet Archive ) Diocese of Salisbury
7. ^ David Stancliffe in the Hansard
8. ↑ David Stancliffe biography on Church of England official website , accessed December 14, 2009
9. ↑ Letter of Support right. Jeffrey John (PDF file; 54 kB) Homepage www.churchsociety.org, accessed December 16, 2009
10. ↑ Bishop gives divorced son a white wedding in his own cathedral , dailymail.co.uk, accessed December 16, 2009
11. ↑ Work lost in Devizes Church fire reborn , gazetteandherald.co.uk, accessed December 16, 2009
12. ^ Sudan at the crossroads , guardian.co.uk, accessed December 16, 2009
13. ^ Bishop in Lords on Cluster Munitions  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) salisburyanglican.org, accessed December 16, 2009
14. ↑ The 14 bishops were: David Atkinson , Michael Doe , Tim Ellis , David Gillett , John Gladwin , Laurie Green , Richard Harries , Stephen Lowe , Stephen Platten , John Pritchard , Peter Selby , Tim Stevens , Martin Wharton, and Williamson.
15. ↑ The nine bishops were: Gordon Bates , Ian Brackley , John Davies , Peter Maurice , David Rossdale , John Saxbee , Martin Shaw , Oliver Simon, and Stancliffe.
16. ↑ The Guardian: Church of England in turmoil as synod rejects report on same-sex relationships , accessed December 15, 2018

predecessor	Office	successor
John Baker	Bishop of Salisbury 1993-2010	Nick Holtam