Bishops Of Sheffield
A Brief Synopsis Of Previous Bishops Of The See Of Sheffield
Leonard Burrows 1914 – 1939
Tall and energetic when he came, Bishop Burrows established the Diocese and oversaw the development of the Church in the coalfield - seeing many new churches built in the pit villages as well as the new housing areas in Sheffield (like Parson Cross and Sheffield Manor).
He proved an able administrator. He was undoubtedly a man of God. His teaching was sacramental and Tractarian after John Keble of Oxford but he was indifferent as to his vesture (not insisting on roman vestments but happy to wear the usual Anglican bishops’ robes consisting of a chimier and stole over a purple cassock).
In his previous appointment as Bishop of Lewes, in the more catholic diocese of Chichester, he had regularly worn cope and mitre. He could be stern with clergy if he felt that the truth was being held back or an effort was being made to bluff!
But he was also tender hearted and not disposed to being too strict a disciplinarian. His criticism was quite daring and blunt on occasion. He was a hard worker and sized things up with remarkable speed.
He had to cope with the wartime deprivations and shortages of clergy - many of whom were call up to serve in the forces in the First World War.
He moved his residence to Norwood Hall (the first Bishop’s house had been in Clarkehouse Road) where he delighted in living amongst the people of the Norwood estate. He had St. Leonard’s church built nearby. It was during his time that Parliament devolved to the Church its own government in the establishment of the Church of England’s General Assembly. That must have taken him to London regularly where he would sit in the House of Lords as one of the Lords Spiritual. He was 82 when he retired!
Leslie Hunter 1939 – 1962
Bishop Hunter was perhaps Sheffield’s most intellectual Bishop and was a great social reformer and thinker in his day.
He was a socialist and encouraged many national reforms. He enabled a closer working of the Scandinavian churches with the Church of England and was a national leader in the ecumenical movement.
He started the Sheffield Industrial Mission to take the Church to people in the workplace and opened Whirlow Grange as the diocesan conference centre to bring together clergy and lay people to talk about science and religion and as a base for a programme of continual ministerial training for clergy.
He was also instrumental in starting an outward bound centre at Castleton in the Peak District for the moral training of apprentices in the coal and steel industries. But he could be withdrawn and was quietly-spoken for a clergyman. Many thought him shy.
He retired at 65 but lived to see his 99th birthday! His wife was very involved in moral welfare work in both Sheffield and Doncaster. She was primarily responsible for the unmarried mothers’ home “St. Agathas” in Sheffield’s Broomspring Lane.
John Taylor 1962 – 1971
Taylor’s episcopate was dogged by ill health. He was a conservative evangelical - the prevailing tradition of the Anglican churches in Sheffield at the time. He had been born in Lincolnshire but brought up in Hull (the nearest the diocese had come to a Yorkshire bishop!). He had been Principal of Wycliffe Hall – a theological college in Oxford.
Before his arrival in Sheffield he was struck down by a cerebral thrombosis on account of his high blood pressure. He found this very frustrating and bewildering.
He started a form of sandwich course for the training of clergy in the diocese. It is said that he drove himself hard assisted by his wife and senior staff on whom he had become increasingly dependant. But he found it difficult to delegate. He wrote most of the Diocesan Review himself.
There was a distinct atmosphere of strain and conflict about his unhappy episcopate and he suffered much sorrow for which the ordinary people of South Yorkshire had a quiet and instinctive understanding.
It was during his time that the Cathedral was extended with the West end enlargement (it had not previously been possible to raise the money with two world wars having been waged since the founding of the diocese!).
The Bishop’s son, aged 24 at the time, was killed in a car crash in Sheffield in 1968 and he was himself to be buried just three years’ later beside his son’s grave in Ecclesall churchyard (the mortal remains of the other deceased bishops of Sheffieldare interred in the Cathedral). He had retired early due to a stroke and lived for only three months afterwards in retirement at Salisbury.
Gordon Fallows 1972 -1979
Bishop Fallows was a saintly man who restored the confidence of the diocese after the long illness of his predecessor. With great common sense and in collaboration with others he modernised the organisational structure of the diocese and devolved a good deal of leadership to others.
He was liberal at heart and a very sympathetic pastor – having previously been Bishop of Pontefract in Wakefield diocese.
He is remembered as the Chairman of the Church’s Clergy Deployment Commission which produced the Sheffield Report which recommended a more equitable distribution of the Church’s clergy among the dioceses.
At the time (1974) there was a concentration of clergy in London and the South East. He died in service in August 1979 having just launched The Resourceful Church programme to encourage the laity to commit themselves more generously to supporting the Church financially. He had been Vice Chairman of the Church’s Central Board of Finance and of the Church of England Pensions Board.
He was also a Chaplain to the Queen and Clerk of the Closet at Buckingham Palace – an ancient office occupied by a serving bishop briefing ecclesiastical dignitaries before they were presented to Her Majesty.
David Lunn 1980 – 1997
The Geordie Bishop from Tyneside, Bishop Lunn found Sheffield “hilly and wet and too far from the sea” but he became attached to the place and led the diocese with a firm hand - directing it towards effective evangelism thus enabling it to “be the church better” as he put it.
He instigated a programme of lay ministry having over 300 church people trained and deployed in the parishes as volunteer Evangelists, Pastoral Workers and Readers.
During his time the number of clergy in the diocese grew to 225 and he saw its funds top £35million. He showed great courage in dealing with the aftermath of the implosion of the Nine O’ Clock Service. And he was also instrumental in starting the Clergy Disaster Plan to see clergy mobilised in response to an emergency such as that at Hillsbrough.
People were surprised that he was not able to accept the ordination of women to the Priesthood but he was a conservative bishop with catholic taste who felt that ordaining women was going beyond the Church of England’s authority. Such changes, in his opinion, required the unanimous support of all the main Christian churches (including the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches). A matter of doctrine was at stake. He had no problem though with women’s ministry as such.
Jack Nicholls 1997 – 2008
Bishop Jack, as he was popularly known, was a rather jolly bishop (another from the Church’s catholic tradition) who appealed across the board to a wide range of people for his northern sense of humour and having the common touch.
He hailed from Rawtenstall near Bacup but had been Bishop of Lancaster for 8 years when he came to Sheffield.
He built many bridges between the Church in the diocese and South Yorkshire’s people. He was popular wherever he went.
It is too early to record his achievements but he certainly gave the Church a human face whether in the Town Hall or the working men’s club. People found him very approachable. He entertained frequently and generously at Bishopscroft (the Bishop’s official home at Ranmoor in Sheffield).
Steven Croft 2009 –
Steven Croft was appointed to the See of Sheffield on October 21st 2008.
(Written by Tony Beck)
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