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Bishop of London Appointed Archbishop of York

Episcopal News Service. May 4, 1995 [95077]

(ENS) Bishop David Michael Hope, the recent target of an English group dedicated to "outing" homosexuals in the church, was named archbishop of York, the second highest post in the Church of England.

Hope, the bishop of London, turned the tables on the group "OutRage!" when he held a press conference in March to state that he is "ambiguous" about his sexuality, which he said he considers a "gray area." OutRage!, he said, had threatened to name him as a homosexual in a campaign "based almost totally on rumor, unattributable sources and of an intimidatory nature." Hope said that he has chosen to live a single, celibate life.

The primates of the Anglican Communion, who happened to be meeting in England at the time, strongly supported Hope in his public statement, expressing to him "our solidarity in deploring this reprehensible intrusion into your private life."

Hope, who identifies with the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Anglican Church, was vicar of All Saints' Parish, Margaret Street in London, and principal of St. Stephen's Theological College in Oxford. He was consecrated bishop of Wakefield in 1985 and moved to the London position in 1991.

A wider reality

His appointment was seen as a deliberate move to balance the more evangelical style of Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey while sending a clear message to Anglo-Catholics, many of whom opposed the Church of England's decision to ordain women, that they still have a place in the church. He is credited with devising a widely copied arrangement dubbed "The London Plan," in which he refrains from ordaining women as priests himself but permits other bishops to ordain women within his diocese.

Hope said he will work very closely with Carey, who in turn said he welcomes Hope's strengths. "We complement each other in churchmanship and in opinion on a wider range of issues, but we are single-minded in our concern for the Church of England and its mission to the nation and through the wider Anglican Communion to the world," Carey said.

"My own background and tradition is of course somewhat different from his, and, for example, in the matter of the ordination for women, I have taken and continue to take a different view," Hope said of Carey. "This simply reflects, however, a wider reality within the Church of England."

The two agree, he said, "on many more fundamental matters." Hope said he shares Carey's concern to meet the "spiritual hunger and thirst for faith in our nation," and said that he supports Carey's "vision for encouraging the Church of England in spiritual growth in its witness and mission."

Carey praised Hope for his "scholarship and spirituality," and said that he has "proved to be a shrewd and strong leader in the Diocese of London where I know he will be sadly missed."

Hope will succeed the Most Rev. John Habgood, the current archbishop of York.