Anne Dyer | |
---|---|
Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney | |
Church | Scottish Episcopal Church |
Diocese | Aberdeen and Orkney |
Elected | 9 November 2017 |
Installed | 1 March 2018 |
Predecessor | Bob Gillies |
Other post(s) | Warden of Cranmer Hall, Durham (2005–2011) |
Orders | |
Ordination | 1987 (deacon) 1994 (priest) |
Consecration | 1 March 2018 by Mark Strange |
Personal details | |
Born | February 1957 (age 67) Yorkshire, England |
Denomination | Anglicanism |
Spouse | Roger |
Children | One daughter |
Alma mater |
Anne Catherine Dyer (born February 1957) is a British Anglican bishop, previously an academic administrator.
In 2018, she became Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Subject to a report process, with a recommendation that she step aside permanently, then mediation, she was briefly suspended from office on 10 August 2022 after allegations of misconduct were made against her. Her appeal against suspension failed, and she is going through a church grievance and disciplinary process with a tribunal hearing to be held in September 2024.
Previously, from 2005 to 2011, she was the Warden of Cranmer Hall, Durham, a theological college of the Church of England. Thereafter, she was Rector of Holy Trinity Church, Haddington, East Lothian in the Diocese of Edinburgh (in the Scottish Episcopal Church) between 2011 and 2018.
Dyer was born in February 1957 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England. [1] [2] [3] She was educated at Bradford Girls' Grammar School, an all-girls private school. [3] She studied chemistry at St Anne's College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree: [1] [2] as per tradition, her BA was later promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) degree. [2] She then worked as a business analyst/systems analyst at Unilever. [1]
In 1984, Dyer entered Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, an Evangelical Anglican theological college, to train for ordained ministry. [2] During this time, she also studied theology. [1] She left theological college in 1987 to be ordained in the Church of England. [2] She continued her theological studies, and completed a Master of Theology (MTh) degree at King's College, London in 1989. [1] [2]
Dyer was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1987 and as a priest in 1994. [2] All Dyer's parish ministry in the Church of England was spent in the Diocese of Rochester. [2] While she continued her studies, she held two non-stipendiary minister (NSM) appointments: at St John's Church, Eden Park (1987 to 1988), and at St George's Church, Beckenham (1988 to 1989). [2] From 1989 to 1994, she was parish deacon of Christ Church, Luton. [2] In 1993, she was appointed an associate adviser in evangelism for the diocese. [1] From 1994 to 1998, she was also an NSM of St Barnabas' Church, Istead Rise. [2] Then, from 1998 to 2004, she was the Ministry Development Officer for the Diocese of Rochester. [1] [2] In 2000, she was appointed an Honorary Canon of Rochester Cathedral. [2]
In August 2004, Dyer was announced as the next Warden of Cranmer Hall, Durham. [1] Cranmer Hall is an evangelical Anglican theological college that forms part of St John's College, Durham University. In January 2005, she took up the appointment following her licensing by the Bishop of Durham (Tom Wright). [4] In 2008, she was appointed an honorary canon of Durham Cathedral. [2] She stepped down as warden in 2011, and was succeeded by Mark Tanner. [2] [5]
In 2011, Dyer moved to the Scottish Episcopal Church, having been appointed rector of Holy Trinity Church, Haddington, East Lothian in the Diocese of Edinburgh. [2] [6] Since 2015, she has also been a member of the council of the Scottish Episcopal Institute, the Scottish Episcopal Church's theological college. [7]
On 9 November 2017, Dyer was selected as the next Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, making her the first woman to have become a bishop in the Scottish Episcopal Church. [8] [9] Her selection caused controversy due to her gender, support of same-sex marriage, and that she was not elected by the diocese itself (she was appointed by the house of Bishops after the diocese failed to choose its own bishop). [10] [11] [12] Two senior clergy in the diocese resigned their diocesan roles in protest, including Emsley Nimmo, the dean of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney. [13] She was consecrated a bishop on 1 March 2018 during a service at St Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen. [14]
In February 2021, Dyer was accused of bullying by a number of clergy, laypeople and church employees in The Times. [15] In March 2021, the College of Bishops commissioned Iain Torrance to lead an Independent Review into "difficulties" in the Diocese following a series of allegations regarding the Bishop. [16] In August 2021 the College of Bishops announced their intention to defer publication of the report and move to a second stage of reviewing. [17]
A few days later The Times reported Torrance's findings which had taken evidence from over 100 people. [18] His report, [19] which Dyer tried to have changed after completion, [20] found that there was a culture of bullying and "systematic dysfunction in the diocese", and that there were previous similar problems in Dyer's time at Durham. Professor Torrance stated that: "Without colluding in what I much fear is a repetition of the past, I cannot recommend the continuation of a tenure in which I fear that more people will be made to feel diminished and discouraged." He recommended that Dyer be immediately sent on sabbatical and that she should step down from her position permanently. [21]
However, the bishops decided, instead, to establish a mediation process. [22] Dyer has stated that she herself had been a victim of bullying, that the diocese was "not well", and that "The mediation process being offered to our diocese is our treatment". [23]
On 10 August 2022, Dyer was suspended as bishop after the SEC announced they had received two complaints of bullying. [24] An Episcopal Synod (meeting of bishops) met on 30 September, voting 3 to 2 to refuse the appeal and continue Dyer's suspension from office. The church stated that "The suspension does not constitute disciplinary action and does not imply any assumption that misconduct has been committed". [25]
On 8 November 2023, the church announced that the case had been referred to the church's Procurator to decide if the case should be referred to their Clergy Disciplinary Tribunal. [26] Subsequently, the Procurator resigned "to allow the appointment of a replacement who has no pre-existing connection of any nature to any of the parties or witnesses potentially involved, so as to avoid any suggestion that the process was not being conducted in an independent and impartial manner", to be replaced by a new procurator on 23 January 2024. [27] A tribunal hearing on three complaints will be held in Edinburgh in September 2024. [28]
From September 2022, John Armes was the acting Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, while Dyer remains suspended. [29] Dorsey McConnell, former Bishop of Pittsburgh, took on the role on 1 November 2023. [30]
Dyer identifies with the Open Evangelical tradition of Anglicanism. [31]
In December 2014, Dyer signed an open letter to the bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church that was supportive of same-sex marriage: it concluded with a "wish to make clear our continuing commitment to affirm and support all people in our church, and to recognise and rejoice in all marriages, of whatever sexual orientation, as true signs of the love of God in Christ." [32] With the SEC voting to allow same-sex marriages, she conducted her first such marriage in October 2017. [33]
Dyer is married to Roger. Together they had one child, a daughter, [1] who died, aged 30, in 2021. [34]
The Scottish Episcopal Church is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland.
The Bishop of Aberdeen was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Aberdeen, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics, whose first recorded bishop is an early 12th-century cleric named Nechtan. It appears that the episcopal seat had previously been at Mortlach (Mòrthlach), but was moved to Aberdeen during the reign of King David I of Scotland. The names of three bishops of Mortlach are known, the latter two of whom, "Donercius" and "Cormauch" (Cormac), by name only. The Bishop of Aberdeen broke communion with the Roman Catholic Church after the Scottish Reformation. Following the Revolution of 1688, the office was abolished in the Church of Scotland, but continued in the Scottish Episcopal Church. A Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen was recreated in 1878.
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Sir Iain Richard Torrance, is a retired Church of Scotland minister, theologian and academic. He is Pro-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen, Honorary Professor of Early Christian Doctrine and Ethics at the University of Edinburgh, President and Professor of Patristics Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, and an Extra Chaplain to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland. He was formerly Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland, and Dean of the Order of the Thistle. He is married to Morag Ann, whom he met while they were students at the University of St Andrews, and they have two children.
The Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney is one of the seven dioceses of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Created in 1865, the diocese covers the historic county of Aberdeenshire, and the Orkney and Shetland island groups. It shares with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen a Christian heritage that can be traced back to Norman times, and incorporates the ancient Diocese of Orkney, founded in 1035.
The Bishop of Berwick is an episcopal title used by the suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Newcastle in the Province of York, England.
The ordination of women in the Anglican Communion has been increasingly common in certain provinces since the 1970s. Several provinces, however, and certain dioceses within otherwise ordaining provinces, continue to ordain only men. Disputes over the ordination of women have contributed to the establishment and growth of progressive tendencies, such as the Anglican realignment and Continuing Anglican movements.
Robert Arthur "Bob" Gillies is a retired British Anglican bishop. From 2006 to 2016, he served as the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church. He is also a published author.
John Andrew Armes is an Anglican bishop. He is the current Bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church.
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Cranmer Hall is a Church of England theological college based at Durham, England. Cranmer Hall forms part of St John's College, Durham which is a recognised college of Durham University. It stands in the Open Evangelical tradition.
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