Former Wakefield Missioner formally elected as Archbishop of York

Stephen Cottrell, who served as Diocesan Missioner and Bishop’s Chaplain for Evangelism in the Diocese of Wakefield from 1993 until 2001, was formally 'Elected' by York Minster's College of Cannons on Thursday.

The Election ceremony normally takes place in York Minster’s Chapter House, but was held via video conference to comply with the Coronavirus restrictions.

As required by the 1533 Appointment of Bishops Act, the proclamation below, issued by the Right Revd Dr Jonathan Frost, Dean of York, as the President of the Minster’s College of Canons, was published at the end of the Election ceremony to announce the result.

It reads: “In the name of the College of Canons We, Jonathan Hugh Frost, being the Dean of the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York and President of the College of Canons of the said Cathedral Church,

“Being required publicly to notify and declare that the See of the Archbishopric of York having been for some time vacant by the resignation of the Most Reverend John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu last Archbishop thereof,

“We the said College of Canons of this Cathedral Church (in pursuance of and proceeding according to the tenor of a Writ of Congé D’Élire and Letter Recommendatory from Her Sacred Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second to Us directed and delivered) have this day Elected the Right Reverend Stephen Geoffrey Cottrell Bishop of Chelmsford to be our Archbishop and Pastor in this Archiepiscopal See of York whom God long preserve,

"Read in the Deanery of the Cathedral Church of York aforesaid the eleventh day of June in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty, By us, Dean of York.”

Bishop Stephen’s appointment as Archbishop will be completed in the Confirmation of Election ceremony to be held at 11.00am on Thursday 9 July 2020, in a service that will be broadcast entirely via video conference due to the Coronavirus restrictions.

The service will be available on the Church of England website at www.churchofengland.org.Arrangements for Bishop Stephen’s enthronement service at York Minster will be announced later in the year.

As Primate of England and Metropolitan of the Province of York, he will share in the leadership of the Church of England in partnership with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

A married father of three, Bishop Cottrell had said he hopes to serve as "a voice for the North".

Following his nomination earlier this year, he said: "I am humbled and excited at the prospect of becoming the 98th Archbishop of York.

“I will receive the baton from Archbishop Sentamu. These aren’t just big shoes to fill, but a big heart and a big vision.

“However, I am not daunted. Archbishop Sentamu and I have worked together in mission on many occasions and I hope to build on the work he has pioneered.