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Background
James Henry Langstaff (born 27 June 1956) is the current Bishop of Rochester. He was educated at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He is married to Bridget and they have two adult children, Alasdair and Helen.
Career
Bishop James Langstaff trained for ministry at St John’s College, Nottingham and was ordained in 1982.
His ordained ministry began with a curacy at St Peter’s Farnborough, after which he was Vicar of St Matthew’s Duddeston and St Clement’s Nechells. He was then chaplain to the Bishop of Birmingham Mark Santer for three years, Area Dean of Sutton Coldfield and vice chair of the Diocesan Board of Finance. He was the Suffragan Bishop of Lynn in the Diocese of Norwich from June 2004 to December 2010.
The Crockford’s entry is as follows:
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+LANGSTAFF, The Rt Revd James Henry. b 56. St Cath Coll Ox BA77 MA81 Nottm Univ BA80. St Jo Coll Nottm 78. d81 p 82 c 04. C Farnborough Guildf 81-84 and 85-86; P-in-c 84-85; P-in-c Duddeston w Nechells Birm 86; V 87-96; RD Birm City 95-96; Bp’s Dom Chapl 96-00; P-in-c Short Heath 98-00; R Sutton Coldfield H Trin 00-04; AD Sutton Coldfield 02-04; Suff Bp Lynn Nor 04-10; Bp Roch from 10. |
Publications
I have not found any – I would imagine his outside interests keep him pretty occupied.
Interests
In an interview for Kent Life, he was reported as follows:
Bishop James, a youthful and very smiley 55, tells me he is particularly interested in urban regeneration initiatives and social and affordable housing.
And this in no token interest, either – he is Chair of Housing Justice, the national voice of the churches on housing and homelessness. And following the coldest December on record in England for the last 100 years, he has launched a ‘Coats for Christmas’ campaign, to provide coats and other winter clothing for children and young people in the Diocese of Rochester who might otherwise have to go without.
And having spent 11 years of his life as a parish priest in some of the toughest areas of Birmingham, Bishop James has real experience and understanding of what pressures both people and priests face in challenging communities.
He also has international experience to draw upon from his time as Bishop of Lynn, when a real source of joy for him was the link with the Province of Papua New Guinea and of which time he says: “It has been a huge privilege to develop friendships with Christians in a very different culture, from whom I have learnt so much.”…
Clearly used to being very ‘hands on’, how different is his role now? “It’s more about putting the right people in the right places with the right projects.
“Inevitably my role is ‘{darting} about’, which is great in a way, however, there are some particular areas of engagement in which I have a track record such as the criminal justice system, housing and homelessness, so those are areas where I shall continue to show an interest.”
Bishop James “hugely appreciates” the work of chaplains and their chaplaincy teams in prisons and made early visits to Rochester Youth Offender Institute and HM Prison Cookham Wood. For the last two years in his former role he made a point of going to visit one of the prisons in Norfolk on Christmas Day.
So what will Christmas in Rochester bring this year? “Christmas is strange as a Bishop, because when you’re in a parish you’re very much rooted in your community and there’s a whole kind of flow and build up of the whole community, whereas for me in my role now, it’s less like that,” he says.“So although, for example, I will do one of the Christmas services at the cathedral, I also want to go to a parish where they haven’t got a vicar at the moment. Last Christmas I took the midnight service at Swanscombe because they were vicar-less at the time and it was really nice to be able to do that.
A glowing testimonial from Bishop Nick Baines:
James brings all the right qualities and experience to his new ministry. He will be pastorally strong and has both Church and world in a healthy perspective. He will be good news for clergy and people of Rochester.
Thirdly, he brings vast experience of both urban and rural ministry and has the wisdom that derives from that experience. Good news for communities in the diocese.
Fourthly, he brings international experience of partnership with dioceses in other parts of the world, particularly Papua New Guinea and Sweden. He will now bring that experience and clarity of engagement to Rochester’s link with Harare, Zimbabwe – and this (along with the commitment of the Bishop of Tonbridge, Brian Castle) will strengthen the Zimbabweans and the links my own diocese (Southwark) has with the other four dioceses in Zimbabwe.
Churchmanship
Difficult to assess in this paper exercise. Possibly veering towards Anglo-Catholic, but I base this on the tenuous link with the Anglican-Roman Catholic Commisssion of which Mark Santer was a member while Bishop James served as his chaplain in Birmingham. He voted in favour of the Anglican Covenant. He also voted in favour of adjourning debate to enable reconsideration of amendment 5.1.c, a position generally taken by those in favour of women bishops.
Leap in the dark assessment
Without a clear steer emerging from Bishop James’s online persona, I would take Bishop Nick Baines’ quoted remarks as the best assessment we have.
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The illustration is downloaded from © the Diocese of Rochester; the photographer is Louise Whiffin
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