Rt Rev Mark Santer, 87, former Bishop of Birmingham, UK

[Mig.Rhodes]

The Rt Rev Mark Santer, who died 14 August 2024, aged 87, was an English
Anglican bishop. Santer was educated at Marlborough College and Queens'
College, Cambridge, before his ordination in 1964. fter being a curate
at Church of All Saints, Cuddesdon, he was a tutor at Ripon College
Cuddesdon; Dean and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge; assistant
lecturer in divinity at the University of Cambridge and finally
Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge before his ordination to the
episcopate as area Bishop of Kensington in 1981. After six years at
Kensington, he was translated to be the Bishop of Birmingham. The Prime
Minister, Margaret Thatcher, forwarded Santer’s name as bishop to the
Queen, unaware of how radical his views really were. During this time he
took part in the second phase of the ecumenical discussions of the
Anglican—Roman Catholic International Commission and was embroiled in
controversy over the use of the term "Winterval", which he opposed.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/09/13/mark-santer-bishop-birmingham-thatcher-church-of-england/

[Louis Epstein]

Post by Mig.Rhodes
The Rt Rev Mark Santer, who died 14 August 2024, aged 87, was an English
Anglican bishop. Santer was educated at Marlborough College and Queens'
College, Cambridge, before his ordination in 1964. fter being a curate
at Church of All Saints, Cuddesdon, he was a tutor at Ripon College
Cuddesdon; Dean and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge; assistant
lecturer in divinity at the University of Cambridge and finally
Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge before his ordination to the
episcopate as area Bishop of Kensington in 1981. After six years at
Kensington, he was translated to be the Bishop of Birmingham. The Prime
Minister, Margaret Thatcher, forwarded Santer’s name as bishop to the
Queen, unaware of how radical his views really were. During this time he

The excerpt does not reveal the area of radicalism.
I have read that Thatcher was wary of the candidates recommended
to her by committees that tried to send her one candidate they
really preferred and one they guessed she would not dare nominate
(but sometimes did anyway)...was Santer a preferee who escaped her
notice or a no-hoper the committee had hoped she would reject?

Post by Mig.Rhodes
took part in the second phase of the ecumenical discussions of the
Anglican—Roman Catholic International Commission and was embroiled in
controversy over the use of the term "Winterval", which he opposed.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/09/13/mark-santer-bishop-birmingham-thatcher-church-of-england/

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

[Mig.Rhodes]

The Crown Appointments Commission had nominated the Rt Rev Jim Thompson,
the Bishop of Stepney, for the vacant see of Birmingham. But “Bishop
Jim”, a man whose determinedly liberal views – on gay adoption, racism,
women priests and so on – were regularly aired in the Today programme’s
“Thought for the Day” slot, was the bête noire of some elements of the
Conservative Party, and the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, refused
to forward his name to the Queen. She chose Santer, the other nominee,
instead, apparently unaware that he had views even more radical than
Thompson’s – having, for example, as Bishop of Kensington, led a CND
march on RAF Heyford – though he had been less vocal in expressing them.
Santer’s political complexion became clear within days of his
translation, when he used his inaugural sermon to mount a thinly veiled
attack on the Government, claiming that people were not treated as
equals in contemporary society, and that “far from being recognised as a
sin, selfishness is turned into a publicly accepted principle of social
and personal policy.” This prompted The Daily Telegraph to suggest in an
editorial that Birmingham Cathedral deserved “the ‘Divine displeasure’
visited on York Minster after the consecration of the Rt Rev David
Jenkins as Bishop of Durham”.

“What on earth must Bishop Thompson’s opinions be if they make Dr Santer
acceptable to Mrs Thatcher?” the paper asked. Otherwise Santer was known
as a leading champion of ecumenism. From 1983 to 1998 he served,
alongside Bishop, later Cardinal, Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, as Anglican
co-chairman of the second Anglican-Roman Catholic International
Commission. In his inaugural sermon Santer expressed the hope that
“there will once again be only one Christian community here presided
over by one bishop. It won’t be the Church of England we know. It won’t
be the Roman Catholic Church we know. It won’t be the Methodist Church
or anything else we know. It will be the universal Church of Jesus
Christ in this place.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rev-mark-santer-birmingham-bishop-052400067.html