It has been announced by Downing Street that the Venerable Kelly Anne Betteridge, currently Archdeacon of Bodmin, will be the next Bishop of Basingstoke
As Bishop of Basingstoke, Kelly will have a key leadership role across the Diocese of Winchester, especially in ministry development, as well having a particular pastoral care for parishes, chaplaincies and schools across the seven deaneries of Basingstoke, Alton, Alresford, Andover, Odiham, Winchester and Whitchurch.
On the announcement day (28 August) Kelly will be introduced to representatives from across the region, first spending time at a community café at the Church of the Ascension, Burghclere, then travelling to meet local young people taking part in a holiday club at St John’s Hartley Wintney, and then on to meet the team at Basingstoke Church in their newly reordered Grade I building and members of the Basingstoke Town Chaplaincy who will take the new bishop on a walk around the town centre. The final stop on the tour will be Evensong at Winchester Cathedral where all in our diocesan community are invited to come and pray with the new bishop and join in a celebratory reception afterwards.
Kelly will be the 7th bishop of Basingstoke, following the Rt Revd David Williams who became the Bishop of Truro earlier this year. She will be the first female bishop of Basingstoke. She will be consecrated as a bishop on Wednesday 15th October at Southwark Cathedral and welcomed formally at a service at St Mary’s Andover on Saturday 15th November.
Kelly is originally from Wiltshire, the daughter of a farm foreman – she says she “grew up with a strong connection to the countryside.” After graduating in 1992 with a degree in education and theology, Kelly began her ministry as a youth and children’s worker before becoming an All-Age Advisor for the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS), delivering training, creating resources and shaping policy relating to children’s ministry. Kelly then completed her MA in contextual theology in 2010 at Queens College Birmingham and was ordained at Coventry Cathedral the same year. She served as a curate at St Nicolas Nuneaton, and in 2014 she became the vicar of St Nicolas and priest-in-charge of Weddington and Caldecote, before moving to become the Archdeacon of Bodmin.
Kelly is married to Simon, who is the National Director of Linking Lives and is also head of community development for Compassionate Communities UK. Together they share a passion for building intergenerational communities of blessing. She also has two stepchildren – “with their partners, our granddaughter, parents, siblings and cats, we have our own growing community of blessedness!” she says.
She enjoys being creative, as well as reading, baking, live music & theatre, and walking, saying: “We’ve done several distance walks and a Mont Blanc charity trek in 2022. But most of the time though I’m happy just pottering in a local wood, examining moss and lichen!” She also loves travelling and has had the opportunity to lead groups on trips to the Dominican Republic, Ghana, and to visit Tanzania with Tearfund.
In response to her appointment as bishop, Kelly said, “It is an amazing privilege and I am so looking forward to being able to engage in the life of the diocese, to meet people, to hear their stories, to pray and plan, discover and discern, and most of all to enable others in the mission and ministry of God in the Diocese of Winchester. Whenever anyone has offered to pray for me in this new role I have asked for wisdom, kindness and courage. I’d like these qualities to be hallmarks of this new phase of ministry for me.”
The Bishop of Winchester, Philip Mounstephen, said, “I’m delighted that Ven. Kelly Betteridge will be coming to join us in the Diocese of Winchester. She combines a warm pastoral heart with strong experience both in parish ministry and in diocesan leadership. She has a deep passion for growing a church for all ages, and her ministry has been very much appreciated by the clergy of her current Archdeaconry. I am confident her ministry, under God, will be a great gift to our diocese and I look forward very much to her consecration and service amongst us.”
The Bishop of Southampton, Rhiannon King, said, “I’m thrilled with this news and very much look forward to working with Bishop Kelly. I have heard wonderful things and know she will be a great gift to us. I will be praying for her as she starts and if she loves it half as much as I do she’ll have a fabulous time!’
Kelly’s predecessor, the Bishop of Truro, David Williams, said: “Kelly is wholehearted in her love for God and for the Church. She has served Truro Diocese as a godly and wise senior leader. She moves to be Bishop of Basingstoke (a role that I know well!) and Kelly will find a warm and prayerful welcome. She will bring her gifts and experience to both the churches and the communities of North Hampshire – but above all she will bring herself!”
