In office 1983–1999 (retired) Name Gordon Bates Consecration 1983 Spouse Betty Vaux (m. 1960) Predecessor Clifford Barker | Parents Ernest & Kathleen Successor Robert Ladds Denomination Anglican Role Bishop of Whitby Diocese Diocese of York | |
Other posts Honorary assistant bishop in York (2010–present); in Carlisle and in Blackburn (1999–2010) Ordination c. 1958 (deacon); c. 1959 (priest) Born 16 March 1934 (age 90) ( 1934-03-16 ) Alma mater Society of the Sacred Mission | ||
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Gordon Bates (born 16 March 1934) was the eighth Bishop of Whitby.
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Bates received his ecclesiastical education at Kelham Theological College, being ordained deacon in 1958 and priest 1959. After a Curacy at Eltham he served as a Youth Chaplain in, firstly, the Gloucester and then the Liverpool Dioceses. From 1965 he began a long association with Liverpool Cathedral, becoming in time a Canon Residentiary, Precentor and finally Director of Ordinands. From 1983 he was a Suffragan Bishop, a post he held for 16 years. He retired to Carnforth and is now an honorary assistant bishop within the Carlisle diocese. Towards the end of his episcopate he stated:
The Church has got to realise its missionary responsibilities. We live in a society, whether that be urban or rural, which is now basically second- or even third-generation pagan once again; and we cannot simply work on the premise that all we have to do to bring people to Christ is to ask them to remember their long-held, but dormant faith … in so many instances we have to go back to basics; we are in a critical missionary situation.
On 11 February 2017, fourteen retired bishops signed an open letter to the then-serving bishops of the Church of England. In an unprecedented move, they expressed their opposition to the House of Bishops' report to General Synod on sexuality, which recommended no change to the Church's canons or practices around sexuality. By 13 February, a serving bishop (Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham) and nine further retired bishops — including Bates — had added their signatures; on 15 February, the report was rejected by synod.