Peter Wheatley

For the British chemist, see Peter Jaffrey Wheatley.

The Right Reverend

Peter Wheatley
Bishop of Edmonton
Wheatley in 2009
ChurchChurch of England
ProvinceCanterbury
DioceseLondon
SeeEdmonton
In office1999 to 2014
PredecessorBrian Masters
SuccessorRob Wickham
Other post(s)Archdeacon of Hampstead (1995–1999)
Orders
Ordination1973 (deacon)
1974 (priest)
ConsecrationMarch 1999
by George Carey
Personal details
Born (1947-09-07) 7 September 1947 (age 77)
NationalityBritish
Alma materThe Queen's College, Oxford

Peter Wheatley (born 7 September 1947) is a retired bishop in the Church of England. From 1995 to 1999, he was the Archdeacon of Hampstead. From 1999 to 2014, he was the Bishop of Edmonton, an area bishop in the Diocese of London.

Early life

Educated at Ipswich School, The Queen's College, Oxford, and Pembroke College, Cambridge,[1] Wheatley trained for ordination at the College of the Resurrection and Ripon Hall, Oxford and was ordained in 1973.[2]

Ordained ministry

Wheatley served his curacy at All Saints Church, Fulham, becoming vicar of Holy Cross in St Pancras, London in 1978. In 1982, he moved to become priest-in-charge of All Souls' Hampstead and St Mary's Kilburn. He also became vicar of St James' in West Hampstead at this time.

While remaining a parish priest, Wheatley became the Director of Post-Ordination Training in 1988 for the Edmonton area. Between 1988 and 1993, he was also Area Dean of North Camden and was a member of the General Synod from 1975 to 1995. He became Archdeacon of Hampstead in 1995.[3]

Wheatley was consecrated as Bishop of Edmonton in March 1999.

He announced his intention to retire at the end of 2014 to the London Diocesan Synod on 17 July 2014.[4] He retired from full-time ministry on 31 December 2014.

Wheatley retired to the south coast of England in 2014, but since that time has been licensed as an honorary assistant bishop in both the Diocese of Southwark and the Diocese of London.[5] Additionally, since 2014, he has served as episcopal patron of the chapter and companions of the Shrine of Our Lady of Willesden.[6] From 2019 to 2022, during an interregnum, he was priest-in-charge of Christ Church, St Leonards-on-Sea in the Diocese of Chichester.[7] Since the appointment of a new rector, he has continued to serve in the parish as an honorary assistant clergy.[8]

Doctrinal positions

Bishop Wheatley presiding at mass with chapter priests of the Shrine of Our Lady of Willesden.

Wheatley is opposed to the ordination of women as priests and bishops. In 2008 he was one of several hundred clergy who signed an open letter from Forward in Faith calling upon the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, as co-chairmen of the Church of England's General Synod, to ensure that legal protections established in 1992 for those clergy who were conscientiously unable to accept the ordination of women be preserved. This was in response to a proposal in General Synod that the statutory legal protections concerned should be replaced with a merely advisory "Code of Practice".[9]

Personal life

In 2003, The Times reported that Wheatley was gay.[10] By 2003, he had been sharing his home with his partner for eight years. He has stated that he is "a celibate Christian living by Christian teachings".[11]

Styles

  • Peter Wheatley (1947–1973)
  • The Revd Peter Wheatley (1973–1995)
  • The Ven Peter Wheatley (1995–1999)
  • The Rt Revd Peter Wheatley (1999—present)

References

  1. ^ Who's Who 2008 London, A & C Black, 2008 ISBN 978-0-7136-8555-8
  2. ^ Crockford's On Line Accessed 24 April 2008 20:17
  3. ^ Debrett's People of Today: Ed Ellis,P 1992, London, Debtrett's p 1621 ISBN 1-870520-09-2
  4. ^ St Mary Magdalene [@StMarysEnfield] (17 July 2014). "Bishop Peter Wheatley has announced his retirement at the end of the year" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  5. ^ Crockford's On Line Accessed 21 July 2008 16:47
  6. ^ "Companions of the Shrine". Parish of St Mary, Willesden. Archived from the original on 20 July 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  7. ^ "Peter William Wheatley". Crockford's Clerical Directory (online ed.). Church House Publishing. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  8. ^ "Who's Who". Christ Church. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  9. ^ Forward In Faith UK, Open Letter to the Archbishops, 30 June 2008 Archived 16 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "Church of England bishop reveals he is in a gay relationship". The Irish Times. 2 September 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  11. ^ Gledhill, Ruth (23 June 2003). "Evangelicals to meet Williams over gay bishop". The Times. Retrieved 30 June 2015. According to The Sunday Times yesterday, two clergymen known to be gay were appointed bishops without objection in the 1990s. One, the Bishop of Edmonton, the Right Rev Peter Wheatley, who has shared his home with his partner for eight years, told the News of the World that he was "a celibate Christian living by Christian teachings".
Church of England titles
Preceded by Bishop of Edmonton
1999–2014 		Succeeded by