THE names of the final three members of Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) for the next Archbishop of Canterbury were named on Tuesday, after a contentious local selection process.
A commercial lawyer, David Berry, a former county councillor, Sally-Ann Marks, and the Area Dean of Eastbridge, Canon Estella Last, have been elected from the diocese of Canterbury’s vacancy-in-see committee.
Canon Last has ministered in the diocese since her ordination to the priesthood in 2014, and was diocesan adviser on women’s ministry from 2019 to 2024. Ms Marks is a former chairman of Surrey County Council, representing the Conservative Party, and PCC member at St George’s, Benenden. Mr Berry is church warden of St Michael and All Angels, Hartlip, and was formerly a partner at the law firm Charles Russell Speechlys.
The three will join 14 others, including representatives from the General Synod, the Anglican Communion, and the House of Bishops. The names of these other members was confirmed last week (News, 16 May).
For previous Archbishops of Canterbury, there were six representatives from the diocese of Canterbury and one from the Anglican Communion. This was changed in 2022, increasing the Communion representation to five and reducing the number drawn from the vacancy-in-see committee.
Elections in the diocese had to be rerun several times. One version of the vacancy-in-see committee, constituted before the resignation of Archbishop Welby, was deemed not to have been properly elected, owing to candidates’ being drawn from the diocesan synod only.
A subsequent election, held in early 2025, was also considered to be improperly conducted after the event. Rule 75 of the Church Representation Rules was cited, which states that someone who will automatically be elected owing to a lack of other eligible candidates should be removed from the voting paper.
At around the same time, the rules about who can serve on a vacancy-in-see committee, and who can be elected from it to serve on a CNC, were altered by the General Synod in February (Synod, 28 February).
Only after the committee had been properly formed was the election of its representatives to the CNC possible, although the Church Times understands that a Statement of Needs prepared by a previous iteration of the committee on behalf of the diocese has been accepted as part of the documentation to be considered in the appointment process.
