THE Bishop of Bardsey, who is also Assistant Bishop of Bangor, the Rt Revd David Morris, is to resign his see, it was announced on Monday.
Bishop Morris, at 38, was the youngest-ever bishop in the Church in Wales when he was consecrated in 2024. He will preside and preach at a farewell service in Bangor Cathedral on St Valentine’s Day.
The Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Cherry Vann, said that Bishop Morris had been a “faithful servant of the gospel” and a “good colleague”. Speaking for the Church’s bishops, she said that Bishop Morris “goes with our love, our prayers, and our very best wishes for the future”.
Bishop Morris said that he “lay down” his ministry as Bishop of Bardsey “with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the responsibilities entrusted to me, the experiences I’ve been afforded, but even more importantly, for the opportunity and privilege to serve in such a beautiful diocese and among such extraordinary colleagues and church communities.”
Bishop Morris will continue working with the Representative Body of the Church in Wales over the next three months, before deciding his next steps. During his time in Bangor, he established a vocations discussion group, Yr Alwad (Welsh for “The Call”).
The Church Times understands that his departure relates to the Church in Wales’s structure, in which an assistant bishop is appointed in the see occupied by the Archbishop in Wales, with the post effectively becoming redundant on the retirement of the Archbishop.
The former Archbishop of Wales the Most Revd Andrew John, who was also Bishop of Bangor, retired with immediate effect in the summer, taking “full responsibility” for not addressing failings at Bangor Cathedral “quickly enough” (News, 4 July 2025).
Speaking about the announcement of Bishop Morris’s departure, the new Dean of Bangor, the Very Revd Dr Manon Ceridwen James (News, 15 July) paid tribute to his “wise pastoral support of the cathedral at a challenging time”.
After the Electoral College in Bangor decided not to shortlist any candidates for a new Bishop of Bangor, the Governing Body of the Church in Wales opted in November to instead appoint an Interim Bishop, from outside Wales, for up to two years (News, 28 November 2025).
That appointment, to be made by Archbishop Vann, has not yet been announced. It is thought that Bishop Morris has not put his name forward.
His consecration attracted attention because of the participation of the Bishop of Lancaster, Dr Jill Duff, in the laying on of hands.
Dr Duff has been a vocal opponent of the introduction of blessings for same-sex couples in the Church of England, and also opposes changes that would enable clerics in the C of E to enter same-sex marriages.
There have never been any such formal restrictions on clergy in the Church in Wales, and, at the time, Bishop Morris was engaged to be married to his fiancé, Marc Penny.
Both Dr Duff and Bishop Morris talked down suggestions of controversy (News, 17 May 2024). Bishop Morris told the Church Times that he was “delighted” that Dr Duff had attended, and said that there had never been a suggestion that she would not take part in the laying on of hands.
“I sensed that she’d come to participate in the making of a new bishop in the way that any Church of England representative would, and didn’t think anything more of it, really,” he said.
Dr Duff, who live in north Wales, characterised her participation as an act of respect for provincial autonomy. She said that there was a long history of English bishops “domineering” in Wales, and that participating was a way of “trying to find reconciliation and finding a positive way forward” in the relationship between the Provinces.
“Who am I, as an English bishop, to judge a Welsh bishop? But if I’m an English bishop, in an English jurisdiction, that feels quite a different thing to me,” she said.
