Doctor of Letters
A Church of England Bishop whose achievements include the completion and reordering of Portsmouth Cathedral in the 1990s.
Bishop David Stancliffe is a Fellow of St Chad’s College, Durham, where he researches performance practice in Bach and mentors students.
He is Director of The Bishop’s Consort, a specialist early music group using period instruments, President of the Ecclesiological Society, and a Vice-President of the Royal School of Church Music.
He serves as Assistant Bishop in the dioceses of Durham and Europe, and continues to be involved with the teaching and practice of good liturgy. An accomplished writer on liturgy, music, Church architecture and the practice of the faith, his books include The Lion Companion to Church Architecture (2008).
As Bishop of Salisbury (1993 – 2010), he chaired the Liturgical Commission during the period when Common Worship – the current service books of the Church of England – were being created. He was awarded a Lambeth Doctor of Divinity by Archbishop Rowan Williams.
Prior to Salisbury, he served as Provost of Portsmouth Cathedral and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Portsmouth in 1993. He is an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford and Sarum College.
With a passion for Romanesque architecture and sculpture – and for Italy – Bishop David has directed the Monteverdi Vespers in San Marco, Venice, and Rome and Tuscany.
He lives in Weardale, County Durham and spends summers on Monte Amiata in Southern Tuscany with his wife, Sarah, a published cookery writer and singer.