The Anglo-Catholic is honored to welcome to its staff Bishop Edwin Barnes, formerly Bishop of Richborough, one of the provincial episcopal visitors in the Province of Canterbury.

Bishop Barnes read theology for three years at Oxford before finishing his studies at Cuddesdon College (at the time a theological college with a rather monastic character). He subsequently served two urban curacies in Portsmouth and Woking.  During his first curacy, and after the statutory three years of celibacy, he married his wife Jane (with whom he has two children, Nicola and Matthew).  In 1967, Bishop Barnes received his first incumbency as Rector of Farncombe in the Diocese of Guildford.  After eleven years, the family moved to Hessle, in the Diocese of York, for another nine years as vicar.  In 1987, he became Principal of St Stephen's House, Oxford.  In 1995, he was asked by then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, to become the second PEV for the Province.  He was based in St. Alban's and charged with ministering to faithful Anglo-Catholics spread over the length of Southern England, from the Humber Estuary to the Channel Islands.  After six years of service as a PEV, Bishop Barnes retired to Lymington on the south coast where he holds the Bishop of Winchester's license as an honorary assistant bishop.  On the retirement of the late and much lamented Bishop Eric Kemp, he was honored to be asked to succeed him as President of the Church Union, which office he still holds.

Bishop Barnes has dedicated the better part of his career to the defense of Catholic Faith and Apostolic Order in the Church of England and, even now, whilst looking forward to a future in the Anglican Ordinariate, as President of the Church Union, he continues to defend the rights of priests against the abuses of overweening prelates and their minions.  I invite all of our readers to join me in welcoming him to The Anglo-Catholic!