THERE will soon be a new face at the helm of the church leadership in Bodmin after the incumbent archdeacon was announced as the next Bishop of Basingstoke.

The King has approved the nomination of the Venerable Kelly Anne Betteridge, Archdeacon of Bodmin in the Diocese of Truro, to the Suffragan See of Basingstoke in the Diocese of Winchester, in succession to the Right Reverend David Williams BSc, following his translation to the See of Truro.

Ms Betteridge was educated at Roehampton Institute, gaining a degree in Education and Theology in 1992. She served as a youth and children’s worker in parishes in the Dioceses of Guildford and of Oxford and then as a ministry specialist working with the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS), involved in training and consultancy work with leaders, writing resources and shaping policy relating to children’s ministry.

She trained for ministry at Queen’s College, Birmingham, gaining an MA in Applied Theological Studies. She served her title across the three parishes of St Nicolas, Nuneaton with St James, Weddington, and St Theobold and St Chad, Caldecote, in the Diocese of Coventry, prior to being ordained Priest in 2011 and was subsequently appointed Vicar of St Nicolas and Priest in Charge of St James and St Theobold and St Chad in 2014.

In 2021 Ms Betteridge took up her current role as Archdeacon of Bodmin and a director of Intergenerational Church, in the Diocese of Truro, supporting deaneries to implement plans for sustainability and flourishing, working with leaders (lay and ordained) to embed new patterns of ministry and, promoting intergenerational approaches to church life.

She enjoys being creative, as well as reading, baking, live music and theatre, and walking, saying: “We've done several distance walks and a Mont Blanc charity trek in 2022. But most of the time though I'm happy just pottering in a local wood, examining moss and lichen!”

She has had the opportunity to lead groups on trips to the Dominican Republic, Ghana, and to visit Tanzania with Tearfund.

In response to her appointment as bishop, Ms Betteridge said: “It is an amazing privilege and I am so looking forward to being able to engage in the life of the diocese, to meet people, to hear their stories, to pray and plan, discover and discern, and most of all to enable others in the mission and ministry of God in the Diocese of Winchester. Whenever anyone has offered to pray for me in this new role I have asked for wisdom, kindness and courage. I'd like these qualities to be hallmarks of this new phase of ministry for me.”

Ms Betteridge’s predecessor, the Bishop of Truro, David Williams said: “Kelly is wholehearted in her love for God and for the Church. She has served Truro Diocese as a godly and wise senior leader. She moves to be Bishop of Basingstoke, a role that I know well, and Kelly will find a warm and prayerful welcome. She will bring her gifts and experience to both the churches and the communities of North Hampshire – but above all she will bring herself!”