Right Reverend Doctor Eleanor Sanderson named as the new Bishop of Hull

Right Reverend Doctor Eleanor Sanderson is the new Suffragan Bishop of Hull following the retirement of the Right Reverend Alison White.

The Bishop of Hull is one of three Suffragan Bishops supporting and extending the ministry of the Archbishop of York and has a particular responsibility for the archdeaconry of the East Riding, encompassing the City of Hull, the East Riding, and part of the North Yorkshire coast including Scarborough and as far north as Ravenscar.

Eleanor was born in Hinderwell, near Whitby, and within the Diocese of York in 1977.

She grew up in Derbyshire and came to faith while she was a student at Bristol University, where she studied geography.

She studied at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, for a Master of Development Studies (2003) and PhD in Geography (2006), followed by a further Masters in Theology (2013) through the University of Otago.

She said: “I’m so excited and humbled to be called to follow Alison White as Bishop of Hull.

“It’s a great honour to take this title from such a vibrant and historic city as Hull, and to renew a connection between this city and my family village of Tideswell in Derbyshire, which was also the home of the first Bishop of Hull, Bishop Pursglove in the 1500s.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know Hull and its people and to exploring the villages and towns of the East Riding Archdeaconry and the Yorkshire coast too.

“I’m also looking forward to living the friendship of Jesus alongside Archbishop Stephen, Archdeacon Andy, all the clergy and the whole family of God within the East Riding Archdeaconry, and to bringing my family to live in these wonderful communities within Yorkshire, serving God together in the land and coastlines where I was born.”

The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said: “I’m delighted that Eleanor Sanderson will be the next Bishop of Hull. She has a great zest for life, and the joy she finds in her faith just shines out of her.

“She and Bishop Justin Duckworth are torchbearers for the church in bringing it back to its central calling to attend to God, in order to go forward with really practical and sacrificial responses to modern challenges in the world we all share.

“She was born in the Diocese of York so this is a homecoming; I know that the Diocese and particularly the people of Hull, the East Riding and on the Yorkshire coast will come to love her quickly, and that she, Tim and their sons Joe and Zac will be taken to all our hearts as they join us in living Christ’s story here.”