Martyn Snow

Martyn James Snow^[1] (born 1968) is a British Anglican bishop. Since 2016, he has been the Bishop of Leicester. He previously served as Bishop of Tewkesbury from 2013 to 2016, and as Archdeacon of Sheffield and Rotherham from 2010 to 2013.^[2]

Early life and education

Snow was born in 1968 in Indonesia.^[3][4] He was educated at Sheffield University.^[3] He trained for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, an Anglican theological college in the evangelical tradition.^[5]

Ordained ministry

Snow ordained in 1995. He was an assistant curate at St Andrew's Brinsworth with Catcliffe and Treeton before service with the Church Mission Society in Guinea. He was vicar of Christ Church, Pitsmoor from 2001 to 2010 and area dean of Ecclesfield from 2007.^[5]

Snow falls within the evangelical tradition of the Church of England.^[6]

Episcopal ministry

On 25 September 2013, Snow was consecrated a bishop by Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, during a service in Westminster Abbey.^[4][7] In October 2013, he started his duties as Bishop of Tewkesbury, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Gloucester.^[4] He was acting diocesan Bishop of Gloucester from 5 August 2014 until Rachel Treweek took up the role of diocesan bishop in June 2015.^[8]

On 15 December 2015, it was announced that Snow would be translated to Leicester in 2016.^[5][9] Snow officially became Bishop of Leicester with the confirmation of his election on 22 February 2016.^[10] He then become the youngest diocesan bishop in the Church of England, aged 48.^[6] On 14 May 2016, a service of installation was held at Leicester Cathedral during which he was seated on his Cathedra and given the crozier of the Diocese of Leicester.^[11]

Safeguarding controversy and CDM complaint

In May 2016 Snow was one of six bishops accused of procedural misconduct by a survivor of child sex abuse. He was cited in the Guardian and Church Times along with Bishops Peter Burrows, Steven Croft, Glyn Webster, Roy Williamson and Archbishop of York, John Sentamu as subject of Clergy Disciplinary Measure complaints owing to their inaction on the survivor's disclosure.^[12][13] According to the Guardian report, Snow had been told of the abuse in 2013 when he was archdeacon of Sheffield. The bishops contested the complaints because they were made after the church’s required one-year limit.^[14] All six bishops were pictured on a protest brochure which the survivor handed out at Steven Croft's enthronement as Bishop of Oxford later that year.^[15][16]

References