28 Facts About Helen-Ann Hartley

Helen-Ann Macleod Hartley is a British Anglican diocesean bishop, Lord Spiritual, and academic.

Helen-Ann Hartley previously served as Bishop of Waikato in New Zealand from 2014 to 2017, and area Bishop of Ripon in the Diocese of Leeds from 2018 to 2023.

Helen-Ann Hartley was the first woman to have trained as a priest in the Church of England to join the episcopate, and the third woman to become a bishop of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

Helen-Ann Hartley has repeatedly criticised senior bishops on matters related to safeguarding and power dynamics.

Helen-Ann Hartley was baptised Presbyterian in Coldingham Priory, Coldingham, Berwickshire, where her father was the minister.

Helen-Ann Hartley's father was a Presbyterian Church of Scotland minister but the family moved to Anglicanism in the 1980s.

Helen-Ann Hartley has attended a number of universities where she studied theology.

Helen-Ann Hartley graduated from the University of St Andrews with an undergraduate Master of Theology degree in 1995, and from Princeton Theological Seminary with a Master of Theology degree in 1996.

Helen-Ann Hartley was an acolyte at Durham Cathedral during her youth.

Helen-Ann Hartley attended the Oxford Ministry Course at Ripon College Cuddesdon to undergo ministerial formation.

Helen-Ann Hartley then began her ministry as a curate in a group of parishes in Wheatley, Oxfordshire.

Helen-Ann Hartley later became the theological college's Director of Biblical Studies.

Helen-Ann Hartley originally went to St John's College in 2010 to research for a book, Making Sense of the Bible, before moving to New Zealand to take up the appointment of Dean in early 2012.

In September 2013, at the age of 40, Helen-Ann Hartley was elected to become the seventh Bishop of Waikato in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

Helen-Ann Hartley was the first woman who had trained and served as a priest in the Church of England to become a bishop: at the time of her election, women couldn't be consecrated to the episcopate of the Church of England.

On 9 November 2017, it was announced that Helen-Ann Hartley was to become the Bishop of Ripon, an area bishop in the Church of England Diocese of Leeds.

Helen-Ann Hartley was the youngest bishop in the Church of England.

In October 2022, it was announced that Helen-Ann Hartley would take up the post of Bishop of Newcastle in early 2023, succeeding Christine Hardman, who retired in November 2021.

Helen-Ann Hartley became the youngest Diocesean bishop in the Church of England.

On 21 September 2023, Helen-Ann Hartley was admitted to the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual.

Helen-Ann Hartley was introduced to the House on 26 October 2023, and made her maiden speech on 14 November 2023 during a debate of the King's Speech.

In November 2023, Helen-Ann Hartley became one of the co-lead bishops for the Living in Love and Faith process involving the introduction of "Prayers of Love and Faith" along with Martyn Snow, Bishop of Leicester.

Helen-Ann Hartley had asked for the article to be taken down.

In May 2023, Helen-Ann Hartley suspended honorary assistant bishop Lord Sentamu's permission to officiate in Newcastle Diocese because his statement about a review that found that he had failed to act on a disclosure of abuse when he had been Archbishop of York was "inconsistent with the tone and culture I expect around safeguarding in Newcastle".

In November 2024, Helen-Ann Hartley alleged that she had "experienced as coercive language" text from Archbishops Justin Welby and Stephen Cottrell, in a letter requesting her to reinstate Lord Sentamu's permission to officiate.

Helen-Ann Hartley criticised the letter for reflecting a lack of awareness of power dynamics within the Church.

Helen-Ann Hartley said publishing the letter was essential to expose these systemic problems.

In 2003, Helen-Ann Francis married Myles Hartley, a musician and church organist.