The Bishop of Sherborne

Bishop Karen is the 36th Bishop of Sherborne and the 9th in modern times.

She was consecrated on 24 February 2016 at Westminster Abbey and officially welcomed on 6 March 2016 at Sherborne Abbey.

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The Right Reverend Karen Gorham Bishop of Sherborne 01258 444521 bishop.sherborne@salisbury.anglican.org  On social media:

 
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About Bishop Karen

Bishop Karen holds a BA from the University of Bristol and trained for the ministry at Trinity College, Bristol. She is a Fellow of the RSA.

As Bishop of Sherborne Bishop Karen oversees the work of the Anglican churches in Dorset, and acts on behalf of the diocese in that County. Bishop Karen also has responsibility for Lay Ministry and Chaplaincy across the diocese. She currently chairs the Rural Hope Steering Group, the Diocesan Communication Group, The Aldhelm Mission Fund Group. Bishop Karen is Warden of LLMs.

In the wider Diocese Bishop Karen is Chair of Trustees for the Dorset and Wiltshire Deaf and Hard of Hearing Trust and is Chair of DSAT Members. Bishop Karen is one of the female participant observers in the House of Bishops and is a member of the House of Bishop’s Delegation Committee.

In Dorset Bishop Karen is a Governor of Sherborne Girls School, is on the Dorset Police Ethics Committee and was Chair of Churches Together in Dorset from 2017-2019. Her interests include bringing together Church and Society and with that aim Bishop Karen holds a number of Breakfast meetings each year bringing together community, business and church leaders around a topic of interest in the County.

Bishop Karen is patron of a number of local charities including Routes to Roots homeless charity in Poole, the Sherborne Abbey Festival, and the Dorset Community Foundation.

Bishop Karen is committed to supporting the local church in its context be it rural, urban and market town. She has set up a pastorally supportive chaplains forum for lead chaplains across the diocese. She supports clergy through appointment processes, regular visits to churches and is committed to new ways of being church including pioneer ministry, mission initiatives and pilgrimage.

Her interests include travel, and walking. She has undertaken a number of long distance walks and is pleased to be following in the footsteps of Aldhelm, first Bishop of Sherborne.
Prior to ordination Bishop Karen worked as an administrator with BTEC and the Royal Society of Arts and as a Pastoral Assistant in Essex and Hull.

She was a member of the Church of England General Synod for twelve years. Bishop Karen served her title at Northallerton with Kirby Sigston in the Diocese of York from 1995 to 1999. She was ordained priest in 1996 and in 1999 went on to become Priest-in-Charge of St Paul’s, Maidstone in the Diocese of Canterbury. During this time she was also Assistant Director of Ordinands and Area Dean of Maidstone. In 2006 she became an Honorary Canon of Canterbury Cathedral.

She was Archdeacon of Buckingham from 2007 until her appointment as Bishop, a member of the Church of England General Synod for twelve years, and from 2013 - 2016 served as a member of the Panel of Chairs.

About the Bishopric of Sherborne

The See of Sherborne was established by St Aldhelm, also Abbot of Malmesbury, in ~705. It was the mother diocese of most of South West England in Saxon times before being subsumed into the new Diocese of Salisbury after the Norman Conquest.

In 1925, the title of Bishop of Sherborne was revived for one of two suffragan bishoprics in the Diocese of Salisbury; the Diocese's other suffragan bishopric, Ramsbury, also takes its name for an Saxon diocese that was largely subsumed into Salisbury.

Eight bishops have held the title since it was revived. You can see a full list of Bishops of Sherborne, ancient and modern, on Wikipedia.