Toby Howarth approved as next Bishop of Leeds

The Right Reverend Dr Toby Matthew Howarth has been approved for election as Bishop of Leeds, the government has announced.

The King approved the nomination on the advice of the previous Prime Minister. Bishop Howarth, currently Suffragan Bishop of Bradford in the Diocese of Leeds, is to succeed the Right Reverend Nicholas Baines following his retirement.

Bishop Howarth was educated at Yale University, Birmingham University and the Free University of Amsterdam. He trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, served his title at St Augustine in the Diocese of Derby, and was ordained priest in 1993.

From 1995, he served as a study partner with Crosslinks and The Netherlands Reformed Mission League in India. In 2000, he became evangelist at the Pilgrim Father’s Church in Rotterdam.

He later worked as tutor with the Church Mission Society at Crowther Hall, Selly Oak, in the Diocese of Birmingham, and was made vice-principal in 2003. The following year he became priest-in-charge at Springfield St Christopher.

Bishop Howarth also served as inter-faith adviser to the Bishop of Birmingham from 2005 and, from 2011, as Secretary for Inter-Religious Affairs to the Archbishop of Canterbury and National Adviser for Inter-Religious Affairs. He became Bishop of Bradford in 2014 and has additionally served as Acting Bishop of Leeds since 2025.