Julie Anne Conalty (born 1963) is a British Anglican bishop. Since 19 July 2021, she has been the Bishop of Birkenhead, one of two suffragan bishops of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

Diocese of Chester The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York covering the pre-1974 county of Cheshire and therefore including the Wirral and parts of Stockport, Trafford and Tameside. History Ancient diocese Before the si ...

. She previously served as Archdeacon of Tonbridge in the

Diocese of Rochester The Diocese of Rochester is a Church of England diocese in the English county of Kent and the Province of Canterbury. The cathedral church of the diocese is Rochester Cathedral in the former city of Rochester. The bishop's Latin episcopal signa ...

since 2017. Conalty trained for the ministry at the

South East Institute for Theological Education St Augustine's College of Theology is a non-residential Anglican theological college in the Southeast of England. Founded in 1994 as the South East Institute for Theological Education (SEITE), the college trains men and women for ordained and lay ...

; she was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

in 1999, and

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

in 2000. She was at

East Wickham East Wickham is a district in south-east London, England, within the London Borough of Bexley. It is situated north of Welling, east of Shooter's Hill, south of Plumstead, south-west of Abbey Wood and west of West Heath, and east-southeast of ...

from 1999 to 2004; and Charlton to 2010. After a

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

Plumstead Common Plumstead Common is a common and urban park in Plumstead in the Royal Borough of Greenwich ( SE18), south-east London. It is part of the South East London Green Chain. Location and geology Plumstead Common is bound to the north by Old Mill Roa ...

she was

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

of Erith from 2012 until her appointment as Archdeacon.

Early life and education

Conalty was born in 1963. She was educated at Ormskirk Grammar School in

Ormskirk Ormskirk is a market town in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England, north of Liverpool, northwest of St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston. Ormskirk is known for its gingerbread. Geography and administr ...

, Lancashire: it was a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

which became a comprehensive school while she was there. She took a Biblical Studies degree at the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

. Although she felt called to ordained ministry as a teenager, women could not become priests in the Church of England at that time. After leaving university, Conalty first worked with the homeless as a night shelter manager between 1985 and 1986. She then moved into law enforcement, first as a community support officer (1986 to 1988), and then as a

probation officer A probation and parole officer is an official appointed or sworn to investigate, report on, and supervise the conduct of convicted offenders on probation or those released from incarceration to community supervision such as parole. Most probati ...

(1990 to 1999). In between, she trained as a social worker. In the 1990s, she finally trained for ordination on a part-time basis with the South East Institute of Theological Education.

Ordained ministry

Conalty was

in the

as a

in 1999 and as a

in 2000. She began her ecclesiastical career as a

non-stipendiary minister Self-supporting ministers (SSMs), previously called non-stipendiary ministers or non-stipendiary priests (NSMs), are religious ministers who do not receive a stipend (i.e. payment) for their services and therefore financially support their own mi ...

(ie, part-time and unpaid) in the

Diocese of Southwark The Diocese of Southwark is one of the 42 dioceses of the Church of England, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. It was created on 1 May 1905 from part of the ancient Dio ...

, while continuing to work in probation and youth services. She first served at St Michael the Archangel,

from 1999 to 2004, and then at St Luke with Holy Trinity, Charlton from 2004 to 2010. In 2010, Conalty left her secular career and moved into full-time ministry, becoming associate priest of the

United Benefice. In 2012, she moved to the

where she had been appointed

of Christ Church, Erith. She was additionally Bishop's Advisor for the Ministry of Ordained Women (2013 to 2017) and

Area Dean In the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion as well as some Lutheran denominations, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a "rural deanery" (often referred to as a deanery); "ruridecanal" is the corresponding adjective. ...

of Erith (2014 to 2017). In 2016, she was made an

Honorary Canon A canon (from the Latin , itself derived from the Greek , , "relating to a rule", "regular") is a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, i ...

Rochester Cathedral Rochester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an English church of Norman architecture in Rochester, Medway, Rochester, Kent. The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church o ...

. On 24 September 2017, she was

collated Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office filin ...

as Archdeacon of Tonbridge. She was also the Bishop of Rochester's Lead for Safeguarding. Conalty has been a member of the

General Synod of the Church of England The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church ...

since November 2013.

Episcopal ministry

On 27 May 2021, it was announced that Conalty would be the next Bishop of Birkenhead, a suffragan bishop in the

. She legally took up the post on 19 July 2021, the day of her consecration as a bishop by Stephen Cottrell,

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...

, at

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Arch ...

; she was consecrated alongside the other suffragan of the diocese, Sam Corley, Bishop of Stockport.

Personal life

Conalty is married to Simon, and they have two sons. The Conalty family support South London club

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conalty, Julie Ann 1963 births Living people Archdeacons of Tonbridge 21st-century English Anglican priests 21st-century Anglican bishops Women Anglican clergy Women Anglican bishops Bishops of Birkenhead Members of the General Synod of the Church of England Alumni of the University of Sheffield People educated at Ormskirk Grammar School