Paul Bayes

On 7 July 2010[3] it was announced that Bayes would succeed Christopher Foster as Bishop of Hertford upon Foster's translation to Portsmouth.[5] Bayes was duly consecrated a Church of England bishop on 21 September 2010 at St Paul's Cathedral[9] and installed at St Albans Cathedral on 25 September 2010.[10]

On 7 May 2014 it was announced that Bayes was to become the next (8th) Bishop of Liverpool; his canonical election was confirmed on 23 July 2014.[2] Bayes was installed at Liverpool Cathedral on 15 November 2014.

Bayes is the Visitor of St Peter's College, Oxford;[11] he was chosen from among the Church's diocesan bishops, and may serve until he ceases to be one.[12]

He was for a short time a member of House of Lords from 15 November 2021[13] until his retirement. He retired and resigned the See of Liverpool effective 1 March 2022.[14] He was succeeded as Bishop of Liverpool by John Perumbalath.[15]

In June 2016 Bayes "called for far-reaching change in the church's attitudes to lesbian and gay people and a meaningful welcome to Christians in same-sex relationships".[16] He supports dropping the requirement for gay Christians to be celibate, saying "I've learned to respect the experiences of people who want to celebrate and express their sexuality, and be within the church".[16] He contributed a chapter to the book Journeys in Grace and Truth: Revisiting Scripture and Sexuality (2016), which aims to show how it is "possible to hold a positive view of same-sex relationships while being a biblically rooted evangelical".[17][18]

Since 2020, Bayes has been a patron of the Open Table Network, an ecumenical Christian charity for LGBT people and their allies.[19] In a speech at the MOSAIC (Movement of Supporting Anglicans for an Inclusive Church) national conference, he called for the Church of England to adopt a "gender-neutral marriage canon" and "to honour, recognise and, yes indeed, bless same-sex unions".[20] Bayes said, “I want to see a church where, if a congregation and its ministers want to bless and marry same-sex people or trans people, then they should be free to do so without stigma. And those who don’t want to do so should be given freedom of conscience not to do so. I want to see gender-neutral marriage canons, that simply say marriage is between two people.”[21]

Bayes maintains there is too much divisiveness in UK society and in the west generally. Bayes said there is a, “struggle between those in whose interest it is to fragment society and those who want to sustain the common good. (...) It’s not about individual bad apples. It’s about the culture. [the political culture was] adversarial, scratchy, exhausted (...) You see clear illiberalism in eastern Europe, you see the rise of the extreme right in France, and you see what you see in the United States … Basic decencies have been lost.”[21]

In the Diocese of Liverpool, Bayes has sought to galvanise all members of the churches, younger and older, around a vision named "Bigger Church, Bigger Difference", with the stated theme "Making a Bigger Difference — More people knowing Jesus, more justice in the world"[22] This has been further embedded through the call to a Rule of Life[23] within the diocese.