Mark Sowerby

On 30 April 2019, it was announced that Sowerby would be the next Principal of the College of the Resurrection, an Anglo-Catholic theological college in West Yorkshire and his alma mater. He succeeded Peter Allan CR, who retired at the end of the 2018–2019 academic year; Sowerby resigned his See effective 31 August 2019.

Sowerby previously held views consistent with traditionalist Anglo-Catholicism, such as the rejection of the ordination of women as deacons, priests, or bishops. In June 2015, he announced that he had changed his theological outlook and now supports the ordination of women as deacons, priests, and bishops. Therefore, he resigned from the Council of Bishops of The Society, a traditionalist Anglo-Catholic association in the Church of England.

Appointed to become Bishop of Horsham — one of two suffragan bishops of the Diocese of Chichester — in 2009, Sowerby was ordained and consecrated a bishop by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Chichester Cathedral on 25 July 2009. At first, his post was as an area bishop; but the area scheme was wound up in 2013 and he remained a non-area suffragan. During a protracted investigation – while there was a vacancy in the diocesan see — into the efficacy of safeguarding practices in the diocese, Sowerby was additionally Acting Bishop of Chichester. (The senior suffragan of the diocese, Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes, was involved in the ongoing investigation.)

Sowerby was made a deacon in the Church of England at Petertide (28 June) 1987 by David Young, Bishop of Ripon, during a service at Ripon Cathedral. He was ordained a priest the Petertide following (3 July 1988) by Malcolm Menin, Bishop of Knaresborough. His first posts were curacies at Knaresborough and Darwen after which he was Vicar of Accrington then Vocations Officer and Selection Secretary in The Ministry Division.

Mark Crispin Rake Sowerby (born 28 October 1963) is a British Anglican bishop. Since 2019, he has been the Principal of the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield; he was previously Bishop of Horsham, a suffragan bishop (formerly an area bishop) in the Diocese of Chichester.

Sowerby was born on 28 October 1963 in Ripon, West Riding of Yorkshire. His father, Geoffrey (a priest), was a minor canon of Ripon Minster. He studied theology at King's College, London, and graduated in 1985, with a Bachelor of Divinity (BD) degree and the Associateship of King's College (AKC). He then entered the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, an Anglo-Catholic theological college, to train for the priesthood. He left the college in 1987 to be ordained.