Having just written a blog about vicar-ing I find the subject of bishop-ing pops up with the nomination of Sarah Mullally as the next Bishop of London.

Needless to say the point that she is the first woman to hold the post, and that the post is so hugely significant and prominent, no non-Archbishop comes anywhere near it, will dominate the headlines.

But for me the big issue is that Sarah has, like Justin Welby, risen to high ecclesiastical office very quickly, having had a very successful early career not in church jobs but in another realm. Justin was in the oil-industry, and Sarah in nursing. When you bear in mind that the Archbishop of York was a judge before he was ordained, you begin to get the feeling that the most senior leadership in the church today is selected from the pool of those who in their twenties and thirties were being formed in the crucible of the real world. Absent from the scene are those for whom the church decreed that an extended stay in or near the academy (theological college), and the protracted adolescence of full-time curacy were the right way to grow into mature ministry and full adulthood.

This may all be a coincidence, of course, and it may be something to do with the sort of values that inform appointment processes, but it may also be a very good thing.

One aspect of Justin’s archepiscopacy that I have admired is the extent to which a wide range of people respond warmly to what they feel is his unassuming, business-like and down-to-earth approach to life. People may disagree in detail, but they do connect, relate and admire. He’s a man of faith – but not too churchy.

I suspect and hope that the same will be true of Bishop Sarah. When appointed to Crediton she has the unusual pleasure of meeting my mother at the town’s ‘memory cafe’, which had been deemed a suitable place for the former nurse to have a media event on the day of the announcement. With wonderful irony the memory cafe folk forgot that the event was happening and it was, I gather, a bit of a circus. But who cares? The new bishop made a very favourable impression on my Roman Catholic mother, who at that stage was well enough to know what was going on and phoned me later to tell me that she had met not one but two bishops that day, and that one was a very nice lady.

It must be clear from my blog yesterday that I place a huge value on the sort of parish ministry that priests like Alan Bartlett offer from their parish chruches and vicarages. But I do wonder whether the church has done enough over the last three or four decades to cherish, nurture and form those it ordained young. I also wonder whether the huge investment that the church has made in leadership programmes over the last decade or so has really done enough to equip my generation with the qualities needed to be efficient organisational leaders and credible public figures as well as people of faithful and lively spirituality and mature and attractive theology.

With regard to Sarah’s translation, I am sure that there are those in Devon who will think she is going down in the world by moving to London, but it seems to me that she is finding her true and vocational level. I have long thought that priesthood and nursing have a great deal in common, so I was heartened and moved by her mention of foot-washing in her statement to the diocese of London this morning. I am going to quote it because I know that it was made by someone who first washed feet at work not for liturgical purposes, but because they needed washing.

I have always sought to live in the service of others. Washing feet is a powerful image which has shaped my vocation. As a nurse the way we wash feet affords dignity, respect and value. As a priest I am called to model Jesus Christ, who took off his outer garments and washed his disciples’ feet. As Bishop consecrated to be the shepherd of the flock and committed to those in my care I keep that model of service before me, seeking to serve others and value them.

I increasingly admire the ministerial style of those ordained later in life. And I think it’s because of what they learnt before being ordained. At work: doing what really needs to be done, learning the skills of collaboration and time management, becoming professionally competent and emotionally intelligent, gaining clarity of mind and a confident, if modest, assertiveness. At church: spending more time praying than preaching, absorbing for years from the pews rather than inflicting theological juvenilia on the all too patient parishioners, and not having to manage the stresses that come from lonely and relentless exposure to other people’s sadness and loss. I may be viewing the early adult years of those who came late to ordination through a rose-tinted rear view mirror, but I think there might be something in this.

In any case, I wish the new Bishop well and trust that she will be able to use all her experience in her new role.