The search for a new Bishop of Truro has begun. The Prime Minister's appointments secretary, William Chapman, and the Archbishops' appointments secretary, Ms Caroline Boddington, spent time in Cornwall last week, conducting a series of interviews with representatives of every aspect of church and county life.

Over 150 people were seen either as individuals, or in small groups, during two days, and a public meeting was also held at Bodmin. As a result the secretaries are able to begin to draw up a detailed brief for those who will choose a successor to Bishop Bill Ind, who resigns at Easter next year, after ten years in the Diocese of Truro.

In addition to the private interviews, the secretaries met with the vacancy in See Committee of the Diocese, which consists of twenty elected church people, whose first task is to daw up a Statement of Needs for the Diocese, which is a detailed perception of the opportunities and problems facing the church in Cornwall in the next decade. At the end of that meeting, six of its members were elected to represent the Diocese on the Crown Appointments Commission - the body which considers possible candidates for Bishoprics, and makes a recommendation of a name to the Crown, via the Prime Minister's office.

The six representatives include the Ven. Roger Bush (Archdeacon of Cornwall); the Revd Alan Bashforth, Vicar of St Agnes with Mithian and Mount Hawke); the Revd Canon Sherry Bryan, (Rural Dean of Trigg Minor and Bodmin and parish priest of Blisland with St Breward and Helland); Mr Jeremy Dowling (Diocesan Communications Officer and Bishop's Research Officer, from Bude) Mrs Penny Stranack (member of General Synod, from Duloe) and Group Captain Paul Terrett (General Synod and Vice Chairman of the Diocesan Board of Finance, from Liskeard). They will join the other members of the Commission, which is chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to consider possible candidates at two meetings, the first on January 31, and finally on March 12 and 13. The name of the new Bishop will probably be announced in the early summer of 2008, and he is expected to be enthroned in Truro Cathedral towards the end of next year.