Ruth Worsley to be the next Bishop of Taunton

Ruth Worsley will be installed at a service in Wells Cathedral later this year

The name of the 13th Bishop of Taunton has been announced by Downing Street.

The Venerable Ruth Worsley, currently Archdeacon of Wiltshire, is succeeding the Right Reverend Peter Maurice who stood down in April.

Speaking ahead of the announcement, Archdeacon Worsley said she was "surprised and amused" by it as she "grew up in a non-conformist church where women held no" leadership roles.

She will be installed at a service in Wells Cathedral later this year.

Archdeacon Worsley will live in Wells and work from the Bishops' Palace in the city, alongside Bishop Peter Hancock.

After her ordination in 1996, she served for 14 years as a parish priest in Nottingham in one of the poorest areas in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham.

During this time she served as an area dean and was made Dean of Women's Ministry for the diocese in 2007.

In 2010, she took on the role of Parish Development Adviser in the Diocese of Southwark, based in Bermondsey before moving to Wiltshire in 2013.