Flora Jane Louise Winfield, (born 1964) is a British Anglican priest, military chaplain, diplomat, and author. Since 2022, she has been the Third Church Estates Commissioner.[1] She has worked in parish ministry, including as priest-in-charge of St Mary-at-Hill, City of London (2008–2014), and in academia as chaplain and tutor at Mansfield College, Oxford (1994–1997). Before taking up her current appointment, she held a number of diplomatic posts including Anglican Communion Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2014–2017) and as Archbishop of Canterbury's Special Representative to the Commonwealth (2017–2019), and was then Archbishop of Canterbury's Advisor for Reconciliation (2019–2022).[2] [3]
Winfield was born in 1964. She was educated at Portsmouth High School, an all-girls independent school in Southsea, Portsmouth. She studied at St David's University College, Lampeter, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1985.
Winfield was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1989. She was then parish deacon at Christ Church, Stantonbury in the Diocese of Oxford for the next three years. She was installed as canon pastor of Winchester Cathedral in September 2002.[4]
Since 2019, Winfield has held permission to officiate in the Diocese of Leeds. From 2019 to 2022, she was the Archbishop of Canterbury's Adviser on Reconciliation.[5] On 1 February 2022, she became the Third Church Estates Commissioner.[6]
On 31 July 2024, Winfield was announced as the next Bishop of Selby, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of York. She will be consecrated as a bishop on 10 October 2024 during a service at York Minster.[7]
Since March 2011, she has been a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) to the Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London.
On 22 July 1997, Winfield was commissioned in the British Army as a chaplain to the forces 4th class (equivalent in rank to captain) in the Royal Army Chaplains' Department, Territorial Army. She was promoted to chaplain to the forces 3rd class (equivalent to major) on 15 November 2005, and to chaplain to the forces 2nd class (equivalent to lieutenant colonel) on 5 October 2015. She attended the Advanced Command and Staff Course at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom in 2016.
Since 1985, she has been married to Jonathan Gough.[8]