John Packer

John Packer was a Church of England bishop who served as the first, and as it turned out only, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, holding the post from the diocese's renaming in 2000 until his retirement in 2014. He died on 10 October 2026, the day of his eightieth birthday.

Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Packer was educated at Manchester Grammar School before reading modern history at Keble College, Oxford, and later studying theology at Ripon Hall, Oxford. He was made a deacon in 1970 and ordained priest in 1971, beginning a ministry that took him through parishes and teaching posts in Oxfordshire and South Yorkshire before he became Archdeacon of West Cumberland. He was consecrated a bishop at York Minster in 1996 and served first as suffragan Bishop of Warrington.

Packer's most prominent public role came after 2000, when he was appointed Bishop of Ripon and Leeds following the renaming of the historic Diocese of Ripon. He held the post until the diocese was absorbed into the new Diocese of Leeds in 2014, meaning he was the only person ever to carry that particular title. In 2006 he entered the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual, where he spoke for the bishops on immigration and asylum, urban affairs and welfare reform. He used his first Lords speech to criticise government asylum policy, and in 2012 he was a leading voice in a successful cross party amendment that excluded child benefit from a proposed cap on family benefits.

Away from Parliament and his cathedral duties, Packer was known within the Church for his pastoral style and his willingness to intervene personally in individual cases, including his public appeal to the Home Office in 2007 over the threatened deportation of an asylum seeking family. He was married to Barbara Jack from 1971, and their daughter, Catherine Pickford, followed him into ordained ministry and became Archdeacon of Northolt.

Packer's death was recorded as occurring on 10 October 2026. As of the time of writing, the Diocese of Leeds and the wider Church of England had not issued a detailed public statement, and the circumstances and cause of his death had not been made public. Tributes from colleagues in the Church and the House of Lords are expected to follow in the coming days.