The Right Reverend Professor Stephen Whitefield Sykes (born 1 August 1939) retired as Principal of St John's College, Durham at the end of August 2006. He was formerly the Church of England Bishop of Ely, and has held professorial chairs in divinity at both Durham and Cambridge universities. He is also one of the pre-eminent Anglican ecclesiologists of his generation.

Sykes studied at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1961. He then trained for ministry in the church at Ripon Hall, Oxford. Sykes was ordained deacon in 1964, and priest the following year. However, Sykes has never held a parish ministry position: after ordination, he was appointed a lecturer in divinity at Cambridge and dean (responsible for the chapel) of his alma mater, St John's, Cambridge. In 1974, Sykes was appointed Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham and became a residentiary canon of Durham Cathedral. In 1985, Sykes returned to Cambridge to take up the chair of Regius Professor of Divinity, and was given a corresponding canonry at Ely Cathedral. In 1990, he was consecrated Bishop of Ely.^[1] He stepped down in 2000,^[2] returning to education, becoming Principal of St John's College, Durham, in succession to David Day. He is also an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Durham.

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