In a statement on the Church’s website, Most Rev Cherry Vann, Archbishop of Wales said the discernment process concluded it was not right to proceed with the temporary appointment and the search for a Diocesan Bishop will restart.
It comes after the previous bishop stepped down following two Charity Commission reports which highlighted safeguarding concerns and misconduct at Bangor Cathedral, including a “culture in which sexual boundaries seemed blurred”.
There were also allegations of inappropriate language and excessive alcohol consumption.
Six serious incidents, relating to cultural issues financial mismanagement were also recorded.
Archbishop Cherry said that while interviews for an interim bishop had been held this week, “any process of discernment has to be open to an outcome that it is not right to proceed in the way we hoped. This is what has happened on this occasion and so we will not be proceeding with the appointment of an interim bishop”.
Expressing her gratitude for everyone involved in the discernment process, the archbishop added that she would “now ask the Governing Body's Standing Committee to recommence the electoral college process.”
The electoral college is a formal body consisting of elected clergy and lay representatives from the diocese and province, authorised to elect a new diocesan bishop.
The process involves nomination, an electoral meeting requiring a two-thirds majority, and confirmation.
The Governing Body of the Church in Wales had decided last November to appoint an Interim Bishop of Bangor to provide a “healing presence” following controversy around the culture in the Diocese of Bangor.
The interim bishop would have sat for up to two years and would have to have come from outside the Church in Wales.