Michael Nazir-Ali

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**Michael Nazir-Ali**


Denomination	Anglican
Senior posting
See	Rochester
Title	Bishop of Rochester
Period in office	1994 — present
Predecessor	Anthony Michael Arnold Turnbull
Successor	Incumbent
Religious career
Priestly ordination	1976
Previous bishoprics	Bishop of Raiwind Assistant Bishop of Southwark
Previous post	Assistant Bishop of Southwark
Personal
Date of birth	19 August 1949
Place of birth	Karachi

Michael James Nazir-Ali (born 19 August 1949) is the Pakistani-born 106th and current Bishop of Rochester in the Church of England. He holds dual Pakistani and British citizenship.

1 Background
2 Ecclesiastical and public career
3 Positions
4 Publications
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Background

Michael Nazir-Ali was born in Karachi, Pakistan to Christian parents but with a Muslim family background. His father had converted from Islam [1] He attended a Roman Catholic school in Karachi and began attending Roman Catholic services and identifying as Christian at the age of 15; he was formally received into the Church of Pakistan aged 20. He studied economics, Islamic history and sociology at the University of Karachi and theology at Fitzwilliam College and Ridley Hall, Cambridge and undertook postgraduate study at Oxford, Cambridge, the Australian College of Theology and the Centre for World Religions, Harvard in comparative literature, comparative philosophy of religion, and theology; he has taught in Pakistan, England, Canada and Australia. Bishop Nazir-Ali's met his English wife Valerie in Cambridge; they have two adult sons. He is a fellow of both Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

[edit] Ecclesiastical and public career

He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1976 and worked in Karachi and Lahore, and became the first Bishop of Raiwind in West Punjab (1984-86) — at the time, the youngest bishop in the Anglican Communion. When his life was endangered in Pakistan, Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, arranged for his refuge in England where he was an assistant to the Archbishop at Lambeth and assisted with the planning of the 1988 Lambeth Conference; he was General Secretary of the Church Mission Society 1989-1994 and concurrently Assistant Bishop of Southwark. He was appointed Bishop of Rochester, England in 1994, and in 1999 entered the House of Lords.

[edit] Positions

Bishop Nazir-Ali is generally in the evangelical wing of the Anglican Church, describing himself as "evangelical and catholic." He has ordained women, and opposes the ordination of non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy and blessing of same-sex unions. Bishop Nazir-Ali has become a prominent spokesman for engagement between Christianity and Islam. An amply published author, since his entry into the House of Lords he has come into considerable prominence in English public life, where he has advocated more effective integration of ethnic communities. He has been critical of the concept of multiculturalism.