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
Consecration   1984
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.

Contents

[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.

[edit] Academic career

Nazir-Ali read economics, Islamic history, and sociology at the University of Karachi (BA 1970) and studied in preparation for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge (1970). He undertook further postgraduate studies in theology at St Edmund Hall, Oxford (BLitt 1974, MLitt 1981), Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (MLitt 1976), and the Australian College of Theology (PhD 1983). He has also studied at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. His particular academic interests include comparative literature and comparative philosophy of religion. In addition to teaching appointments in Australia and Canada, he has been a tutor in the University of Cambridge, Senior Tutor of Karachi Theological College, and Visiting Professor of Theology and Religious Studies in the University of Greenwich. He has been elected an Honorary Fellow of his colleges at both Oxford (St Edmund Hall) and Cambridge (Fitzwilliam). From 1986 until 1989, while he was Assistant to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Co-ordinator of Studies and Education for the Lambeth Conference, he was Honorary Curate of Oxford St Giles and St Philip and St James with St Margaret.

[edit] Family

Bishop Nazir-Ali met his wife, Valerie, who is English, in Cambridge. They have two sons, Ross and Shami, both now adults.

[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] Opinions

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. As with Dr John Sentamu, the Ugandan-born Archbishop of York, he has been critical of the concept of the Canadian-originated concept of multiculturalism, urging that Britons take greater pride in their authentic cultural inheritance and that Britain and Britons take greater pains fully to integrate immigrants into the general community.

[edit] Publications

Bishop Nazir-Ali's published writings include the following:

  • Islam: A Christian Perspective (1983)
  • Frontiers in Christian-Muslim Encounters (1987)
  • From Everywhere to Everywhere: A World View of Christian Mission (1990)
  • Thinking globally, acting locally (1992)
  • Mission and Dialogue: Proclaiming the Gospel Afresh in Every Age (1995)
  • The Mystery of Faith (1995)
  • Citizens and Exiles: Christian Faith in a Plural World (2000)
  • Shapes of the Church to Come (2001)
  • Understanding My Muslim Neighbour (2003)
  • Conviction And Conflict: Islam, Christianity And World Order (2005)

and many other articles in newspapers and journals

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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