From the Number 10 website
Monday 17 January 2011
Suffragan See of ReadingThe Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Andrew John Proud, BD, MA, AKC, Area Bishop of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa (in the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa), to the Suffragan See of Reading, in the Diocese of Oxford, in succession to the Right Reverend Stephen Geoffrey Cottrell, BA, on his translation to the See of Chelmsford on 6 October 2010.
Notes for editors
The Right Reverend Andrew Proud (aged 56), studied for the ordained ministry at King’s College London and Lincoln Theological College. He served his first curacy at Stansted Mountfitchet, Chelmsford Diocese from 1980 to 1983. From 1983 to 1990 he was Team Vicar in Borehamwood in St Albans Diocese. From 1990 to 1992 he was an assistant priest in the Hatfield Team Ministry. From 1992 to 2001 he was Rector of East Barnet. He took a Masters at the London School of Oriental and African Studies in 2001. From 2002 to 2007 he was Chaplain at St Matthew’s in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 2005 he was made Canon of All Saints Cathedral, Cairo. Since 2007 he has been Area Bishop of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa in the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa.
Andrew Proud is married to Janice, a plant physiologist. They have two grown up children and one grandchild.
His interests include Africa and African affairs, walking in vast open spaces, writing narrative poetry, contemporary and classic music, cooking and eating with family friends. He is a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Weavers of London.
The Oxford diocesan website has this report: New Bishop of Reading Announced.
Can’t find much by him apart from this.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?gl=gb&source=android-browser-type&hl=en&q=cache:5vW76qXWjGMJ:www.dioceseofegypt.org/english/?q%3Dnode/28
OK – Please enlighten me: what is “a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Weavers of London”?
Thanks for the link, Eddie. It makes for rather a depressing read — he isn’t going to go down too well in Oxford… For all the apparent even-handedness, it looks like Gagnon all the way; and the idea that the Anglican Churches in the global North as he sees it (conveniently leaving out NZ, Australia, S. America) have a mission to their gay and lesbian parishioners clearly hasn’t crossed his mind. His church is too busy, he says, keeping afloat in the alien cultural swell to have any sense of direction: I don’t much like the sound of the one… Read more »
http://www.weavers.org.uk/
Cynthia Gilliatt, I’m a Yank and therefore probably am displaying my woeful ignorance, but in movie Westerns, a liveryman was a man who ran, or worked in, stables. However, Wikipedia has an extensive article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livery_Company Quote: “Most livery companies, particularly those formed in recent years, are primarily social and charitable organizations.” So maybe the more modern livery societies act like Masons and Shriners? A similar inquiry to Cynthia’s, does AKC mean that the Right Reverend John proud is an Associate of King’s College? That’s one meaning given by the Internet. I guess there’s a hazard in Americans reading about… Read more »
Dear American readers, As a proud holder of the AKC (no pun intended on the new +Reading), I can confirm that it means the holder is an Associate of King’s College (London). The AKC was an ordination qualification (= M.Div) given at King’s when it was also a recognized C of E theological college (until 1976). Since it was technically a ‘college’ and not a University, it could not award degrees. This has now changeed and the new, improved and gargantuan KCL awards its own degrees. Former bishops Broadhurst and Newton and Flying Bishop Jarrett of Beverley are AKC as… Read more »
Thank you all for enlightening comments re honorary memberships.
My gift to all on this list is to say that two novels by Connie Willis are outstanding: “Blackout” and “All Clear.”
They have to do with WWII in England, and time travel, and Holman Hunt’s “The Light of the World.” Oh, and the Blitz, and some wonderfully anarchist children. And love.
Reading Eddie Green’s link above, I’m not quite sure what Dr Proudie was trying to do converting Amhara people in Addis Ababa to Anglicanism, as they are nearly all Ethiopian Orthodox, and have been Christian since the 4th century… it reads rather like something from a 1930s novel. His comment that homosexuality is illegal and leads to severe punishment in Ethiopia, yet that he regards the Western world’s leniency to gay people as merely a block to good ecumenical relations in Africa was rather chilling. There are plenty of gay Ethiopians who suffer terribly from the taboos still in place… Read more »
Thanks for the novels Cynthia. Appreciated.
Andrew Proud is very different to Jeffrey John then.
It sounds as if Kings has a lot to answer for. And it always seemed to me as an outsider quite a gay place, and provider of gay clergy. There ya go !
If one is of a rather fogeyish, old fashioned, bent, as many Anglicans are, being a liveryman is the most fun one can have with one’s clothes on!
“Furthermore, this sharp decline in Christianity in the global North has been matched by a moral and epistemological relativism within western society that (sometimes, aggressively) dismisses religion as a source of moral guidance at all. Most people would simply not consider it, appealing more to conscience or cultural mores.” – Bishop Proud (Elect of Reading) After a short time in Ethiopia, Bishop Proud is obviously identifying more with the provinces of the so-called ‘Global South’ than with his new environment in the ‘Global North’ Church of England. From the above extract from his thoughts about the Communion, the new +Reading… Read more »
Although much of what Lister Tonge says is correct, I hope that he is glad to find out that it is not true that new AKC are not being created.
Every student at King’s College London can study for the AKC on top of their ordinary degree (English, French, Physics, Geography etc), and after passing an exam at the end of each of three years can apply to be elected as an Associate of the College.
All information about the AKC can be found at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/akc