Top ex-Bishop defects from ‘faddish’ Church of England to join Catholics

Shock move follows blast at ‘cultural correctness’

A HIGH-profile bishop who accused the Church of England of ‘jumping on faddish bandwagons’ has joined the Roman Catholic Church.

The move by Michael NazirAli, former Anglican Bishop of Rochester, was yesterday called ‘one of the most politically significant’ recent conversions.

Dr Nazir-Ali, 72, who was once tipped as a possible Archbishop of Canterbury, is the third English bishop to make the move this year and the fourth in the past two years.

He said the Church of England ‘seems engrossed’ in ‘jumping on to every faddish bandwagon about identity politics, cultural correctness and mea culpas about Britain’s imperial past’ in an article for the Daily Telegraph in February.

Dr Nazir-Ali, who is married with two children, was received into the Catholic faith a fortnight ago, the Catholic Church Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales confirmed yesterday.

He is due to be ordained as a Catholic priest by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, in Westminster Cathedral on October 30.

He will serve in the Ordinariate, a Catholic organisation set up by Pope Benedict XVI a decade ago, which over the years has seen several Anglican clergy, many of whom are married, serve as Catholic priests. The Ordinariate is a body which allows Anglicans to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church while retaining much of their traditions.

Yesterday Dr Nazir-Ali said in a statement he believes traditional Christian teachings ‘can now best be maintained in the Ordinariate’ and that its Anglican-style ceremonies will make him feel very much at home.

It comes a month after the Anglican Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Jonathan Goodall, resigned his position to become a Catholic. In May, John

‘Criticised civil partnerships’

Goddard, the former Bishop of Burnley, was received into the Catholic Church. Dr Gavin Ashenden, a former chaplain to the Queen and traditionalist Anglican bishop, joined in Christmas 2019.

Dr Ashenden described Dr Nazir-Ali’s conversion as ‘one of the most politically significant conversions for a very long time’ and ‘a move of monumental proportion’. It was surprising because Dr Nazir-Ali’s background is from the evangelical wing of the Church of England rather than the Anglo-Catholic, he said.

Born in Pakistan, Dr Nazir-Ali was raised a Christian and opted to become an Anglican at 20.

He moved to Cambridge to study theology and returned as a priest to Pakistan before being brought to London in the 1980s to serve as an assistant to the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie.

When Dr Nazir-Ali was appointed Bishop of Rochester in 1994 he was the first Diocesan Bishop in the Church of England born abroad. He has been an adviser to Prince Charles on Islam.

With Rowan Williams, Dr Nazir-Ali’s was one of two names presented to Tony Blair in 2002 as a possible successor to George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury. Since resigning as Bishop of Rochester in 2009, he has been director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue.

He has in the past criticised civil partnerships and opposed the extension of IVF treatment to single women and lesbians.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said he was grateful for Dr Nazir-Ali’s ‘decades of devoted service to the Church of England and the Anglican Communion’. He added: ‘I will be praying for him and his wife, Valerie.’