Michael Nazir-Ali | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Nazir-Ali in 2011 | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| Diocese | Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1976 (Anglican priest) 2021 (Roman Catholic priest) |
| Consecration | 1984 (Anglican bishop) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1949-08-19)19 August 1949 (age 75) |
| Nationality | Pakistan British |
| Denomination | Catholicism Anglicanism (until 2021) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Michael James Nazir-Ali (Urdu: مائیکل نذیر علی; born 19 August 1949) is a Pakistani-born BritishRoman Catholic priest and formerAnglicanbishop. He served as the 106thBishop of Rochester from 1994 to 2009 and, before that, as Bishop ofRaiwind in Pakistan.[1] He is currently the director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue. In 2021, he was received into theCatholic Church and was ordained as a priest for theOrdinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on 30 October 2021,[2] one of severalAnglican bishops who converted to Catholicism that year. In 2022, he was made amonsignor andPrelate of Honour of His Holiness to theHoly See. He is adual citizen ofPakistan andBritain.
Michael Nazir-Ali was born inKarachi, Pakistan, on 19 August 1949, the son of James and Patience Nazir-Ali.[3] He has both aChristian and aMuslim family background – his father's family areSayyids.[4] His fatherconverted fromShia Islam.[5] He attended theRoman Catholic-runSt Paul's School and St Patrick's College in Karachi and attended Roman Catholic services there. He began identifying as a Christian at the age of 15; he was formally received into theAnglicanChurch of Pakistan aged 20.[6]
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Nazir-Ali attendedSt Paul's English High School, Karachi, andSt Patrick's College and later studied economics, Islamic history and sociology at theUniversity of Karachi (BA 1970). He studied in preparation for ordination atRidley Hall, Cambridge (1972), and undertook postgraduate studies in theology atSt Edmund Hall, Oxford (BLitt (Oxon, 1974),MLitt (Oxon, 1981)),Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (MLitt (Cantab, 1976)) and theAustralian College of Theology (ThD 1983). He also studied at theCenter for the Study of World Religions atHarvard Divinity School and in 2005 he was awarded theLambeth DD. His particular academic interests includecomparative literature andcomparative philosophy of religion. He also has a number of honorary degrees.
In addition to teaching appointments in colleges and universities in many parts of the world, he has been a tutorial supervisor at theUniversity of Cambridge, a senior tutor at Karachi Theological College and Visiting Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at theUniversity of Greenwich. He has been elected anhonorary fellow of his colleges atOxford (St Edmund Hall) andCambridge (Fitzwilliam). From 1986 until 1989, while he was assistant to theArchbishop of Canterbury and Co-ordinator of Studies and Education for theLambeth Conference, he was an honorary curate ofSt Giles' Church, andSt Margaret's Church, both in Oxford. In 2010, he was appointed as a senior fellow ofWycliffe Hall and is on the faculty of the London School of Theology, the Lahore College of Theology, the Alexandria School of Theology and the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS).He has been invited to lecture as Professor of Theology, at the University of St Thomas or the Angelicum in Rome from 2022.
He understands English, Arabic,Persian, Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Latin.[7]
Nazir-Ali was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1976 in theChurch of Pakistan and worked inKarachi andLahore. He became the first Bishop ofRaiwind in West Punjab (1984–86), at the time he was the youngest bishop in the Anglican Communion. When his life was endangered in Pakistan in 1986,[8]Robert Runcie, then the Archbishop of Canterbury, arranged for his refuge in England. Nazir-Ali said, "the reason behind some of the difficulties I was facing was removed whenGeneral Zia was killed – unfortunately for him, and I am now not doing the work that I was doing at the time with the very poor".[9] He became an assistant to the Archbishop of Canterbury atLambeth and assisted with the planning of the 1988Lambeth Conference; he was general secretary of the Church Mission Society 1989–1994 and concurrently an assistant bishop in the Diocese ofSouthwark.
Nazir-Ali was appointed Bishop ofRochester, England, in 1994 and, in 1999, entered theHouse of Lords as one of the "Lords Spiritual" because of his seniority in episcopal office, the first religious leader from Asia to serve there. He was one of the final two candidates for Archbishop of Canterbury, thoughRowan Williams was appointed on the recommendation of the British prime minister,Tony Blair.
From 1997 to 2003, Nazir-Ali was chairman of theHuman Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's ethics and law committee. He was a leader of the Network for Inter-faith Concerns of the Anglican Communion.[10] and led the dialogue with Al-Azhar. He is also a founding member of the Dialogue of Scholars founded after the9/11 attacks. For many years, he served as a member of theAnglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and, more latterly, of theInternational Anglican–Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM).
From 2010, Nazir-Ali was the visiting bishop of theAnglican Diocese of South Carolina in the United States. The diocese was part of theEpiscopal Church in the United States but left it to join theAnglican Church in North America which is not a church in the Anglican Communion but is widely recognised by Anglican churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America(The Global South).
On 29 September 2021, Nazir-Ali was received into theCatholic Church by theOrdinary of thePersonal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham,MonsignorKeith Newton.[11] He was ordained as a deacon by ArchbishopKevin McDonald on 28 October 2021 atSt Mary's College, Oscott, and a priest by CardinalVincent Nichols on 30 October 2021 at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory Catholic Church in London.[12] On 6 April 2022,Pope Francis granted Nazir-Ali the title ofPrelate of Honour of His Holiness.[13]
Nazir-Ali was generally regarded as being on theEvangelicalwing ofAnglicanism but described himself as being "Catholic and evangelical".[14] He is familiar with a number of Middle Eastern, Asian and European languages and has played a significant role in the Church of England's ecumenical and interfaith dialogues.
At first Nazir-Ali supported theordination of women as priests in the Church of England.[15] He chaired the Rochester Commission on whether women should be made bishops. Because of his work there, he now believes that the Anglican Communion should not have made a unilateral change in its ordained ministry, which it believes it shares with the Catholic and Orthodox churches.[16]
Nazir-Ali has written and spoken on a number of bioethical issues includingin vitro fertilisation, stem cell research, organ donation and assisted dying. Here he has generally supported the "culture of life" and warned against a "culture of death".[17] He has argued that human dignity is based on "transcendental values" and must be respected at all stages of human development, even when we are not sure whether there is a person, on the basis of the precautionary principle.[18] He isanti-abortion and opposeseuthanasia. He attended the March for Life, the first to ever take place inLondon, on 5 May 2018, where he delivered the closing prayer and had rubbish thrown all over him by a protester.[19]
In 2000, Nazir-Ali wrote,
It is very important for the Church to continue saying that having children and their nurture is a basic good of marriage and not an optional extra. Just as a marriage is not complete without mutual support, companionship and love, so there is a real lack if the intention is never to have children, regardless of circumstances. This signals that marriage is not a matter of self-indulgence. In our age, such teaching is crucial."[3]
In his statement, he had gone on to say when it was right for couples not to have children. Clergy and counsellors would need to advise couples in such circumstances as to what was right for them.
Because of this statement, it has been claimed that Nazir-Ali believed that married couples have a duty to have children and that those who remained childless were "self-indulgent".[20] Although he views having children a basic part of a good marriage, he has denied ever labelling couples who did not have children "self-indulgent",[21] claiming it was "pure invention".[3]
In 2014, he spoke at the Humanum interreligious colloquium on marriage and the family held at theVatican.[22] His views on marriage as contract, commitment and sacrament were published inStandpoint magazine in May 2012.[23]
In late September 2017, Nazir-Ali spoke at theUK Independence Party conference in Torquay. In his speech, he described the 1960s as having seen "a sudden death for Christian discourse in public life" in Britain. In his opinion, "the Christian faith stopped being of importance in this country when the women stopped passing it on in the home. It was not the church, it was not the school, it was the mothers who passed the faith on". While he said that he was not calling "return to the past", he advocated UKIP should "promote policies for the wellbeing of the family and the nurture of children in the family".[24] He has also spoken at theConservative andLabour Party Conferences on a variety of issues, including the family and social Justice.
Because of his beliefs on marriage and the family, Nazir-Ali has not been in favour of the ordination of non-sexually abstinent homosexual people as clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions. He was one of the bishops who signed a letter againstRowan Williams' decision not to block the appointment ofJeffrey John asBishop of Reading in 2003.[25]
In October 2007, he toldThe Daily Telegraph that he would not attend the 2008Lambeth Conference because he would find it "very difficult" to be in council with the bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States following the actions of that church in ordainingGene Robinson, a divorced priest in an active homosexual relationship, to the office of bishop, which he believed was against Anglican teaching and damaging the unity of the Anglican Communion. In doing this, he was joined by nearly 300 other bishops.[26]
He was "accused of pandering to hate and homophobia" by activists after the media published a statement on the day a gay pride parade took place in London and before a major Anglican event at which he was preaching, claiming he had called on homosexuals to "repent and be changed".[27]
After he was reported in the press as saying homosexuals should "repent and be changed", he made further comments in which he clarified his remarks. He stated, when asked, that he had initially said to the journalist fromThe Telegraph that he was going to say in his sermon that all people, particularly churches and Christians, should repent, because there was a need "to refocus on the faith of the church from down the ages and an authentic mission to the nations."[28] When asked specifically about whether this included homosexuals, he had reiterated it included everybody and cited his interpretation of the Christian view of human sexuality, marriage and the family.[28]
In 2014, he stated that many Anglicans and other Christians looked to theCatholic Church to lead in the protection of Christians from persecution by extremist Islamists in countries such as Iraq and Syria.[29][30]
In the launch edition ofStandpoint magazine, Nazir-Ali called for Christianity to regain a prominent position in public life and blamed the "newfangled and insecurely founded doctrine ofmulticulturalism" for entrenching the segregation of communities. Nazir-Ali argued that the decline of Christianity and the rise of liberal values in the UK during the 1960s had created a moral vacuum which radical Islam threatened to fill. He wrote that "We have argued that it is necessary to understand where we have come from, to guide us to where we are going, and to bring us back when we wander too far from the path of national destiny."[31]The Guardian newspaper devoted its leader to criticising Nazir-Ali, although it described his writing as "neatly underlining[Standpoint]'s expressed intent 'to defend and celebrate Western civilisation'".[32] Nazir-Ali was criticised by the Ramadhan foundation and the President of theNational Secular Society, who accused him of "doing the BNP’s work", but was praised byThe Daily Telegraph newspaper.[33][34] Nazir-Ali has himself written against Christian involvement in far-right organisations such as theBritish National Party.[35][36]
He has said, "The Church must change its approach. It must not capitulate to culture nor must it destroy any culture. Instead it must take heed ofPope Benedict's point: that the role of the Church is to enable culture to find its true centre".[29]
Nazir-Ali has become a spokesman for an engagement between Christianity and Islam and has been involved in a number of important dialogues between Muslims and others. He has led the Church's dialogue withAl-Azhar As-Sharif, the premier place of Sunni learning, and also with Shi'a Ulema in Iran. He is frequently quoted in the press. In November 2006 Nazir-Ali criticised the "dual psychology" of some extremist Muslims who seek both "victimhood and domination". He said it would never be possible to satisfy all of the demands made by them because "their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims... and always wrong when Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists. Given the world view that has given rise to such grievances, there can never be sufficient appeasement and new demands will continue to be made." In response, theMuslim Council of Britain said "We would normally expect a bishop to display more humility and work towards bringing communities closer together rather than contributing towards fostering greater divisions."[37]
In January 2008, Nazir-Ali wrote thatIslamic extremism had turned "already separate communities into'no-go' areas" and that there had been attempts to "impose an 'Islamic' character on certain areas", citing thecall to prayer from mosques as an example, and the pressure on people to conform to Islamist norms in dress, conduct, and speech.[38] He criticised the government's integration policy as "an agenda which still lacks the underpinning of a moral and spiritual vision", and asked that the government make a public affirmation of the "Christian roots of British society".
These comments resulted in some debate and criticism, including a response from the Muslim Council of Britain, which said the mosque call was no different from church bells ringing.Nick Clegg, leader of theLiberal Democrats, described the comments as "a gross caricature of reality". Conservative Party home affairs spokesmanDavid Davis said, however, that the bishop had rightly drawn attention to a "deeply serious problem" and that Labour's support for multiculturalism risked creating a situation of "voluntary apartheid".[39]
TheSecretary of State for Communities and Local Government,Hazel Blears, responded to Nazir-Ali's comments by stating that Britain was a "secular democracy", and challenged him to name specific "no go" areas.[40] Nazir-Ali subsequently received threatening phone calls, but said his "overflowing postbag" had been "overwhelmingly supportive". Since then the problem of isolated communities has come increasingly to the fore and many now see the dangers to which Nazir-Ali was pointing.[41][42]
In 2018, Nazir-Ali wrote that he was not in favour of banning a face veil but that in certain circumstances such as security at airports, road safety and professions requiring personal interaction it should not be worn.[43][44]
Nazir-Ali was a supporter of theAnglican realignment movement and theGlobal Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). He attended and spoke at the first and second GAFCON gatherings as well asGAFCON III which took place inJerusalem from 17 to 22 June 2018.[45] He also attended G19, the additional conference that took place inDubai from 25 February to 1 March 2019.[46] He was also one of the founders of the Mere Anglicanism annual conferences in the US and has been a supporter of the Global South.
Nazir-Ali met his wife, Valerie Cree, who is Scottish, inCambridge. They were married in 1972[47] and have two adult sons, Shamaoun ("Shammy") and Ross.[48]His pastimes have includedhockey,cricket,table tennis andScrabble as well as writing poetry inEnglish andPersian and listening to music.[48] In 2003, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from theUniversity of Bath; he also has honorary doctorates from the universities ofKent andGreenwich and others in the United States. He has been awarded the Shaikh Yamani Gold Medal in Islamic Studies and the Paul Harris International Fellowship by Rotary.
Nazir-Ali's published writings include the following:
He has also published a number of monographs and many other articles in newspapers and journals.
{{cite news}}:|author1= has generic name (help)Although Dr Nazir-Ali is in favour of women priests and just as firmly against gay ones, these views are fairly mainstream in the evangelical constituency to which he appeals.
{{cite news}}:|author= has generic name (help)
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| Preceded by | Bishop of Rochester 1994–2009 | Succeeded by |
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