Lent Addresses 2007
Speaker Profiles - Week 1
Ash Wednesday 21st
February
The Rt Revd James Jones became Bishop of Liverpool in 1998 having been Bishop of Hull since 1994. Over the last 12 years he has been deeply involved in Urban Regeneration. For four years he chaired the New Deal for Communities programme in Liverpool (Kensington Regeneration) and has championed community-led regeneration in lectures, newspaper articles and broadcasts. 45% of the parishes in the Diocese of Liverpool are Urban Priority Areas.
He also chairs the Governing Body of the faith-based St Francis of Assisi City Academy jointly sponsored by the Roman Catholic and Anglican Dioceses. It is the first Academy to take the Environment as its specialism. It opened to its first pupils in September 2005. This date also marks the beginning of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. He lectures widely and broadcasts regularly on 'Thought for the Day'. He has written a number of books, the latest looking at the relationship between Christianity and the environment "Jesus and the Earth" (SPCK 2003). Working in partnership with a number of agencies including the Regional Development Agency for the North West he has set up Operation EDEN which is an organisation working across the faith communities engaging local people in the holistic transformation of their local environment. Quoting from the African proverb "We have borrowed the present from our children", he believes that young people are much more alert to the need to create cleaner, safer and greener communities.
He believes that there is a real tension between community-led regeneration and programmes that are centrally-driven. He feels that these tensions are often revealed in the language that is used. People living in local communities tend to use organic language such as "seeds, planting and renewal"; those who control the money tend to use mechanical language such as "triggers, buttons, levers and targets." He is convinced that you cannot have mechanical solutions to organic problems and that those with the money and the power need to understand more fully how communities die and live again.
He is a Member of the House of Lords, Chairman of the Council of Wycliffe Hall in the University of Oxford and Vice President of the Tear Fund.
Thursday 22nd February
The Most Revd Patrick Kelly. The
Archbishop of Liverpool, the Most Revd Patrick Kelly is the head of the Roman
Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Liverpool. A Lancastrian by birth,
he was ordained in 1962. He became Bishop of Salford in 1984 and was
translated to Liverpool in 1996 on the death of Archbishop Derek Worlock.
Archbishop Patrick has particular concern for 'third world' issues, and is a
powerful advocate of social justice.
Friday 23rd February
The Revd Roger Wikeley is a Yorkshireman and proud of it! He retired from full time ministry at the end of 2006 having worked in the Diocese of Liverpool since 1965. After a curacy in Southport he was Vicar of Woolston and Rector at Padgate Team Ministry until his move to St Mary’s West Derby in 1985. He has chaired the Diocesan Liturgical Committee and UPA Committee and was Area Dean of West Derby for 12 years. His interests include civil aviation, ornithology and timetables.