Difference between revisions of "Derek Rawcliffe"
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Revision as of 07:36, 5 July 2013
Derek Rawcliffe (1921–2011) was the first Anglican bishop to come out as gay.
Rawcliffe was born in Manchester but lived in Gloucester as a teenager. He trained for the ministry at Mirfield, and took a theology degree in Leeds. He took up a teaching post in the Solomon Islands in 1947, and spent much of his career in the South Pacific, rising to be the first Bishop of the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu).[1]
In 1981 he returned to the UK and was appointed Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway in the Scottish Episcopal Church, on the basis of reports of his success as a bishop in the south seas, but although his pastoral skills were valued, he was less successful in coping with the administrative problems of the church in Glasgow.[2] In 1981 he retired and went to live in Leeds, and was invited to be an honorary bishop in the diocese of Ripon.
At the age of 50 Rawcliffe had fallen in love with a young Melanesian man and come to believe that his homosexuality was "a gift from God". However he fell in love with a disabled former ballet teacher, Susan Speight; they were married in 1977 and spent 12 happy years together. After her death he realised "I was still gay, always had been".[2]
