Jim Thompson (Bishop)

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James Lawton Thompson (born August 11, 1936 in Birmingham , † September 19, 2003 on board the cruise ship Minerva II ) was a British Anglican theologian and Bishop of Bath and Wells .

Life

Jim Thompson was born in the Harborne neighborhood of Birmingham, the family moved to Gloucester at the outbreak of World War II and Jim Thompson went to Cheltenham to the Dean Close School , upon graduation he received a scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge for his good performance received. Thompson initially did not take advantage of this scholarship, but went to London and trained as an accountant . After completing this training, he did his military service from 1959 to 1961 . Thompson served as a second lieutenant in the Royal Tank Regiment , which was stationed in Germany at the time. At the time of his graduation and his military service, the decision to study theology was made, and the associated personal change to an openly Christian-religious person. Thompson studied theology after his military service at Emmanuel College in Cambridge and was trained as a priest at Ripon College Cuddesdon in Cuddesdon . He became a first priest in East Ham , London, and returned to Cuddesdon as a priest in 1968. In 1971 he moved from Cuddesdon to a pastorate in Thamesmead in east London. In 1978 he succeeded Trevor Huddleston as suffragan bishop of Stepney . As Bishop of Stepney he was responsible for the London boroughs Tower Hamlets , Islington and Hackney , which are ethnically very mixed and whose religious diversity is correspondingly large. Thompson became an advocate of ecumenism with non-Christian religious communities, just as he gave his voice to those whose social rights he saw restricted. In 1991 he was called from this position, which was characterized by many challenges to a priest in a metropolis of millions, to succeed George Carey as bishop of the rather rural diocese of Bath and Wells . Thompson, who loved horses, made the initially skeptical move to his new position successfully and he became the generally respected and recognized Bishop of Bath and Wells, a position from which he retired in 2001. As Bishop of Bath and Wells, he was a member of the House of Lords from February 28, 1997 to December 31, 2001 .

Jim Thompson's political concerns were primarily to be found in the social policy area. He was active in the management of the church child welfare organization The Children's Society , where he campaigned for the right to adopt homosexual couples in 1999, even if this met with strong opposition from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the influential Archbishop of York . In 1992 he took over the leadership of a church working group that dealt with the reassessment of the family in the context of Christian tradition. The report of the working group was presented to the general synod in 1995 under the title Something to Celebrate . The report called for priests to stop using the concept of living in sin for unmarried or civil marriage couples. The report met with strong rejection in conservative church circles and the report was also rejected by the then Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey. In 1998 Jim Thompson stood up for the Countryside Alliance and against the then discussed ban on fox driven hunts . Jim Thompson was a regular feature on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day radio program .

Jim Thompson was married with a son and a daughter.

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Books by Jim Thompson

  • Halfway: reflections on midlife, 1986
  • The Lord's Song, 1990
  • Stepney Calling, 1991

Other publications

personal data
SURNAME Thompson, Jim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thompson, James Lawton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Anglican theologian and Bishop of Bath and Wells
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 2003
Place of death Minerva II