John Yates (bishop)

John Yates (born April 17, 1925 in Burslem , † February 26, 2008 in Winchester ) was a British Anglican theologian and Bishop of Gloucester .

John Yates first attended Battersea Grammar School in London and then, after 1940, the Blackpool Grammar School in Blackpool . After graduating from high school, Yates joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and served in the military until 1947. Yates then studied history at Jesus College at Cambridge University . He received his training as a priest at Lincoln Theological College in Lincoln . In 1951 he took his first position as a priest in Southgate , North London .

In 1954 John Yates returned as a teacher at Lincoln Theological College. From 1960 onwards he again took up a position as a priest, this time in Bottesford in Lincolnshire . After six years in that position, he became the director of Lichfield Theological College in Lichfield . When the college closed in 1972, he became a suffragan bishop with the title of Bishop of Whitby in the Archdiocese of York . In 1975 he took over the position of Bishop of Gloucester. This position made him a member of the House of Lords in 1981 , which he remained until 1991 when he was appointed head of administration to the Archbishop of Canterbury (then George Carey ) with the title of Bishop in Lambeth . From that position, Yates retired in 1994.

John Yates was considered a very good choice for the position in the administration of the Archbishop of Canterbury, as he was considered very experienced in church matters and thus represented a welcome support for George Carey, for whom such support was still necessary at the time. On questions of church politics, Yates' stance was very liberal and sometimes very controversial. When he took office as Bishop of Gloucester, he was active in a group of theologians who were already advocating the ordination of women in the Church of England .

John Yates became known through the so-called Gloucester Report . Yates chaired a group of twelve theologians who commissioned the Board of Social Relations to write a report on homosexuality and the church for the General Synod of the Church of England. The Wolfenden Report paved the way for the Sexual Offenses Act 1967 , which decriminalized homosexuality in England and Wales, and included theologians, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Arthur Michael Ramsey had defended the new law. Nevertheless, the Church of England found it necessary to formulate its position on the basis of Christian doctrine. The dispute over the report that the group around Yates had drawn up then concentrated on the summary statement that "circumstances in which individuals may justly choose to enter a homosexual relationship involving a physical expression of sexual love" would be tolerable by the church. The fixation on this statement is seen as a falsification of the report, which deals with the topic comprehensively and well-founded from a theological, legal and psychological perspective. The report was not republished after its submission and subsequent discussion at the Synod, but it is nevertheless treated as a selected important point in Yates' life in the obituaries of John Yates in the liberal newspapers The Guardian and The Independent , and even the more conservative Daily Telegraph cannot fail to mention it entirely.

John Yates had a son and two daughters with his first wife, who he was married to from 1954 until her death in 1995. Yates was remarried from 1998 to 2007 when his second wife died.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Translation: Circumstances under which individuals justifiably decide to enter into a homosexual relationship in which there is also a physical expression of love . Source see Guardian article as stated.

Web links

• The Rt Rev John Yates - Cleric with bold views on homosexuality in The Guardian , March 14, 2008, accessed August 31, 2013.
• The Right Rev John Yates: Reforming Bishop of Gloucester in The Independent , March 1, 2008, accessed August 31, 2013.
• The Right Reverend John Yates , Daily Telegraph , March 3, 2008, accessed August 31, 2013.
• John Yates at Hansard (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
George Snow	Bishop of Whitby 1972–1975	Clifford Barker
Basil Guy	Bishop of Gloucester 1975-1992	Peter Ball
Ronald Gordon	Bishop of Lambeth 1992–1994	Frank Sargeant