Kenneth Skelton

Kenneth John Fraser Skelton, CBE ( born May 16, 1918 † 30 July 2003) was a British Anglican theologian and Bishop of Matabeleland and Bishop of Lichfield.

Kenneth Skelton visited the Dulwich College and then studied at Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University, Classical Studies and Theology. He was educated at Wells Theological College as a priest. He took a first place in a community in Derbyshire. He then returned to Wells first as a teacher at the Theological College and took over after priest places in communities in Manchester, Liverpool and the Midlands. In 1962 he was consecrated as Bishop of Matabeleland in Bulawayo. It was a politically turbulent time in what was then Rhodesia. Skelton was suspected for the British secret service MI6 to work, but what he vigorously denied, although he certainly gave more information, but without being paid for it, as he admitted later. Kenneth Skelton criticized police action, the restriction of personal freedoms and the retention of information in Rhodesia. He was an outspoken opponent of the unilateral declaration of independence in Rhodesia and when she came by Ian Smith in 1966, he explained to practice it his duty as a Christian resistance. The white population mocked him and his personal safety was seen as increasingly vulnerable as he used to be for the equal treatment of black people. In 1970, a new constitution and a new land law proposed by the government, were rejected by the Church, no other choice than his resignation as bishop remained for him to submit. He called personal reasons as crucial for this step.

Kenneth Skelton returned to England, where he worked as a priest in Sunderland and at the same time as an assistant bishop of Durham. In 1972 the Order of the British Empire in the rank of Commander ( CBE), he was awarded. For a returned from a colony former bishop unusual it was 1975 again put in charge of a diocese with the bishop of Lichfield. Already in Rhodesia had vilified him as a communist and even after his return to England he showed a left political stance and stepped decided against, as he felt anti-social policies Margaret Thatcher on. This earned him the nickname "Red Ken ". From 1980 until his resignation from the office of bishop in 1984 Kenneth Skelton was a member of the House of Lords.

In church policy questions Kenneth Skelton was a progressive bishop. The General Synod of the Anglican Church in 1974 led to him co-authored Lichfield Report - Marriage and the Churches task, which is published in 1978, dealt with the position of the church to the marital union. The report was not official church policy, but he still changed the practice of the Church. Divorcees can now remarry in an English church and couples who have been married only civilly, are no longer considered in sin alive. Priest whose marriage has been broken may keep their jobs and have no fear deportation to remote parishes or subordinate positions.

Kenneth Skelton was married since 1945 and had two sons and a daughter.

Swell

  • The Right Reverend Kenneth Skelton in the Daily Telegraph August 1, 2003, accessed on 2 September 2013.
  • The Rt Rev Kenneth Skelton Militant clergyman devoted to racial justice who -declared it was a Christian duty to resist UDI in Rhodesia in The Guardian, August 4, 2003, accessed on 2 September 2013.
  • Bishop of Lichfield
  • Member of the House of Lords
  • Anglican Bishop ( 20th Century)
  • Commander of the Order of the British Empire
  • Briton
  • Born in 1918
  • Died in 2003
  • Man
July 30 Church of England Wells, Somerset Secret Intelligence Service
471930
de