James Jones (bishop)

James Stuart Jones ( born August 18, 1948) is the seventh Anglican Bishop of Liverpool. As the successor of David Sheppard, he took a this position in 1998. Previously, he was suffragan bishop of Hull in the Diocese of York in the Church of England. In August 2013 he went into retirement.

Jones, who graduated from the University of Exeter with a Bachelor of Arts in Theology in 1971 and was trained in Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, worked as a teacher at Sevenoaks School, where he called one of the first British programs for voluntary social engagement of students into life. He co-founded the first volunteer agency in the UK. Between 1975 and 1981 he worked as an editor at the Scripture Union, a Bible society, and then as a chaplain and second pastor at Christ Church in the Diocese of Bristol. During this time he also worked as a lecturer at Trinity College, Bristol. From 1990 to 1994 he was pastor of the Emmanuel Church in South Croydon in the Diocese of Southwark and head of the episcopal board of examiners. In 1994 he was appointed Suffragan Bishop of Hull. Jones is married to Sarah Marrow since 1980; they have three daughters.

He is considered the evangelical and was part of a group of bishops who signed a protest against the proposed appointment of Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading. In the anthology A Fallible Church ( A fallible Church, 2008), however, he apologized for it and submitted the argument that the Bible offers positive role models for same-sex relationships.

Jones was from 2003 to August 2013 as the spiritual Lord Member of the House of Lords.