Full of anecdotes and amusing stories, but the Church is still a dangerous place for a gay priest.
Full of anecdotes and amusing stories, but the Church is still a dangerous place for a gay priest.
Anglican, Gay studies, Sexuality & gender studies
Malcolm Johnson has been an Anglican priest for fifty years working in the East End and in the City of London. Openly gay for most of this time, he has never been far from controversy. As rector of St Botolph Aldgate he was particularly involved with homelessness, HIV/AIDS and education. Because of his counselling and campaigning work for the LGBT community Rabbi Lionel Blue has described him as the Pink Bishop.
Diary of a Gay Priest is full of anecdotes and amusing stories. His 44-year relationship with Robert has given him stability and security, but he considers the Church still to be a dangerous place for a gay priest. He remains in it by his eyelashes.
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Reviewed in November - December issue ~ Martha E. Stone, THe Gay & Lesbian Review
Diary of a Gay Priest is not what you may suppose. Divorced from the solemnity and religiosity you may first expect, this humorous tale illustrates Johnson’s wittiness and the church’s remarkable tolerance for the unconventional. Born to a relatively wealthy family of clothing manufacturers in 1930s Yarmouth, they appear accepting of their son’s eccentricities for interior design, the homeless and the drug-addicted. Dubbed “the pink bishop”, not only to the fact he was gay but also because of his concerns for social justice; at his first church, St. Botolph’s, he housed the homeless and the Gay Christian Movement. A practically minded individual, he later opened four group homes as transitional housing, as well as hospices for terminal AIDS victims. Johnson is now retired and lives with his partner of many decades. In need of “ash cash”, as he puts it, he provides over the odd funeral in this time of austerity. ~ The Lavender Bishop –David Bergman
