Meet your Bishops
An Interview with
Bishop Humphrey

The Man Beneath the Mitre

Humphrey Southern was installed at the Cathedral as the new Bishop of Repton in May 2007. And he was there before he was born! The following is an edited extract from an interview with Derby Cathedral’s ‘Outlook’ magazine.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I was born and lived in London until I was ten. My father was a lawyer and my mother a teacher. We then moved to Wiltshire although we still retained a flat in London. One of my two sisters still lives in Wiltshire, as does my mother, and I regard myself as a Wiltshire lad.

I went to Elstree Preparatory School in Berkshire before moving on to Harrow. From there I went up to Oxford - Christ Church - to read history. It was whilst I was at Oxford that I went forward for selection for ordination. After graduation I took a year out for experience. I went to The Sudan where, having no particular skills, I acted as a general 'gopher' for a local Archdeacon and also helped with teaching some English.

On my return I took my theology degree at Cuddesdon just outside Oxford. I took the degree in two years and used the third year for more experience including a prison placement.

I was ordained Deacon in 1986 at Rochester Cathedral and spent three years in Rainham in Kent including three months seconded to a Zimbabwe township parish outside Harare. My next move was to a curacy in Liverpool at St. Mary's in Walton, an inner city parish with much unemployment and urban decay and so this was a time of learning as well as enjoyment.

This was the post-Toxteth riots period and an interesting time for local politics (remember ‘Militant’?) which I remember spilling into such events as the funeral of our local MP, Eric Heffer. I was also Chaplain to Walton Hospital.

My next move was to become the incumbent (Vicar, later Team Rector as the parish grew) of Hale on the edge of Farnham in Surrey in the Guildford Diocese. I was also Diocesan Ecumenical Officer and I have fond memories of working closely with (the then) Roman Catholic Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Cormac Murphy O'Connor, who of course is now Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. It was at a baptism in Hale that I met my wife-to-be Emma! She was, and is, a District Nurse. We have two children – Laura born in 1997 and Kate born in 1999.

My next move was back to Wiltshire where I was Team Rector in a team serving Tisbury, a large village and seven other villages. However, as things do, expansion took place and we finally had a team of sixteen villages, so pastoral reorganization was a recurrent theme, as it was of my concerns as Rural Dean of Chalke, as I was for six and a half of the nearly eight years I was at Tisbury.

Pastoral reorganization is not merely about deployment but how different 'cells' of the Church relate to one another and grow. My time in rural ministry included the foot and mouth crisis and the area was affected along with so many others. One of my pleasures about being here is that we are again in a rural position.

What about hobbies and relaxation?

I am keenly interested in horses and horse racing. In fact Emma and I did a lot of our courting on racecourses! We enjoy travelling and have a love for Africa and Europe. My reading is largely contemporary fiction. Food and wine are also definitely on the ‘enjoyment’ agenda. Recently I was in Western Australia and appreciated some of their lovely wines and I highly recommend them! I would regard myself as an enthusiastic, rather than a skilled, cook – but my enthusiasm does not extend to shopping or washing up!

You clearly have experienced many styles of worship but what are your preferences?

I grew up in what might be called a ‘Prayer Book Catholic’ tradition but have always been keen to explore and learn from the wide range of traditions that we inherit. At school I was much influenced by the Evangelical tradition and am grateful for that experience. I love church music and in Wiltshire I was involved with the Edington Music Festival - a famous celebration of the richness of our tradition and this has always been very important to me.

If you were organising a dinner party who would you like to have at your table?

What a question! At the moment my list might include St. Augustine of Hippo, Queen Boudicea, Shakespeare, Mozart, Florence Nightingale, Dorothy L. Sayers, Nelson Mandela, and Tony Benn … but ask me again another day and the line-up might be wholly different. There would be some lively conversations!

In your new position there will be more than a few problems to face. Are you at all anxious?

I see our problems as challenges rather than crises: challenges to our tendencies towards both complacency and despair, neither of which strikes me as a particularly faithful response to the God who is himself love and faithfulness.

You ask about money: it’s easy to be anxious about money just as it is easy - complacently - to forget that we have received huge material blessings and to forget the responsibilities that lays on us to be generous and open-handed. Vocation comes first and we must engage in mission with vision.

I have long supported the ordained ministry of women and look forward to the first female bishop! This is a matter on which there are different views, however, and we need to learn and learn again how to be a Church that rejoices in diversity rather than is threatened by it. The greatest skill in theology is that of conversation and all voices must be heard with respect and humility. The same applies to interfaith issues.

Ageing membership and crumbling plant are not just Church problems. The question we have to ask ourselves is not about the survival of an institution but about how faithfully we are engaging with society in the name of God and this engagement is more important than "how many" and "how old" and "how much". I would like to see much more freedom in the control of our buildings. People should be trusted to manage their own churches a great deal more than they are.

Are you happy to be here?

We are delighted to be here in this beautiful part of England. Today’s conversation with ‘Outlook’ is my third visit to this Cathedral. The second was when I was appointed and the very first visit was 'in utero' when my mother came to an aunt's funeral!

We are looking forward to our new life here with joy and excitement and look forward to a close involvement with the Diocese. I am particularly looking forward to working with Church schools, places of work and places where people have fun! I want to listen to them and, through that listening, find what God is saying to us.

More about the Bishop of Repton >>