The Valentine Bishop

So, Valentine’s Day. Which , if any, of the several bishop’s of old should be identified as the ‘love associated’ bishop, is not completely clear.

Two (otherwise unassociated!) General Synod members with Valentine balloons.

Soon after his election as Bishop of St Albans, as a teenager I remember John Taylor introducing himself at the Greenbelt Festival as ‘the Valentine Bishop’, his Diocese including as it does the Counties of Herts & Beds.

I promised a tenuous Valentine’s/Watford link: it is that John Taylor was also a youngster from St Luke’s in Watford, the church that later fostered my own vocation to the ministry. In fact, the church had sponsored so many over the years, they used to have a board at the back of the church with the names of all those that had gone on to serve God’s church is one way or another. I hope by now they have filled it up and started on another board…

Alastair GS101
Prox It