Thomas Frederick Butler

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Thomas Frederick Butler (born 1940) is the ninth Bishop of Southwark.

Dr Butler is a scientist by background having gained a Masters and Doctorate in electronics. He trained for ordination with the Mirfield Fathers at the College of the Resurrection in Yorkshire.

After ordination in 1964, he served three years as a curate in the Ely and Canterbury Dioceses, before spending twelve years as a lecturer in electronics and as chaplain at the University of Zambia and then at the University of Kent at Canterbury. During this period he was on the staff of Lusaka and Canterbury Cathedrals respectively.

Dr Butler was the Archdeacon of Northolt from 1980 to 1985, then became Area Bishop of Willesden (both in the Diocese of London). He was appointed Bishop of Leicester in 1991 and Bishop of Southwark in 1998.

He is married to Barbara, who is the Executive Secretary of Christians Aware, a charity that is involved in education and development. They have two grown-up children and four grandchildren.

Dr Butler has been active at national and international level. Until 1995 he chaired the follow-up to "Faith in the City", which published the controversial Staying in the City report. He chaired the General Synod's Board of Mission from 1995 until 2001 and is now Vice Chair Public Affairs of the Mission and Public Affairs Council. He is also Chair of the Governors of Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He served as the General Synod representative on the Inner Cities Religious Council, an initiative set up by the Department of the Environment, until 2001. Since mid-2003 the Bishop has represented the Church of England on the central committee of the World Council of Churches. He entered the House of Lords in 1997.

Dr Butler is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day and has taken part in many other national and local TV and radio programmes. He has also co-authored two books with his wife: Just Mission and Just Spirituality in a World of Faiths.

He was enthroned in Southwark Cathedral on 12 September 1998.

[edit] Public drunkenness controversy - "I'm the Bishop of Southwark, it's what I do"

On Tuesday, 5 December 2006, Dr Butler returned home from a function at the Irish embassy in London with a head injury, which he claimed to be unable to remember sustaining. He contacted the police claiming that he had been mugged. However, it was subsequently suggested in the media that Butler, apparently under the influence of alcohol, had sustained the injury while being removed from a stranger's car into which he had apparently climbed (in the appropriately named Crucifix Lane), and had begun throwing out the children's toys from the back seats[1]. On being questioned about this seemingly eccentric behaviour by the car's owner, he is alleged to have responded, "I'm the Bishop of Southwark, it's what I do". [2].

This episode has proved very embarrassing for the Bishop, as he is known in the church as a strong disciplinarian, particularly when it comes to junior clergy caught under the influence of alcohol. Ruth Gledhill in the Times Online said:

"One issue, as far as I can see, is how this reflects on him given his own treatment of clergy in the Southwark diocese. As someone who has worshipped for the past 15 years at the very least at three different churches in the diocese, and who meets clergy from Southwark and neighbouring dioceses regularly at General Synod, I have been witness to the effects of Bishop Tom's inimitable pastoral approach to his own errant and indeed inerrant clergy. Put simply, as one lay person said to me when they telephoned yesterday: "Ruth, I feel sorry for the man but let's face it, if my vicar had done this he probably would not have survived." ."

Alan Craig, who is the head of the group known as the Christian People's Alliance on Newham Council in east London, is reported as having said:

"If it's true he was drunk he ought to resign. He can be forgiven, but he can't carry on as Bishop. He's supposed to be a role model and being drunk in a gutter he can't be a good example. It's not comical; it's sad for him, and for the church."

Despite the very public barrage of criticism from both the clergy and the laity, Dr Butler has stated that he has no plans to resign his position.

In an interview with John Humphrys on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme on Tuesday, 19 December 2006, Dr Butler, in a somewhat tortuous explanation, reiterated his claim that he had not been drinking heavily, and contended that someone who was greatly intoxicated could not have negotiated the complex tube route to his home from the reception location. He also stated that he was very worried that he still could not account for three hours of the evening in question, and was undergoing medical tests.

Dr Butler gave the Thought for the Day on the same date. The Thought section is a talk of three minutes and fifteen seconds given from a religious point of view and is produced by the BBC's religious affairs department. [3].

[edit] External links

Religious Posts
Preceded by Cecil Richard Rutt	Bishop of Leicester 1991–1998	Succeeded by Tim Stevens
Preceded by Robert Kerr Williamson	Bishop of Southwark 1998–present	Succeeded by (current incumbent)