I have been attending St Luke's Church in Crosby since 1988, and since then I have had the following church jobs and positions.
Before coming to Merseyside I lived in Oxfordshire, and was a member of the Oxford Diocesan Synod for several years.
I am a lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, where I teach mathematics to students of civil engineering and building. My hobbies include postal history, and I am the secretary of the Postal History Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. I enjoy early music, and I regularly attend the York Early Music Festival. I am 48 years old.
I cannot claim to have the answers to all the business that will come before General Synod in the next five years but there are some matters that I am particularly interested in, and my views on these will give you some idea of what you will get if you vote for me as one of your representatives.
Finance
The church obviously has to be careful in its expenditure but many suggested cutbacks take little or no account of our ecumenical partners. To me this seems an ideal time to strengthen our links, and to save money, by doing together what in the past we have done separately and repetitiously.
Admission of children to Holy Communion
The biblical sacrament of Christian initiation is baptism (not confirmation), and this must mean that all the baptised, children included, should be admitted to Holy Communion.
Clergy conditions of service
Some clergy have a little too much security, and recent cases have shown that when things go wrong, the Church of England can make itself look very silly, and waste a lot of money. Many professions have disciplinary procedures that work well, and the Church should adopt the best of these. At the same time assistant clergy do not have sufficient security and more needs to be done for them.
Liturgy
Much of the next five years will be spent on liturgical revision, a subject in which I have had a keen interest for many years. The trend is towards allowing more choice, and I welcome this, so long as the choices are rooted in Scripture, retain their Anglican flavour, and are generally acceptable to all groups in the Church.
Dr Peter Owen
11 The Downs
Blundellsands Road West
Liverpool L23 6X5
Tel: 0151-931 2251
September 1995
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