Jeffrey John

Jeffrey Philip Hywel John (born 10 February 1953) is a Church of England priest and the current Dean of St Albans. He made headlines in 2003 when he was the first person to have openly been in a same-sex relationship to be nominated as a Church of England bishop. Owing to the consequent controversy it was claimed he had withdrawn his acceptance of the nomination. John was born in Tonyrefail in South Wales in 1953. He studied at Hertford College, Oxford, where he gained a first in classics and modern languages in 1975. He subsequently studied theology at St Stephen's House, Oxford and obtained second class honours. After a curacy in Penarth, Llandaff, he returned to Oxford in 1980 to study for a doctorate in Pauline theology. He became...