Alan Billings
Encyclopedia
Canon Dr Alan Billings is a member of the Youth Justice Board
Youth Justice Board
The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales is an executive non-departmental public body, funded by and reporting to the Ministry of Justice and Department for Education and Skills...

 and is a retired Anglican priest. Alan Billings is also the director of the Centre for Ethics and Religion at Lancaster University
Lancaster University
Lancaster University, officially The University of Lancaster, is a leading research-intensive British university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established by Royal Charter in 1964 and initially based in St Leonard's Gate until moving to a purpose-built 300 acre campus at...

. He contributes regularly to the programme Thought for the Day
Thought for the Day
Thought for the Day is a daily scripted slot on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 offering "reflections from a faith perspective on issues and people in the news", broadcast at around 7.45 each Monday to Saturday morning...

 on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

. Active in local government, Alan Billings was a member of the Home Office Community Cohesion Panel. He also serves as a schools adjudicator and is Chair of the Cumbria Courts Board.

Alan Billings was educated at Emmanuel college, Cambridge University and subsequently trained to become a teacher while attending Bristol University. After time spent teaching in Leicester and Barnsley, Alan Billings trained to become a vicar and following ordination he served at several churches including St Silas Leicester and St Marys in Sheffield. While in Sheffield he was Deputy Leader of Sheffield City Council
Sheffield City Council
Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors...

 and was a contemporary of David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010...

. At this time in the late 1980s, Sheffield city council was engaged in infamous disputes with Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

. During this period Alan Billings gained a doctorate by carrying out research that ultimately contributed to the controversial anti Thatcherite report: Faith in the City
Faith in the City
Faith in the City was a report published in the UK in Autumn 1985, authored by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Urban Priority Areas...

. For a period, Alan Billings was the Principal of the West Midlands Ministerial Training Course, a part-time course for ordinands of the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church, based at The Queen's College, Birmingham. Latterly Alan Billings was the vicar of St Georges Kendal in Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Alan Billings has authored several books: Dying and Grieving, Secular Lives Sacred Hearts and God and Community Cohesion

External links

  • http://www.yjb.gov.uk/en-gb/yjb/TheBoard/CanonDrAlanBillings.htm
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