29 Facts About Gavin Ashenden

Gavin Roy Pelham Ashenden was born on 3 June 1954 and is a British Catholic layman, author and commentator, and Associate Editor of the Catholic Herald.

Gavin Ashenden was educated at Rokeby Preparatory School and as a music scholar at The King's School, Canterbury.

Gavin Ashenden graduated from the University of Bristol, with a degree in law.

Gavin Ashenden trained for the Anglican priesthood at Oak Hill Theological College, where he read for a Bachelor of Arts degree in theology.

Gavin Ashenden engaged in postgraduate work at Heythrop College at the University of London with a Master of Theology degree on the psychology of religion.

Gavin Ashenden published Charles Williams: Alchemy and Integration, a study of Williams' work in 2007, which was reviewed by the Archbishop Rowan Williams in the Times Literary Supplement.

Gavin Ashenden was ordained at Southwark Cathedral in 1980 and served as a parish priest for 10 years in the Diocese of Southwark, firstly at St James's Bermondsey and then as vicar of Hamsey Green in Sanderstead.

Gavin Ashenden was appointed a senior officer of the university in 1994.

Gavin Ashenden convened and taught the MA programme "Monotheism and Mysticism in Critical Theology".

Gavin Ashenden was appointed firstly as a canon of Chichester Cathedral in 2003, and subsequently to a further theological canonry in 2006.

Gavin Ashenden was examining chaplain and Diocesan Adviser on New Age Religions to the Bishop of Chichester.

Gavin Ashenden was a member of the General Synod of the Church of England for from 1995 to 2012.

Gavin Ashenden has lectured in the United States, including, in 2003, as a visiting theologian for St Mark Lutheran Church in Salem, Oregon.

Gavin Ashenden was vice-chairman of the Keston Institute during the 1980s, and a director of Aid to Russian Christians, in which role he engaged in smuggling Bibles and medicine to the "Underground Church" in the Soviet Union during that decade.

Gavin Ashenden was a member of the Society of the Holy Cross, and the Little Brothers of Jesus.

In 2016, Gavin Ashenden was appointed to the board of reference for the Global Anglican Future Conference.

Gavin Ashenden joined Anglican TV Ministries as their UK correspondent.

In early 2017, Gavin Ashenden resigned from his position as Chaplain to the Queen after writing in The Times criticising a service at St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, at which a Muslim student has been invited to read a passage from the Koran that explicitly declared that Jesus is not the Son of God, and because of his views on Islam and orthodox Christianity.

Gavin Ashenden concluded that being a member of the Ecclesiastical Household was incompatible with being free to comment on issues of freedom of speech and the integrity of Christianity in the public square.

In September 2017 Archbishop Theodore Casimes of the Christian Episcopal Church announced that Gavin Ashenden had been consecrated as a missionary bishop for the United Kingdom and Europe.

The consecration had actually taken place in 2013, when Gavin Ashenden was still a parish priest in the Church of England and a chaplain to the Queen.

Gavin Ashenden resigned from the Christian Episcopal Church in December 2019 on being received into the Roman Catholic Church.

On 22 December 2019, Gavin Ashenden was received into the Catholic Church by the Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mark Davies, at Shrewsbury Cathedral.

In 2023, Gavin Ashenden criticized the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which allows Catholic priests to impart pastoral blessings onto irregular couples under certain conditions.

Between 2008 and 2012 Gavin Ashenden presented the Faith and Ethics programme for BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey.

Gavin Ashenden has contributed Op Ed pieces in both The Times and The Daily Telegraph, and written for The Sunday Times.

Gavin Ashenden has featured in The Spectators religious affairs podcast 'Holy Smoke;' and has written for Christian Today.

Gavin Ashenden maintains a website for the publication of homilies, articles and commentary at ashenden.

Gavin Ashenden was interviewed by Rod Liddle for The Sunday Times over the controversy surrounding Bishop Michael Curry's sermon following the Royal Wedding in 2018.