25 Facts About Graham Kings

Graham Kings was born on 10 October 1953 and is an English Church of England bishop, theologian and poet.

Graham Kings was educated at Chigwell County Primary School ; Buckhurst Hill County High School, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Hertford College, Oxford ; Ridley Hall, Cambridge ; Selwyn College, Cambridge, ; and Utrecht University.

Graham Kings was an Honorary Fellow of Durham University.

Between school and Oxford, Graham Kings was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards on a short service limited commission and served as a tank troop leader in Munster, West Germany.

Graham Kings served as a curate in St Mark's Harlesden, founding an open youth club there.

Graham Kings then spent seven years as a Church Mission Society mission partner as Director of Studies, and then as Vice-Principal, at St Andrew's College, Kabare, Kenya, working with Bishop David Gitari, Bishop of Mount Kenya East and later Bishop of Kirinyaga, and supervising the building of a new Library, Chapel and Archive Centre.

Graham Kings was appointed an Honorary Canon of St Andrew's Cathedral in Kerugoya, Kenya, in October 1991, at his farewell graduation ceremony, and the Kings family returned to Britain in November 1991.

In January 1992 Graham Kings became the first Lecturer in Mission Studies at the Cambridge Theological Federation a new post supported by the Henry Martyn Trust.

In July 1995, Graham Kings moved to Westminster College, Cambridge, the library from the Henry Martyn Hall, next to Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, and his study from Ridley Hall.

Graham Kings served as the founding Director of the Henry Martyn Library, for the study of mission and world Christianity, at Westminster College, which was formally opened by Kenneth Cragg on 22 January 1996.

Graham Kings initiated the move of the SPCK archives and library from Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone, to the Cambridge University Library, which was completed in 1998.

From 1995, Graham Kings became an affiliated lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Cambridge and its representative on the board of the Centre for African Studies, University of Cambridge.

Graham Kings attracted a six-year international, inter-university project to the Faculty of Divinity, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, USA, which was directed by Brian Stanley, the North Atlantic Missiology Project, and was located at the Henry Martyn Centre.

Graham Kings attracted the Christianity in Asia project to the Faculty of Divinity, directed by Archie Lee, which published Christian Theology in Asia, edited by Sebastian C H Kim.

Graham Kings was awarded the PhD in March 2002 and it was published as Christianity Connected: Hindus, Muslims and the World in the Letters of Max Warren and Roger Hooker and was republished by ISPCK in India in 2017, with a foreword by Jayakiran Sebastian.

On 28 September 2000, Graham Kings was inducted as vicar of St Mary's Islington, an historic Evangelical church in the Diocese of London, and served for 9 years.

On 24 June 2009, Graham Kings was consecrated bishop by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster Abbey to serve as the Bishop of Sherborne, in the Diocese of Salisbury, covering especially the county of Dorset.

Graham Kings chaired the historic Salisbury-Sudan link and visited South Sudan three times, writing a series of Guardian articles about the country.

On 15 July 2015, Graham Kings was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as 'Mission Theologian in the Anglican Communion' and was commissioned formally at Canterbury Cathedral on 13 September 2015.

Graham Kings was appointed as Honorary Fellow of Durham University for three years and was a Senior Member of both St Chad's and St John's College, Durham.

Graham Kings co-chaired national conferences in Cairo, Bengaluru, and Recife, and international conferences in Jerusalem and Dallas and was present at Limuru, Kenya.

Graham Kings served as Honorary Assistant Bishop and World Mission Advisor in the Diocese of Southwark, in particular at St Matthew's Church, Elephant and Castle, before retiring to Cambridge in 2020 where he is Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Ely and Research Associate in the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide.

Graham Kings served on the Liturgical Commissions of the Anglican Church of Kenya and of the Church of England, the Mission Theology Advisory Group of the Church of England, and the Network for Inter Faith Concerns of the Anglican Communion.

Graham Kings has commissioned and collaborated with three artists in particular.

Graham Kings has published numerous articles in The Times and The Guardian and on Fulcrum, Covenant and Mission Theology in the Anglican Communion.