Graham Leonard was conditionally ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church and was later appointed a monsignor by Pope John Paul II.
15 Facts About Graham Leonard
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Graham Leonard was educated at Monkton Combe School near Bath and at Balliol College, Oxford.
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Graham Leonard spent the latter part of the war attached to the Army Operational Research Group for the Ministry of Supply.
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Graham Leonard then attended Westcott House theological college in Cambridge.
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Graham Leonard was ordained as a deacon in 1947 and as a priest the following year.
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Graham Leonard was a curate in St Ives, Huntingdonshire, and at Stansted, Essex.
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Graham Leonard then spent three years as vicar of Ardleigh, Essex.
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Graham Leonard had three episcopal positions in the Church of England, firstly as the suffragan Bishop of Willesden in the Diocese of London and later as the diocesan Bishop of Truro and the Bishop of London.
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Graham Leonard was Prelate of the Order of the British Empire.
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Graham Leonard was notable for ordaining 71 women as deacons at St Paul's Cathedral on 22 March 1987, but he remained an outspoken critic of moves to ordain women to the priesthood within the Anglican Communion.
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In 1989, Graham Leonard co-authored a book titled Let God be God with two Anglican theologians examining the issue of inclusive language in the church, giving particular attention to inclusive God language, of which they were especially critical:.
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Graham Leonard stated that he was not first ordained a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church and that Pope John Paul II's personal instruction was that he should be ordained immediately to the priesthood sub conditione.
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Graham Leonard was later appointed a papal chaplain with the title Monsignor and then a prelate of honour by the Pope on 3 August 2000.
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Graham Leonard was the brother-in-law to the academic Michael Swann and Hugh Swann, cabinet maker to Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, having married their sister, Priscilla Swann, in 1943.
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Nine portraits of Graham Leonard are owned by the National Portrait Gallery.