Bishop Hugh Montefiore

Description for BISHOP HUGH MONTEFIORE by John S Peart-Binns:

Born into a distinguished Anglo-Jewish family, the Sebag-Montefiores, Hugh Montefiore experienced a dramatic conversion. At seventeen he saw a vision of Jesus Christ and became a Christian knowing nothing about Christianity, or the Gospels. He suffered great anguish at being cast out by the Jewish community and today he is increasingly aware of his Jewishness.

Montefiore - tall and distinguished - has been a stimulating, demanding, and infuriating person for those surrounding him. He was virtually crushed by the avalanche of abuse directed at him for suggesting that Christ might have been a homosexual. A defender of causes, his impetuosity, gained him the name of Montefiasco. However, in many areas he was ahead of his time: in his warnings on pollution, the wastage of natural resources, the disruption of the ecological balance and the long-term physical and psychological consequences of over population, and his crusading frequently led to clashes with the government and ministers. However, through his firmness and independence in debate, Montefiore became of of the Church's most influential figures.

A moving portray of a sensitive and vulnerable, yet spiritually strong and perceptive leader, this biography is an invaluable testament to one of this century's great ecclesiastical figures.