John Davies (bishop of Shrewsbury)


John Dudley Davies is a former Anglican Bishop of Shrewsbury. During his tenure the post changed from suffragan bishop to area bishop with the institution of area bishops in 1992.
After service in the RAF 1945–1948, Davies was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at Lincoln Theological College. He was made a deacon and ordained a priest, and began his career as curate in Halton, Leeds. Following that he served for many years in Southern Africa: his posts including that of Missionary Director for Empangeni and Chaplain at the University of Witwatersrand. While he was chaplain at the University, Davies played a major role in drafting the document A Message to the People of South Africa, a pamphlet published by the South African Council of Churches that challenged the Christians in South Africa to examine the policy of Apartheid. In 1970, action by the South African government terminated his ministry in that country.
Returning to Britain in 1970 to an administrative post at the Church of England Board of Education, he then served as Vicar and University Chaplain at Keele; he was subsequently appointed Principal of Ascension College, Selly Oak, and finally Diocesan Missioner of St Asaph. He was consecrated a bishop on 5 February 1987, by Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster Abbey. In 2012, while in his retirement he and his wife Shirley led the parish of St Dogfan, Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant in mid-Wales, while they were without a parish priest.
On 11 February 2017, fourteen retired bishops signed an open letter to the then-serving bishops of the Church of England. In an unprecedented move, they expressed their opposition to the House of Bishops' report to General Synod on sexuality, which recommended no change to the Church's canons or practises around sexuality. By 13 February, a serving bishop and nine further retired bishops — including Davies — had added their signatures; on 15 February, the report was rejected by synod.
Davies’ books include:
Three Mountains to Freedom - Practice Interpretation of Paul's Letter to the Galatians