Gary Alderson

Why do I write funny stuff about the church? Not just the book but also the blogs? Simply because I find the church funny. And because I think it's important that we keep the "church" in its place. It's when we put ministers on pedestals that we protect those who are corrupted by power, or use their power to manipulate others. Better to assume that everyone that thinks they have power in church are in fact ridiculous. When I preside at the altar, trying to represent Christ - that is ridiculous. I am a fallen bloke, and Jesus is the sinless Son of God. I only have the right to be there because God sees Jesus's righteousness in me. When someone manipulates or complains or otherwise gets over-excited about some church nick-nack or ornament or some "tradition" that was invented by the last-but-one vicar in 1989 - that is laughable. We come together to worship the Living God and we end up squabbling about tea towels or what colour carpet is required in the Children's Corner.

And so in Writes of the Church it's the ones who think they are powerful that are ridiculed. The vicar whose neediness means he never rests. The woman who keeps telling him how useless he is - but wants to run the place himself. But the children, the Sunday School Teacher, the curate who people can't accept is a woman - even all these years after Dibley - these are the ones to whom the Kingdom of God belongs.

Ending up writing a book was quite a surprise.

With a degree in Chemistry, a diploma in Theology, and a career in IT for a series of retailers, I've never really been very good at being consistent.

I was asked if I fancied writing a book "Writes of the Church" after the Bible Readers' Fellowship noticed my blog of the same name. I also write another blog, "The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley." Which leads some people to allege that I am secretly Archdruid Eileen. I'm not. She is a figment of my imagination.

Or possibly vice-versa.

In my spare time I'm an assistant priest at two churches in Northamptonshire. Which doesn't give me any of the raw material for the book, or for my blogs. Honest. None at all.