From Catholic Herald-
On the Feast of the Epiphany, the former Anglican Bishop of Ebbsfleet Andrew Burnham spoke to me about his journey towards an ordinariate. He had only just been received into the Church. Today he will be ordained to the diaconate and on Saturday, he is ordained a priest. What follows is the full text of my interview with him over lunch at Brown’s, near the Oxford Oratory.
I see from your scarf that you were at New College?…
I was at New College from 1966 to 1971.
I read music from 1966 to 1969. The story is that when I was at school I already was going to be a priest but I didn’t know whether I was going to read music or theology. And I thought if I read music first they will pay for me to read theology, whereas if I read theology first, nobody would pay for me to do music. (In those days people would pay for whatever you did).
So I did music from 1966 to 1969 and then from 1969 to 1971 I did theology with a view of moving to theological college for two years and then becoming a clergyman. It all went hideously wrong, because as soon as I started reading theology I stopped believing it. It was the end of the 1960s, the end of a time of theological demolition. I thought to myself, it would be ever so nice if this stuff were true but it’s not and what do I do about it? So I went to see my tutor who said: “If I were you, having started, I would finish the degree, and then go off and be a teacher.” Which I did, very badly. I got yet another award from the local authority and went to Westminster College and did my teaching diploma, my PGCE. I was then head-hunted, as you were in those days, to be head of music at a Nottingham grammar school.
More here-
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2011/01/13/andrew-burnham-interview-full-transcript/
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