Colin John Podmore (born 22 February 1960) is an English

ecclesiastical historian __NOTOC__ Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritua ...

and a senior

layperson Laypeople or laypersons may refer to: * Someone who is not an expert in a particular field of study ** Lay judge *** Lay judges in Japan * Laity, members of a church who are not clergy ** Lay brother ** Lay sister ** Lay preacher ** Lay apo ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

. Between April 2013 and February 2020 he was the director of

Forward in Faith Forward in Faith (FiF) is an organisation operating in the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church. It represents a traditionalist strand of Anglo-Catholicism and is characterised by its opposition to the ordination of women to the pr ...

, a traditionalist

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches. The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglican ...

organization within the church. He was previously the secretary of the House of Clergy of the

General Synod The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organizations. Anglican Communion The General Synod of the Church of England, which was established in 1970 replacing the Church Assembly (Church of England), Church Assembly, is t ...

(2002–2011) and clerk to the General Synod (2011–2013)."Podmore, Dr Colin John", ''

Who's Who 2017 ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It is a book, and also a CD-ROM and a website, giving information on influential people from around the world. Published annually as a book since 1849, it lists people who influence British life, according to i ...

'', A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2016; online edn, Nov 201
accessed 24 July 2017
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Early life and education

Podmore was born on 22 February 1960 in

Redruth Redruth ( , kw, Resrudh) is a town and civil parishes in Cornwall, civil parish in Cornwall, England. The population of Redruth was 14,018 at the 2011 census. In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also inc ...

, Cornwall, England. He studied history at

Keble College, Oxford Keble College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to th ...

, and trained as a teacher at

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn (18 ...

. After a period of work as a schoolteacher he came back to the University of Oxford as a researcher and his D.Phil. thesis on the Moravian Church in England was subsequently published.

Honours

In 2002, Podmore was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

(FRHistS). In June 2017, he was awarded the Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship by the Archbishop of Canterbury "for services to education and scholarship in support of the Church of England and the wider Church". In the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) for services to the Church of England. He is president of the

Society for the Maintenance of the Faith The Society for the Maintenance of the Faith is an Anglo-Catholic organization in the Church of England founded in 1873. As of 2022, it holds 94 advowsons or rights of patronage for church appointments. The group in 1995 supported the idea of life ...

, an Anglo-Catholic organization coordinating patronage in the Church of England.

Selected works

* * (based on the author's D.Phil. thesis) * * * * *

References

1960 births 20th-century Anglicans 20th-century English historians 21st-century Anglicans 21st-century English historians Alumni of Keble College, Oxford Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge Anglican scholars Anglo-Catholic writers British historians of religion Ecclesiologists English Anglo-Catholics Schoolteachers from Cornwall Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Historians of Christianity Living people People from Redruth Members of the Order of the British Empire {{England-historian-stub