Philip Giddings is a British retired political scientist and academic, specialising in parliamentary government. He is a lecturer in politics at the University of Reading. He is also a

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leader in the Church of England, and heads the

conservative evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

movement called

Anglican Mainstream Anglican Mainstream is a conservative Anglican organization from the Church of England. It describes itself as "a community within the Anglican Communion committed to promote, teach and maintain the Scriptural truths on which the Anglican Church wa ...

Early life and education

Giddings earned his DPhil degree at Oxford University.

Career

Academic career

In 1972, Giddings joined the staff at the University of Reading as a

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

in politics. There, he was

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Mansfield Hall Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market to ...

. He was later promoted to senior lecturer. Before his retirement, he served as director of the university's Centre for Ombudsman and Governance Studies and Head of its School of Politics and International Relations. He retired from academia in 2011.

Church of England

In his position as leader of the House of Laity in the Church of England, Giddings was instrumental in the defeat of a motion for the ordination of women as bishops in late 2012. Giddings' speech against that motion led a priest from Leicester to propose a motion of no-confidence in Giddings on the grounds that it was "a significant contributor to the reputational damage the Church of England is already suffering at the hands of the press". The no-confidence motion was defeated in January 2013, though Giddings said that the vote of a sizeable minority against him would lead him to consider "how to proceed from here". Giddings also took a stand against the proposed appointment of Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading, saying that "practising homosexuals cannot hold a position of leadership" in the Church of England. John, however, has affirmed that he is celibate."Gay cleric's 'wedding' to partner"
''BBC News'', 1 August 2006.

Honours

In 2016, he was awarded the Canterbury Cross for Services to the Church of England by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, "for sustained excellence in voluntary service to the Church".

Selected publications

*''Parliamentary Socialisation: Learning the Ropes or Determining Behaviour?'', 2011 *''When Gordon Took the Helm: The Palgrave Review of British Politics 2007-2008'', 2008 *''The Future of Parliament: Issues for a New Century'', 2005 *''Britain in the European Union: Law, Policy and Parliament'', 2004 *''Westminster and Europe: The Impact of the European Union on the Westminster Parliament'', 1996 *''Parliamentary Accountability: A Study of Parliament and Executive Agencies'', 1994 *''Marketing Boards and Ministers'', 1974

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giddings, Philip English Anglicans British political scientists Living people Academics of the University of Reading People educated at Sir Thomas Rich's School Year of birth missing (living people)