[6][7][8] A speech denouncing apartheid at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester in 1956 by Trevor Huddleston, a priest of the Community of the Resurrection who had just returned from South Africa, had a particularly powerful impact on him.
[24] In 1974, with Rowan Williams (who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury) and others, he founded the Jubilee Group,[25] a network of Christian socialists in Britain and across the Anglican Communion,[26] most of whom were Anglo-Catholics.
[12] From 1990 until 2004, when he retired from full-time parish ministry, he was community theologian at St Botolph's Aldgate, a church located at the intersection of the City of London and the East End.
[5] As much as he admired the work of academic theologians,[citation needed] he insisted that authentic Christian theology could not be confined to the academy[12] or to the pastor's study.
[32] At the heart of his faith was what he called "subversive orthodoxy"; the indissoluble union of contemplative spirituality, sacramental worship, orthodox doctrine and social action.
[35] He respected the contributions of F. D. Maurice,[36] Brooke Foss Westcott, Charles Gore, William Temple, and other reform-minded Anglican Christian socialists, but thought them often to be too timid and middle class.
[5][12][35][37] His publications include guides to prayer and spiritual direction, autobiographical reflections on urban ministry and theological critiques of capitalism and social injustice.