Keywords:
Archbishop, New Year’s levy, Anglican Church, homophobia, hope, bishop, children, public family life, political spectrum, welcome
Archbishop, New Year’s levy, Anglican Church, homophobia, hope, bishop, children, public family life, political spectrum, welcome
Transcript
Kevin: I was elected in September, and then there’s a New Year’s levee. A New Year’s Day levee at the cathedral that’s hosted by the archbishops and the other bishops, and the chancellor, and people – it’s like the levee at city hall, people just come, and anybody can come, and we host hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. And we stand up at the front, it’s like a receiving line, and after I was elected, but before I was consecrated, just a week before, it was New Year’s Day, and Mohan and I were standing at the front greeting people, and a rather conservative Anglican came through the line, and he shook our hands, but the first thing he said was, “I’ve told the Archbishop how I think this is a really bad idea that you’ve been elected and that you’ll be consecrated. I have huge concerns for the Anglican Church, I don’t think this is good at all”. Like, people, this is New Year’s Day, right? Okay. [Laughter] So, there’s some of that, and then this year…
Kevin: This year, our kids, Kiran and Anya were with us at the levee. So you’re walking through the receiving line and the Archbishop, and the area bishops, and me and then Mohan and our kids are there with us, and they were great. I mean, we stood there for an hour and a half and probably met eight hundred people that day, and our kids ran off a little bit with some of the other kids who were there, but after that, I thought, this is what it should be like. Why should our family, public family life, be any different from the public family life on that day, of any of the other bishops? So that was kind of a moment of hope for me.
Mohan: We want them to feel the richness of their daddy being a bishop, and at the same it’s not fair to them to be in the spotlight. You know, we’ve gone – just to continue with our, our family life in public – um, I don’t go every Sunday, but, often, I’ll go with Kevin to whatever parish he’s at that Sunday, and we bring the kids, and regardless of whether they’re – that particular parish is perceived as being on the left end of the spectrum, on the right end of the spectrum, we’ve always been very warmly welcomed, very warmly welcomed.
Kevin: I was elected in September, and then there’s a New Year’s levee. A New Year’s Day levee at the cathedral that’s hosted by the archbishops and the other bishops, and the chancellor, and people – it’s like the levee at city hall, people just come, and anybody can come, and we host hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. And we stand up at the front, it’s like a receiving line, and after I was elected, but before I was consecrated, just a week before, it was New Year’s Day, and Mohan and I were standing at the front greeting people, and a rather conservative Anglican came through the line, and he shook our hands, but the first thing he said was, “I’ve told the Archbishop how I think this is a really bad idea that you’ve been elected and that you’ll be consecrated. I have huge concerns for the Anglican Church, I don’t think this is good at all”. Like, people, this is New Year’s Day, right? Okay. [Laughter] So, there’s some of that, and then this year…
Kevin: This year, our kids, Kiran and Anya were with us at the levee. So you’re walking through the receiving line and the Archbishop, and the area bishops, and me and then Mohan and our kids are there with us, and they were great. I mean, we stood there for an hour and a half and probably met eight hundred people that day, and our kids ran off a little bit with some of the other kids who were there, but after that, I thought, this is what it should be like. Why should our family, public family life, be any different from the public family life on that day, of any of the other bishops? So that was kind of a moment of hope for me.
Mohan: We want them to feel the richness of their daddy being a bishop, and at the same it’s not fair to them to be in the spotlight. You know, we’ve gone – just to continue with our, our family life in public – um, I don’t go every Sunday, but, often, I’ll go with Kevin to whatever parish he’s at that Sunday, and we bring the kids, and regardless of whether they’re – that particular parish is perceived as being on the left end of the spectrum, on the right end of the spectrum, we’ve always been very warmly welcomed, very warmly welcomed.