James England Cotter (23 August 1942 - 16 April 2014) was an English

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

known for his religious poetry and his advocacy for gay and lesbian Christians.

Life and ministry

Cotter was born in

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

in 1942 and was educated at

Stockport Grammar School Stockport Grammar School is a co-educational private day school in Stockport, England. Founded in 1487 by Sir Edmund Shaa, a former Lord Mayor of London, it is the second oldest in the North of England, after Lancaster Royal Grammar School, ...

before studying at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

, later being ordained priest in the Diocese of Manchester. In 1976 he was a founding member and the first general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, or LGCM, later renamed OneBodyOneFaith. In this capacity, he appeared on the TV programme ''The Lord's My Shepherd and He Knows I'm Gay'', speaking openly about his own sexuality and how it related to his spirituality and mental health. Reflecting later, he said: "I think human beings, including myself, hurt and were hurt more than they would like to admit, but at the same time stumbling towards something, we weren’t quite sure what we were stumbling towards. I don’t think anybody would have even dreamt of thinking of a phrase like Gay Marriage at that time." Later, during his ministry in the

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...

, he received a reprimand from then-

Archbishop of Wales The post of Archbishop of Wales () was created in 1920 when the Church in Wales was separated from the Church of England and disestablished. The four historic Welsh dioceses had previously formed part of the Province of Canterbury, and so came ...

the Rt Revd Barry Morgan for conducting a same-sex blessing. He took the opportunity to publish ''The Service of My Love'', a pastoral and

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

handbook for such occasions. Formerly at

Llandecwyn Llandecwyn () is a hamlet near Penrhyndeudraeth in Gwynedd, Wales. The bulk of the population (between 40 and 50 houses) is now located around Cilfor close to the A496 road and served by Llandecwyn railway station, with a cluster of under ten ho ...

, Cotter's final post was as vicar of

St Hywyn's Church, Aberdaron The Church of St Hywyn, Aberdaron, Gwynedd, Wales, is a parish church dating from the 12th century. Its origins are earlier, as a ''clas'' church from the 5th to the 7th centuries. Further building, including the construction of the second nave, ...

, where his predecessor had been the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

poet

R. S. Thomas Ronald Stuart Thomas (29 March 1913 – 25 September 2000), published as R. S. Thomas, was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest noted for nationalism, spirituality and dislike of the anglicisation of Wales. John Betjeman, introducing ''Song at the ...

, whom Cotter cited as an inspiration for his own work. He was being cared for by friends when he died from

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

on 16 April 2014 at his home in

Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community (Wales), community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 UK census, the community � ...

Legacy

In his lifetime he published about 30 books and pamphlets, many through his own publishing company, Cairns, and many of his personal notes and diaries are now housed in the Jim Cotter Collection at

Gladstone's Library Gladstone's Library, known until 2010 as St Deiniol's Library (), is a residential library in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales, UK. Gladstone's Library is Britain's only Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Ministerial Library and serves a ...

in Hawarden, Wales. Several of his prayers and poems are included as alternative

canticle In the context of Christian liturgy, a canticle (from the Latin ''canticulum'', a diminutive of ''canticum'', "song") is a psalm-like song with biblical lyrics taken from elsewhere than the Book of Psalms, but included in psalters and books su ...

s in the

prayer book A prayer book is a book containing prayers and perhaps devotional readings, for private or communal use, or in some cases, outlining the liturgy of religious services. Books containing mainly orders of religious services, or readings for them are ...

of the

Society of St Francis A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...

in Europe. The Jim Cotter Trust has funded CRC Online, a virtual resource for the St Mark's Centre for Radical Christianity, among other projects. The collection ''Untamed Gospel: Protests, poems and prose for the Christian year'' by

Martyn Percy Martyn William Percy (born 31 July 1962) is a British academic, educator, social scientist and theologian. Ordained as a priest in the Church of England. He had been Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, from 2014 to 2022 and principal of Ripon College C ...

, published in 2017, includes short paraphrased readings for each day of the week by Cotter. Reviewing the book, Christopher Irvine wrote: "Cotter had a gentle, arresting style, and a sure poetic turn of phrase which makes even the most familiar scripture come alive in unexpected ways. In one sense, the whole collection here is a tribute to Cotter’s memory." Lesley McLean's dissertation analyses the language of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the title given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christianity, Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), fi ...

, and its modern revisioning in the works of Cotter and also

Janet Morley Janet Morley is a British author, poet, and Christian feminist. Her books ''Celebrating Women'' (1986, co-edited with Hannah Ward) and ''All Desires Known'' (1988) established Morley as a campaigner for inclusive 'non-sexist' language in Chri ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotter, Jim 1942 births 2014 deaths Clergy from Stockport 20th-century English Anglican priests 21st-century English Anglican priests Church in Wales clergy English poets Anglican poets Poet priests Writers from Stockport