Rev Canon Dr Philip Anderson
Nominee Profile
Location: Liverpool
Philip Anderson is a priest of Church of England serving in the Diocese of Liverpool. He has worked in areas including post-industrial Wigan, university chaplaincy, and most recently at Liverpool Cathedral. He was ordained in 2005, when there was no publicly recognised way for gay couples to celebrate the blessing of their relationships. Philip has drawn attention to the urgent need for the Church to re-evaluate gay relationships, and its LGBT+ clergy, who continue to suffer legally sanctioned homophobic discrimination, bound to celibacy, banned from marriage.
In many ways a traditional priest, he speaks of Jesus as the one who sets people free from the burden of shame and fear through the power of love. He has resisted fundamentalists claiming to ‘pray away the gay’, at significant personal cost, for over 15 years. He has served diverse communities including some facing profound hardship, and raised up members of the LGBT+ community to positions of leadership. When Covid hit he was vicar of a large parish, living alone, officiating at many funerals. That period, carrying so much grief and fear, was amplified by the Church’s isolating stigmatisation of gay clergy.
He has encouraged many to grow in confidence and share their gifts, including LGBT+ people from across the Diocese. In Wigan he supported and led his church in their celebration of one of the first wedding ceremonies in an Anglican church involving a Trans person. Out of that grew a community of LGBT+ Christians and friends in the town, flourishing a decade on. He has taken on an ever more public mantle, convening and campaigning for change. After marching at Liverpool Pride in 2023, he was interviewed by the Liverpool Echo, the city’s most read newspaper. His presence on social media as a persistent voice for change in the Church has attracted followers, and critics, including the internet cleric Calvin Robinson, who denounced him as demonic.
His nomination comes from among those he has mentored.
In many ways a traditional priest, he speaks of Jesus as the one who sets people free from the burden of shame and fear through the power of love. He has resisted fundamentalists claiming to ‘pray away the gay’, at significant personal cost, for over 15 years. He has served diverse communities including some facing profound hardship, and raised up members of the LGBT+ community to positions of leadership. When Covid hit he was vicar of a large parish, living alone, officiating at many funerals. That period, carrying so much grief and fear, was amplified by the Church’s isolating stigmatisation of gay clergy.
He has encouraged many to grow in confidence and share their gifts, including LGBT+ people from across the Diocese. In Wigan he supported and led his church in their celebration of one of the first wedding ceremonies in an Anglican church involving a Trans person. Out of that grew a community of LGBT+ Christians and friends in the town, flourishing a decade on. He has taken on an ever more public mantle, convening and campaigning for change. After marching at Liverpool Pride in 2023, he was interviewed by the Liverpool Echo, the city’s most read newspaper. His presence on social media as a persistent voice for change in the Church has attracted followers, and critics, including the internet cleric Calvin Robinson, who denounced him as demonic.
His nomination comes from among those he has mentored.