Steps along Hope Street : my life in cricket, the Church and the inner city

Steps Along Hope Street relates the life of David Sheppard, famous for being the keen sportsman who gave up a career in international cricket to become a vicar. He went on to pioneer the Church of England's social work in the inner city and wound up as the Bishop of Liverpool. Sheppard's book also reflects on the enormous changes within the Church of England in the last 50 years. Sheppard recounts his middle-class childhood and his privileged education at Sherborne and Cambridge. At Sherborne he found cricket and at Cambridge he found God. He soon became a keen member of the Christian Union and Evangelical camps for public school boys. Sheppard relates his second conversion to the needs of inner city Britain as he worked for 20 years in London before going on to Liverpool. At Liverpool he teamed up with the Catholic archbishop Derek Warlock. By this time Sheppard had undergone a third conversion--to a fervent commitment to ecumenism and the church's responsibility to the urban poor. It is easy to see both of these ideals as hopelessly naïve; indeed, Sheppard's own writing style comes across as somewhat naïve and innocent. But Sheppard's book shows that Liverpool, with its inner city blight and history of sectarian rivalry, was precisely the place for such idealism to be pursued. At the heart of Liverpool, Hope Street links the city's two cathedrals. The book, like Sheppard himself, is not a heavyweight, but it shows that lasting good can still be accomplished by people who pursue their beliefs with passion and simplicity. "There is no doubt that among Anglican Bishops, David Sheppard's particular blend of interests ensures that his reputation as a leading Bishop will be a lasting one. Many will remember him first and foremost as an England cricket captain, unique in his combination of dedicated cleric and outstanding sportsman. Others will recall his ecumenical strengths and his partnership with the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Derek Worlock, when they were both incumbents in Liverpool. But perhaps his most notable quality is his passionate concern for disadvantaged people and his refusal to collude with Westminster politics." "It is this engagement with the issues of justice, and his instinctive refusal to separate souls from basic human welfare, that makes this autobiography so important and so readable. He makes clear that he comes from a privileged background, public school, Cambridge and successful years in cricket. We see him working out his vocation. His evangelical conversion as a student was followed by a second conversion to 'Christ in the city.' Twenty years in Inner City London, followed by a further twenty in Liverpool, produced a central theme in his calling of 'bias to the poor'. This called for priorities in the Church's life, and also famously in his stand against apartheid in South Africa, his involvement in the D'Oliveira affair and now his role as a Life Peer."--Jacket The late David Sheppard, former England cricket and Bishop of Liverpool presents his autobiography - a rich combination of personal journey, theological exploration and political memoir