James Jones became Bishop of Liverpool in 1998 having been Bishop of Hull since 1994. Over the last ten years he has been deeply involved in Urban Regeneration. For four years he chaired the New Deal for Communities programme in Liverpool and championed community led regeneration in lectures, newspaper articles and broadcasts. He is also vice president of Tearfund, a UK based relief and development agency.

James Jones’ key interests include the environment and urban regeneration, the role of the voluntary sector in community renewal, the value of the family in social cohesion and engagement of the Christian faith with contemporary culture. He chairs the Board of a faith-based City Academy (high school) which has the environment as its specialism. He lectures widely and broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio’s Thought for the Day. He has written a number of books, the latest looking at the relationship between Christianity and the environment ‘Jesus and the Earth; (SPCK 2003)

Working in partnership with a number of government agencies including the Regional Development Agency for the North West, he has set up Operation EDEN which works across the faith communities engaging local people in the holistic transformation of their local environment. Quoting the African proverb ‘We have borrowed the present from our children,’ he believes that young people are much more alert to the need to create cleaner, safer and greener communities. Although he believes and works well with professional regenerators, he is a passionate advocate of enabling local people to shape their own destinies.

Publications

2003: Jesus and the Earth, SPCK
2002: The Moral Leader for the church and the World (with Andrew Goddard), IVP
1994: The Power and the Glory – Authority of Jesus, DLT
1994: A Faith that Touches the World – A Lent Course (editor), DLT
1993: Why do people suffer? The scandal of pain in God’s World, Lion
1991: People of the Blessing – God’s love as found in the Psalms, BRF
1990: Falling into Grace, DLT