Speaker The Very Reverend Andy Bowerman, Dean at Bradford Cathedral

Andy said that he would tell us about a girl and a boy and how 40 years later he ended up in in Bradford from his birthplace in Dorset: -

The girl - As a young boy he had never gone to church and was what might be described a cheeky chap. Every Friday for 2 years he ended up in detention because of his behaviour. Then at the age of 16 he met a new girl of the same age, and he badly wanted to get to know her. She said if you want to me to be a friend you will have to come to my church. This changed his life considerably and instead of being a rogue at school he started getting good reports. He is still married to her and is fast approaching his 41st wedding anniversary.

The boy - On leaving education he became a Councillor in South London where he met Ahmed who was in hospital and was suffering from early onset dementia because of HIV diagnosis. Ahmed eventually was able to return to his partner in London. Andy contacted his family in Turkey to explain that he was very ill but they refused to have anything to do with him and would not even come to the funeral when he died.

Andy and his wife then decided that they wanted to work with disadvantaged people in other parts of the world as he could use his psychology training and his wife could use her training in nursing and midwifery. They thought they would go to Brazil, but they couldn’t get visas and so ended up in Peshawar, Pakistan. When he arrived at 3am in the morning he couldn’t believe the bedlam there was at the airport – he had never seen so many people in one place. While there he went to work in drug rehabilitation centre.

He lived for 4 years in Pakistan and one time he and a colleague thought they would go to Afghanistan to try to educate people there how to avoid being infected with HIV and Aids. They crossed the border into Jalalabad intending to continue to the capital Kabul. However, there was a curfew, and they failed to get to their destination in time and were stopped by the Taliban who asked what they were doing. They said they were going to the university to give a lecture. Being a white man Andy was imprisoned in the office of the governor of the jail for the night whilst his Pakistani colleague was put in a proper jail cell. The next morning, they were asked to explain in great detail what their lecture was about. At this point Andy thought that they were going to end up in jail for a long period. However, he asked them to get 12 cucumbers, and he would explain. Once the cucumbers had been brought from the local market, he had the Taliban putting condoms on them whilst blindfolded. This was his way of explaining how people could protect themselves from getting Aids. The group liked it so much that they not only allowed them to continue to the university, but also requested that they visit local to schools to give the talk.

After just over 4 years in Pakistan he and his wife returned to the UK to work in inner city areas. On one visit to Bradford, he spoke at community centre at Thornbury. at the time he was actually based as a curate at Winchester, but they wanted to reduce the number of curates and so Andrew volunteered to come to Bradford. They came to live in Undercliffe in large detached property owned by the church. Whilst in Bradford he told the bishop that he didn’t feel suited to be a vicar. The bishop agreed and so he and his wife opened a restaurant in Saltaire called Vicars. This was part café and part community centre – it had 2 long tables, and they persuaded people to come talk to the strangers sat at the side of them. 

They remained in Bradford until one day he heard about a Billy Bragg concert at a festival in Dorset. He called the organisers up and asked if he could do a service at the local church at Lulworth Castle and play the gospel according to Billy Bragg. Not only did the organisers agree but Billy also asked to participate. There were 120 people in church (its maximum capacity) and 120 more outside. He was then persuaded to return to Dorset where he spent 5 years followed by 5 years at HQ in London dealing with modern slavery and then a period in Dubai. In June 2022 he was installed as the Dean of Bradford Cathedral.

He said that there were 3 main themes that drove him today:

• Can we get young people and women economically empowered?

• Can we bring peace through soft initiatives things like sport?

• Can we overcome the scourge of modern slavery? He explained that he had had experience of this in own family. They have fostered children for over 15 years and one of their recent fosters was a 14-year-old Roma girl with a little baby. She'd been trafficked to a supposed Aunt and Uncle in this country who had forced her into prostitution.

He said he was currently involved with inter faith organisations he would prefer to get them called inter-cultural organisations so as not to exclude the majority of people who are not religious. He also said that he believed everybody should have lunch with lots of different people to break down barriers and suggested we invite other people to come and have lunch at our Rotary meetings.