'It's harder to minister in a transient place like London'

W

HEN Alex Bradley, Knutsford's new Unitarian Minister, came to town he found he had a small problem.

"I came here in November," he said. "And my furniture followed a fortnight later."

But the 42-year-old man from Kent - and his pet budgerigar Tommy - found his congregation ready to help out with temporary accommodation until his Springwood Avenue house was ready.

His last ministry was a six-year stint in multi-cultural Newington Green in North London.

His pulpit before that was in the equally diverse East End district of Bethnal Green. So he admits the move to Knutsford - where he can hear the birds sing for the first time in seven years - was a leap.

But he says the welcome he received, from both chapel members and residents, was tremendous.

"London has a much more transient population, so it's harder to minister in a place where people are on the move." he said. "In Knutsford, though, people have been born and brought up and stayed in a town as their families have, often for generations."

In Bethnal Green his ministry involved working with all kinds of groups with different interests.

He taught adult literacy and in Newington Green he had one chapel-based congregation and another spread across the area.

"What each church can do varies with the resources they have," he said. "I do think that religion is about action as well as principles."

Alex was born in Tonbridge, Kent, in 1956.

His mother Beryl stayed at home while his dad, Dermot, worked for Boots.

School was a comprehensive in Tunbridge Wells.

"The teachers taught me to question everything," he said. "My religious education teacher said 'Just because something is written in a book doesn't mean it is necessarily true.'

"It was stimulating and something that made one think hard about things and encouraged us."

He went to church occasionally - but he wasn't from a Unitarian family.

The tolerance, flexibility and freedom of thought of the religion first caught his attention in a book he read in 1982.

He had already completed a degree in religious studies at Lancaster University in 1977 and was about to embark on a master's degree at the same university.

"I was also attracted by the fact that Unitarianism was open to the insights to be found in other religions as well as the Christian religion," he said. "I also found it very friendly and welcoming."

Knutsford has also proved welcoming. The democratic nature of his religion means Alex was chosen by the congregation here in Knutsford. He wasn't imposed.

Before his two stints in inner-city London, he trained at Manchester College, now Manchester Harris College, in Oxford.

At school he'd had vague ideas of becoming a minister of some kind. His parents were religious, but never pushed him.

"I don't know that I would say I felt I definitely wanted to be a minister," he said. "There was no blinding flash."

While at college he discovered an interest in Buddhism, drawn to it by its principle of tolerance.

"If we're all the children of God then we all deserve equal respect," he said. "In essence we either live together or fall apart."

Learning is part of Alex's philosophy - how you can broaden and deepen your own outlook through learning from other beliefs - and Buddhism fed that.

"But I realised that my place was in Christian tradition," he said. "And one has to choose a path to follow."

Here in Knutsford, Alex will continue the tradition of the religion adopted by Elizabeth Gaskell.

"I think it's a delightful town," he said. "The people are very friendly, it has a great deal of character and it has a great deal going for it.

"It also has some of the problems that affect every other town and city in the country."

Alex is intrigued by Knutsford's 'argumentative' reputation as a place that sticks up for itself.

"I believe that should be the same in religion as in civic life," he said. "People should have the opportunity to have their say."

His interests include walking and reading poetry and detective writers such as PD James.

He is a keen Scrabble player, but not so serious that he would pass on a triple word score to block someone else's word.

Alex also has a passion for trains - from the days of steam to the present day - but doesn't describe himself as a buff.

He's interested for a more practical reason.

"If people without a car can't get to the nearest hospital to visit people then that's hardly a satisfactory state of affairs," he said.

In London, he could catch a bus to his house at 12.30pm. In Knutsford the contrast couldn't be greater.

"Railways, like churches, are part of the history of our country," he said. "They bring people together and take them somewhere worthwhile."

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