During his three-year training at Cranmer Hall, a theological college attached to the University of Durham, Nick discussed his concerns with tutors but found little comfort in their "blase attitudes". Fellow students, although often sympathetic to his orthodox views, did not want to incur the wrath of college authorities by speaking out.

Nick, however, quietly reinforced his views by refusing to take Communion at the college's weekly Tuesday evening service. Instead he stayed in his pew, his head bowed in reflection.

"An ethics tutor at the college was saying publicly that you can be in a gay sexual relationship and follow Christ," he explains. "That is incompatible with the teaching of the New Testament."

Nick was also encouraged to accord equal spiritual value to Muslim, Sikh and Hindu religions in the name of "multifaith ministry".

"As a Christian, I believe that Jesus died for Sikhs and Muslims, too," he says, "so I long to share the good news with them so that they can be saved. It felt a bit awkward sitting there when everyone else was going up [for Communion] but I couldn't physically have done anything else because I can't pretend someone shares the same religion as me if, in reality, they don't."

Yet, as a result of this silent declaration of belief, 30-year-old Nick now finds himself ostracised from the Anglican Church he so desperately wants to be a part of.

At the end of his final year, a panel of tutors explained that his "unwillingness to listen" would make him an unsuitable vicar.

It was an extraordinary decision because Nick's view - that gay people are welcome to belong to the Church if they remain celibate - is official Anglican teaching.

But many may feel that Nick's defence of the basic tenets of Christianity should be welcomed by the Church. After all, woolly-mindedness in its beliefs has seen a huge decline in congregations, while the clear dictums of Islam have contributed to its rapid growth around the globe.

Nick, a quietly spoken and gentle young man, lives in a modest studio flat above a garage in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

He does not have a television because he cannot afford the licence. His car, a battered green Ford Fiesta, is rusting around the edges and a back window has been smashed by vandals.

He now works for the Association of Evangelists, travelling round the country giving talks in churches, schools and universities. This evening he will speak on God and Politics at a church in Bournemouth, to tie in with the Conservative Party conference.

"In many ways, my current job is everything I've ever wanted to do - to explain the faith to people who don't know it or understand it," he says.

"But I'd love to do it in the name of the Church of England. The Church needs reforming but I'd like to be involved from the inside rather than pointing fingers from the outside.

"The great problem is that the Church is a mixture of people with lots of versions of the faith. If you're going to hold it together, you've got to be committed to not rocking the boat. Boat-rockers are rather unwelcome. But if I am rocking the boat, it's only because I think we may be about to capsize."

Nick's three-year postgraduate qualification, paid for by the Diocese of Oxford, would have cost about £40,000.

"I knew the college wasn't happy because they gave me a warning in my second year," he says.

"But I was surprised that they went that far. My only fault was wanting people to hear the Christian message as taught in the Bible.

"If I'd tried to pretend we all believed the same thing when we didn't, that would go against the whole reason I want to be in Christian ministry."

The irony for Nick is that the majority of the world's 73million Anglicans, many of whom worship in evangelical churches in Africa and South America, would agree with him.

When Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans and a celibate homosexual, was chosen as the Bishop of Reading in 2003, his appointment provoked such an outcry that he stepped down.

The subsequent election of a homosexual bishop by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America triggered a worldwide crisis in the Anglican Church.

In October 2004, a Church commission called for a moratorium on the appointment of gay bishops and the performance of same-sex blessings. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has just backed a further resolution confirming that homosexual practice is incompatible with the Bible.

But Nick, an Eton and Oxford alumnus who gained a 2:1 in his postgraduate theology degree at Cranmer Hall, seems to have fallen foul of liberal Anglicans desperate to make their Church more palatable in the 21st Century. It is difficult not to conclude that his situation is the result of misguided political correctness.

"I felt they were trying to change the message of the Bible so that it fits more happily with the culture that we live in," he says.

"The college sent me to Bradford on a course entitled Ministry In A Multifaith Context. In the first session, we were told that we should be building the kingdom of God with Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus and that we would be bringing people into the mosque, temple or church as a place of worship."

Nick was "horrified". For him, despite his upbringing as a Jew, Christianity is the "one true faith" and should be promoted as such.

According to one Anglican Canon: "Cranmer Hall is an evangelical foundation but it's fuzzy round the edges. They don't want to rub people up the wrong way with so-called outmoded thinking."

But Anne Dyer, the warden of Cranmer Hall, insists that these criticisms are "not things that I recognise as being part of Cranmer or its programme. The decision to ordain somebody lies with the person's diocesan bishop. There are several parties that give the bishop advice and the principal of the college is one of those parties."

Nick's father still attends the St John's Wood liberal synagogue in North West London on Jewish holidays. One imagines he was taken aback when his ferociously bright 15-year-old son told him that he was converting to Christianity on the strength of one discussion group at the Eton Christian Union. But does he want to convert his own father?

"I would be very keen for my family to come to faith in Christ," he says, after a long pause. "But I still consider myself a Jewish person who believes in Jesus, so I would not call it conversion. Despite this difference with my father, we do get on very well indeed.

"We enjoy each other's company. We talk about politics, about football [they are both ardent Liverpool supporters] and we play chess. My family knows where I stand and that I really believe in it.

"I did think hard about entering politics for a while, but politics deals with what is external to people whereas the Bible changes us from the inside. So I think preaching is more important."

The Church's history is littered with examples of the faithful taking a stand against the prevailing mindset of the time. In 1556, the Archbishop of Canterbury was sentenced to be burned at the stake by a Roman Catholic queen for his "heretical" views. His name was Thomas Cranmer.

It cannot have escaped Nick's notice that Cranmer Hall, the very institution that wants to bar him from the priesthood, bears this martyr's name.

Nick Howard will be speaking on God and Politics at Lansdowne Baptist Church, Bournemouth, at the 6.30pm service on 1 October.

END

DURHAM: Cranmer Hall saddened by misleading claims in Mail on Sunday

The Mail on Sunday (1st October 2006) in a profile of a former student at Cranmer Hall represented some misleading claims of this student and an unnamed 'Anglican Canon'.

Cranmer Hall is a training college of the Church of England within St John's College in Durham University. Pastoral sensitivity and respect for the former student concerned means that the College will not respond publicly on the specific question of why the student was not recommended for ordination, while pointing out that the decision on recommendation lies with the Diocesan Bishop.

In this situation however the College would like to make clear that it rejoices in its evangelical heritage and identity, which encompasses the belief in the supreme authority of Holy Scripture and the uniqueness and supremacy of Jesus Christ. We are therefore saddened by misleading claims that Cranmer Hall does not clearly affirm that evangelical position or indeed official Anglican doctrine in matters of sexual ethics or ministry in a multi-faith context.

As an Anglican College we affirm our support of the House of Bishops 1991 Statement Issues in Human Sexuality. It is our expectation that all the Anglican ordinands training at Cranmer Hall live lives consonant with the expectations required of clergy in this statement whatever their sexual orientation.

In agreement with the Lambeth Conference 1998 Resolution 1.10c, Cranmer Hall encourages staff and students to be committed to listening to the experience of homosexual persons, believing that all baptised and faithful persons are full members of the body of Christ, regardless of sexual orientation.

As a University College, St John's is committed to the open exploration of all matters related to Christian doctrine and ethics, without restricting the scope of intellectual enquiry. Students and staff together are encouraged to reflect on the many contentious issues in Christianity in an intelligent and engaged manner.

While celebrating Jesus Christ as the way, the truth and the life, as a College training men and women for ordained ministry in a country that is culturally and religiously diverse, we are committed to developing ministers that understand this diversity and can both proclaim the good news of Jesus and serve with sensitivity in communities of mixed faith and ethnicity. Indeed, this is a curriculum requirement for all Colleges and Courses concerned with the formation of Anglican ordinands. In this we are assisted by the Bradford Churches for Dialogue and Diversity, supported by the Anglican Diocese of Bradford.

In all of our teaching and learning we hold before us the model shown by our Lord Jesus Christ, seeking to develop a loving and holy community in which men and women are excited by the demands of Christian discipleship and respond with obedience to God's call to be involved in mission in a complex world.

Rev Dr David Wilkinson Canon Anne Dyer The Principal
The Warden St John's College Cranmer Hall