The Inquisition

An Interview with Stephen Nicholson

What’s your favourite coffee?

Real coffee! Blue mountain. Why doesn’t fairtrade coffee taste nice? [Obviously we point out that it does.]

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Meeting different people. Academic conversation [aw, we do love being flattered]. Control over time, and the rollercoaster of the termly calendar.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learn in your time here?

The need to be able to relate — God this is serious! — to relate to different people on different levels. Going for a drink with students, committees, and elderly people at the church — in a parish the role is more static.

What’s the best student meal, in your experience?

I like them well-seasoned and stir-fried.

What place most makes you happy?

There is no one place, Venice is very beautiful though, and Jerusalem left a powerful impression on me.

What place most inspires you?

New York is the busiest and most dramatic place I’ve been to.

Do you have a favourite film?

Rebel Without A Cause.

So do you empathise with the James Dean character?

No.

Oh.

What most inspires you?

Other people. And Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem.

And what most depresses you?

The lack of charity and generosity on the part of people. And 8.45 communion in the winter.

What is the role of the church in the 21st Century? In three words.

The envaluing of all people as special to God.

What’s your biggest hope?

That faiths can learn to live together in love and respect. And that York can find a new Methodist Chaplain.

What’s your favourite daytime TV?

I rarely have time. [long pause] Columbo.

What is God?

The ground of existence and source of truth, goodness and beauty.