Bishop no stranger to limelight

Dr George Carey is retiring as Archbishop of Canterbury

He is the son of a convert from Islam and was once a Roman Catholic but the Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali is one of the frontrunners to become the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Bishop of Rochester - tipped as favourite to succeed George Carey who is retiring - has never been shy of creating headline grabbing firsts or making controversial comments.

He was the first diocesan bishop from an ethnic minority in the Church of England and appointed the CofE's first woman archdeacon.

Dr Nazir-Ali has spoken out in favour of women priests

He works on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and has consistently voted against equalising the age of consent for homosexuals.

But he has furiously denied that he ever claimed it was "self indulgent" to marry, but not to have children.

His website claims that having children is a basic part of a good marriage rather than "an optional extra".

Dr Nazir-Ali was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1949. His father converted to Christianity from Islam.

Afghan adviser

He is an expert on the religion and has served as a prime ministerial adviser during the Afghan conflict.

He studied at Cambridge and returned to his homeland as a tutor in a theological college.

Dr Nazir-Ali was ordained in Karachi in 1976 and was elected Bishop of Raiwind, a rural diocese in Pakistan, in 1984, aged 35.

He was appointed assistant to the late Lord Runcie, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, between 1986 and1989. He became Assistant Bishop in the Southwark Diocese in 1989.

The married father-of-two was consecrated Bishop of Rochester in 1994.