Christmas time for Bishop Michael

"It is there for us to mull over and chew on, day in and day out, so that truths and message become part of who we are", he reflects.

In many ways, the Rt Rev Michael Colclough, 62 at the end of this month, embodies all that is finest in the tradition of Christian compassion.

While many of us are cocooned with our families on Christmas Day, he will get in his battery-powered Honda Civic and drive from his home in Twickenham to join the inmates at Wormwood Scrubs. Prison ministry is a "passion"

for him. He has three in his area with Bronzefield for women in Ashford and Feltham Young Offenders Institution.

He chairs the prisons and penal concerns group for London and Southwark Diocese and has special responsibility for prison chaplains. Settling to this interview at his office and residence by the Thames, the bishop with sons of his own, aged 21 and 19, considers carefully each question, often contemplating with finger tips touching as if in prayer.

Committed to his chosen path from childhood, he nevertheless bangs no doctrinal drums nor offers glib solutions and certainly not to the question of young people in trouble and in custody.

His thinking chimes with the recent report for the Tories underlining the link between family and social breakdown and the humbling benevolence for law breakers shown by John ap Rhys Pryce following the murder of his lawyer son, Tom. The bishop said: "The very size of the prison population works against real progress. There are different levels of crime and for some offences, service in the community can be the most appropriate course.

"The tendency to lock people away can bring a desire in me to push away the evil which exists in all of us," he suggests.

"When I visit the prisons I am reminded that I am a frail human being and when I talk to prisoners and I learn about their upbringing and how battered some of them are by life, it doesn't surprise me they are where they are.

"At Feltham I might find myself talking to a boy four years younger than my boys, who is in for murder.

"An individual can become a case and statistic and when I meet them in prison the case and the statistic become secondary to the person, whether a young mother literally with a baby at the breast or a young chap in Feltham who has been battered by life. The danger is that we lose the individual."

Consecrated Bishop of Kensington in 1996, Bishop Michael - as is the modern form of address - explained that the bishop is a focus of unity. "An important role is as teacher and so I spend a lot time in the parishes, at confirmations, baptisms, conducting special services as well at the schools, hospitals and prisons. His area, Kensington, includes parishes throughout the Hounslow borough, Richmond upon Thames, north of the Thames and Spelthorne.

"As far as variety is concerned I think the Bishop of Kensington has the best bit of land in England. It is a very rich area and it feeds me. There are the prosperous areas but also the poorer areas."

It's five years since the Bishop of Kensington was transported from a hip London postcode to Twickenham riverside. Faced with money troubles, not least a yawning gap in pensions provision (an area bishop currently receives an annual stipend of £27,900), the Church of England has been accused of asset stripping by selling off ecclesiastical properties. But it's an ill wind and swapping Campden Hill Square for the former vicarage, the Twickenham parish church of St Mary's, placed the Rt Rev Michael Colclough and his family at the heart of his area.

"We love Dial House," he enthused. "Our sons wondered why we were leaving the buzz of Notting Hill, but we have fallen madly in love with the river.

"There is a sense of community in Twickenham, a small village atmosphere. People have made us feel very welcome."

Being able to pop out to shops on the doorstep is perhaps reminiscent of his childhood as the son of a miner in the close knit community of Staffordshire.

Far from encouraging his vocation, Michael Colclough overcame early family bemusement - an aunt warned darkly about religious mania' and ending up in the nut house'. However he was ordained in 1971 and has served in Middlesex parishes for more than 30 years, moving through the ranks and taking on special interests such as communications and links with the church in Angola and Mozambique.

He relishes the word multicultural' as you would a favourite dish. Last summer's family holiday was spent in Angola and his face lights up as he recounts his recent movements: "Within the last year I have visited and spent time in the Islamic mosque in Hounslow; the Sikh gurdwara and the Buddhist temple in Chiswick. It is very important that we, as faith leaders build up personal friendships so that we are role modelling good neighbourliness to our people."

Twickenham resident Nadia Eweida, who was suspended for wearing a cross on a chain at work, has "total" episcopal support: "I cannot understand how British Airways allowed the situation to escalate.

"Our society has been very accepting of different traditions and faiths and when our society suddenly becomes rather mean about signs and expressions of traditional faith I think it is a sad and very ugly face of secularism."

He has a packed agenda, embracing, among other jobs, ministerial training and evangelism. He has been personal assistant to the Bishop of London and in 1995 became a deputy priest in ordinary to the Queen. He is also vice president of the Christian Children's Fund, patron of the Micro Loan Foundation, the Shooting Star Children's Hospice and the Hoffman Foundation.

Within the Church of England the bishop has described himself as coming from the Catholic wing, although he voted for the ordination of women.

Where homosexuality is concerned, there is less room for manoeuvre. "I know priests who live very good, wholesome lives, who are very disciplined. The church has never been about orientation. The church teaches that fulfilment is through the marriage commitment. The state has made provision for civil partnership for people in long-term relationships. There is no provision in the liturgy."

Evangelical churches, such as St Stephen's in East Twickenham, attract large numbers of young people and Bishop Michael considers the question of reaching out to the next generation. "I think that the scriptures and the service should be in a language that people understand, but does not deny the validity and importance of language of a bygone age which carried a different tone."

As to the importance of architecture, "a building tells people what we think about God. Different buildings express different aspects, so vaulted Gothic architecture quite literally lifts our eyes while smaller buildings can be more focused on the community."

But for swathes of the population of course, the whole concept of church is irrelevant and in these politically correct days, even planning this profile prompted a fleeting thought about whether it was okay to feature a bishop at Christmas. Many people lay the blame for the world's ills, from Iraq down, at the door of religion. Even committed Christians have been known to question a God who allows' cruelty and intolerance.

"Nothing is more dangerous than religion gone wrong," he agreed, "whatever that religion, because it takes passion down dangerous routes. In the Anglican tradition we have always held together the traditions of the Bible and reason.

"The gift of freedom is the greatest gift and part of that gift is allowing us to make decisions and we will be accountable because I do believe there will be judgment. So unless we are puppets or robots, we must accept that individuals can go wrong."

On Christmas Eve Bishop Michael will preside at the midnight service at Littleton, near Shepperton which has no vicar at present. Then later, on his return from the Scrubs, the Colclough family Christmas can get underway, surrounded by family and friends. He is unsure what they will eat - last year it was beef. "I do cook on occasion but we all muck in."

In leisure moments the family enjoy walking "and the boys have taught me to appreciate soccer and cricket - especially cricket - and," their father added hastily, "we watch rugby as well." The Colcloughs have been married for 23 years. Cynthia came here with her Goan family in 1973 as refugees from Idi Amin's Uganda and the pair met on a pilgrimage to Walsingham some years later.

"I've always seen Cynthia as my wife and a mother to my children and not a vicar's wife. The danger in marriage can be that one partner has a safety valve but the other has none of their own. We don't think of the costliness of clerical marriage to the spouse.

"Cynthia is a person of great hospitality and sharing and she welcomes people to our house. Of great importance to me is that she's someone who daily prays with me."

Sons Edward and Aiden Colclough are studying religious studies and philosophy, respectively, both at King's London and the two attend St Mary's with Cynthia Colclough, while her husband is on his Sunday round.

So what, then, would he say if one or both of his sons took up the call? "I would be delighted if they followed me", he said beaming. "I believe I have the greatest job, if I can call it that, in the world."