Canon Dr Alan Billings has been an Anglican parish priest in Leicester, Sheffield and the Lake District. He has been a member of Leicester City Council and was Deputy Leader of Sheffield when David Blunkett was Leader. He was a member of the Community Cohesion Panel after the riots in the NW in 2001 and a member of the Government's faith experts panel until the election. He has also taught theology and ethics in theological colleges in Oxford and Birmingham and was Director of the Centre for Ethics and Religion at Lancaster University - where he headed a research project into attitudes towards faith and community in the NW. He is the author of: 'God and Community Cohesion. Help or Hindrance?'; 'Secular Lives, Sacred Hearts: the role of the church in a time of no religion'; 'Dying and Grieving'; 'Making God Possible'. He is a contrubutor to Thought for the Day, on BBC Radio 4's Today.