One of a Kind

Explores the life and ministry of Father Peter Macleod-Miller, excavating the foundations of Christianity, Anglicanism and belief with broad strokes to weave a fascinating tale of love, endurance and triumph.

The road to enlightenment is paved with many things: good intentions, compassion, epiphanies but there are pitfalls too, wildcards and trolls lurking under bridges. The road to Damascus can be brutal but it can also be transcendent. The passage charted by Father Peter Macleod-Miller is one of light, love and shadows. Throughout his journey he's faced many challenges: personal, institutional and liturgical and there's a way to go yet.

Born the first of identical twins, each of whom has mapped an extraordinary course in life, Peter chose the church as the medium through which he could best share his gifts and blessings. His teachers were varied, sometimes masked, occasionally dark, often luminescent and at times unintentional. Peter was gifted with a singing voice to complement his brother's, an undaunted spirit, sharp wit, compassion and a family whose love and passion for creativity supported him through storms that would have sunk many a weaker vessel.

From a childhood in Sydney's leafy northern suburbs to the cloistered wonders and mysteries of St. Andrew's Cathedral, his ascension to faith and inspiration incorporates the personal and spiritual trials of sexuality during the AIDS pandemic, his own quarries of doubt, both institutional and personal, and a decade ministering to an ancient English parish on a par with the BBC's Vicar of Dibley.

Peter's quest to be allowed love, unregulated by gender, has pitted him against the church's most reactionary incumbents, plunging him into enmity with the fusty realms of paternalism and dogma that seem to still be the upper echelons of the Anglican church in Australia. In spite of all this, his passion for the Anglican institution, its choirs and music have held him within the church's fold. He and brother Leslie were born to explore and adore London's cathedrals and opera houses and Peter would embrace all the true-good that ecumenical life might encompass. His love of beauty in the realm of form and metaphysics has been an immersion, a transcendence, a distraction and is now an invitation. Abandon all rancor ye who enter here. His ministries over his life show the difference one person who genuinely reflects the real values of Christianity can make to many individual lives and to entire communities.

Neal Drinnan was born in Melbourne. He has worked in publishing and journalism for many years. He is the author of six novels, Glove Puppet, Pussy's Bow, Quill, the Lambda award-winning Izzy and Eve, Rare Bird of Truth and Rural Liberties, as well as a travel guide, The Rough Guide to Gay and Lesbian Australia. The Devil's Grip is his first work of narrative nonfiction. He owns an independent bookshop called Cow Lick in Colac, Victoria.