If you make even the feeblest attempt to keep up with the news of the Anglican Communion, you've been reading about the Most Rev. Richard Holloway, primate of the Scottish Episcopal Church. For the last year or so, Bishop Holloway has made news almost every time he opens his mouth. His public statements have bordered on the outrageous as his theology keeps drifting to the left. As a service to our readers, I will try to answer some pertinent questions about him.

Is this the same Richard Holloway who was once rector of the Church of the Advent in Boston?

Yes, he's the same guy. He remained in that bastion of Anglo-Catholicism for some five years. Try to figure that out.

Didn't he once write a series of articles for The Living Church?

He did. In 1984, not long before returning from Boston to his native Scotland, he wrote a Lenten series of articles for TLC. Perhaps the title of that series could have given us a clue: In Praise of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Is he the bishop who threatened to throw his ring into the Thames?

Not quite. In 1998, before the Lambeth Conference gathered, Bishop Holloway said the bishops should throw their miters into the Thames. When the bishops from Lambeth took a boat cruise on the Thames, he and a few others threw phony miters into the water.

Why should we care about what this man does?

You should care only if you're interested in what happens to the Anglican Communion. Some of us actually do.

Just what is it that makes him so controversial?

There is not enough space here to answer this comprehensively, but here's the most recent example: He admitted he once tried cannabis (I had to look it up, too) and didn't see anything wrong with it, said he had experimented with marijuana, and that heroin should be given to addicts on prescription. Does he address other topics besides drugs?

He's been known to urge more tolerance of sexual promiscuity, has said that sado-masochism is morally acceptable, and has written that there are even circumstances when adultery may be OK.

How do the people in his diocese (Edinburgh) respond to this?

As with any pronouncements, the reaction is mixed, but there is a contingent asking for his resignation.

Isn't he supposed to be the host for some important meeting?

Yes. The Anglican Consultative Council is meeting in Dundee, Scotland, this month. Bishop Holloway is the chair of a hearing on sexuality.

Didn't I read that someone was going to boycott that meeting?

Yes, Archbishop Moses Tay of South East Asia, who has accused the Scottish church and its leader of heresy. Didn't TLC once carry an article which said Bishop Holloway was going to resign and run for Parliament?

That article did appear, but the bishop became so upset at the Lambeth Conference by the condemnation of homosexual behavior that he vowed to stay in the church and advocate same-sex blessings and ordination of non-celibate homosexual persons.

Do people in Scotland take Bishop Holloway seriously?

Indeed they do. Someone's got to be buying the 22 books he's written.

What do you think will happen to Bishop Holloway?

Nothing. At 65, he could leave, but he's likely to remain in his present ministry and eventually settle into a quiet retirement.

Wouldn't he be better off in the American church? No. He wouldn't get nearly the amount of attention he gets in the U.K. Someone here has already beaten him to it.

David Kalvelage, executive editor