The Golden Calves of Jeroboam

During Adrian Leak’s time as a parish priest, he wrote many monthly ‘letters’ for the local parish magazine. His inspiration was the wide and colourful experience of life as a country parson, and the wish to share his reflections with non-believers as well as believers. Like Adrian’s previously published volumes, The Golden Calves of Jeroboam is comprised of mostly edited versions of those letters, which appeared in The Withyham & Blackham Parish Magazine, as well as a few adapted from sermons.


The book is a collection of fifty short pieces, ranging widely over topics briefly related to church occasions and Christian faith including Easter, Christmas, Pentecost, weddings, funerals, parenthood, prayer, belief, and hope. Their style is anecdotal, humorous and allusive.


Though much of the material was written during Adrian’s time as a country parson, it is only occasionally autobiographical.


Adrian Leak is also a published author of articles on church history and is a regular contributor to the Church Times. He was ordained priest in Coventry Cathedral in 1967. His parochial ministry has included incumbencies in the dioceses of Worcester, Durham and Chichester. He was Archivist and Vicar Choral of York Minster and Canon Precentor of Guildford Cathedral. For eight years he served as an honorary assistant priest at Holy Trinity, Guildford, St Mary’s, Worplesdon and St Alban’s Wood Street. His last post before retirement was that of Priest-in-Charge of Withyham and Blackham. He is now honorary assistant curate at Holy Trinity Church, Bramley.