he rose to become the leader of the anglican church in scotland. but he gradually lost faith in many of the certainties in christianity, including the existence of god. he finally resigned from the church, accusing it of cruelly persecuting gay people. so did his own loss of faith betray those he once preached to? richard holloway, welcome to hardtalk. at the age 01:14, you left your working—class home in the west of scotland and went off to a very austere place in england called kelham hall, to train as an anglican priest. to train, in effect, as a monk. what was that like?