scholarly journals ‘To stay, serve and witness’ – church politics and British inner cities in the 1980s

Urban History ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Sarah Thieme
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Inner Cities ◽  
National Debate ◽  
Historical Contextualization ◽  
The Media ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

Abstract By analysing the Church of England's 1985 report Faith in the City (FITC), this article demonstrates that the church played a decisive role in shaping the discourse on British ‘inner cities’. Following a brief historical contextualization, the article examines the FITC report itself, how it came about and what arguments the Church of England introduced into the national debate on inner cities, as well as the media and political discussion that followed its publication and the reactions in the religious field. The article argues that the publication was a turning point in the inner cities discourse of the 1980s. It examines how the church succeeded in (re)directing national attention to the topic thereby countering the territorial stigmatization and replacing it with a more positive view focused on the potential of the residents living in the inner cities.

The City, the Countryside and the Social Gospel in Late Victorian Nonconformity

1979 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 415-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Bebbington
Keyword(s):  
Church Attendance ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
The People ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

The late nineteenth-century city posed problems for English nonconformists. The country was rapidly being urbanised. By 1881 over one third of the people lived in cities with a population of more than one hundred thousand. The most urbanised areas gave rise to the greatest worry of all the churches: large numbers there were failing to attend services. The religious census of 1851 had already shown that the largest towns were the places where there were the fewest worshippers, although nonconformists gained some crumbs of comfort from the knowledge that nonconformist attendances were greater than those of the church of England. Unofficial surveys in the 1880S revealed no improvement. Instead, although few were immediately conscious of it, in that decade the membership of all the main evangelical nonconformist denominations began to fall relative to population. And it was always the same social group that was most conspicuously unreached: the lower working classes, the bottom of the social pyramid. In poor neighbourhoods church attendance was lowest. In Bethnal Green at the turn of the twentieth century, for instance, only 6.8% of the adult population attended chapel, and only 13.3% went to any place of worship. Consequently nonconformists, like Anglicans, were troubled by the weakness of their appeal.

‘What could be more Christian than to allow the Sikhs to use it?’ Church Redundancy and Minority Religion in Bedford, 1977–8

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 399-411
Author(s):  
John Maiden
Keyword(s):  
Race Relations ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Religious Congregations ◽  
British Council ◽  
Minority Religion ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church ◽  
Migrant Groups

In 1985, Faith in the City, The Church of England’s report on Urban Priority Areas, commented that Christians frequently had an excess of church buildings, while ‘people of other faiths are often exceedingly short of places in which to meet and worship’. The challenge of securing sacred space has been common to migrant groups in Britain, and during the 1970s sharing of space between national historic denominations and migrant religious groups was identified by the British Council of Churches (BCC) and its Community and Race Relations Unit as a leading issue for interreligious relations. In the case of the Church of England, ancillary parish buildings were occasionally shared with non-Christian religious congregations for limited use: for example, later that decade the church halls of All Saints, Gravelly Hill, Birmingham, were being used by Muslims and Hindus for festivals and clubs.

Lex Orandi and Lex Credendi — Strange Bed-Fellows?: Some Reflections on Worship and Doctrine

1986 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-242
Author(s):  
Kenneth W. Stevenson
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
The Media ◽  
Television Interview ◽  
North And South ◽  
The Church ◽  
Lex Orandi

Easter 1985 in the Church of England was a strange experience, resounding with the controversy which David Jenkins had begun the previous year during a television interview, after he had been elected Bishop of Durham. The scenario has been widely discussed by the media, by professional theologians, and by ordinary church-folk, north and south of the border. For the writer, it was the first Easter he can remember since being ordained when the resurrection was actually being discussed, not just in Senior Common Rooms, but in pubs. I was even taken to task by someone working in my local wine-store. In some respects, the furore was well summed-up in his attitude: he had long ceased to attend church, but shouldn't church-leaders believe in what they are supposed to believe?

scholarly journals The Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Diamper and the Machinations of Religious Colonization

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-60
Author(s):  
Shimi Paul Baby
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Practices ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Church

The Synod of Diamper is, arguably, amongst the most significant milestones in the history of St. Thomas Christians in Kerala. This Synod was convened in the church at Udayamperoor, Kochi, Kerala, from June 20 to June 26, 1599. As is documented, it was Archbishop Alexis De Menezes of Goa who convoked this Synod. 200 decrees were passed during the nine sessions which were held during the Synod; these decrees, in toto, became a turning point in the history of Christianity in Kerala. Primarily, the Synod of Diamper was a religious/theological one. However, its subsequent decisive role in the history and culture of Kerala also gave the Synod a social face. A close scrutiny of the canonas [canon] reveals that these decrees were formulated with a consideration of only Christian practices that were prevalent and familiar in the West [Occident]. In a grimly ironic sense, the canonas overtly attempts a coax-hoax, whereby the Christians of Kerala would be coerced to follow the rules of the occidental version of Christianity; and this disciplining would be aided by various methods including expulsions from parish, ex-communication, etc. One big fallout of this scenario was that the Christians of Kerala, who till then had a variegated co- existence with different cultures, were forced to take up an exclusive and singular notion of Christian culture. Through these canonas, many of the existing socio- cultural customs of the Christians of Kerala were abolished; an attempt to sculpt the socio-cultural life of this native populace and bring it in accordance with the image of the Christian that the West upheld.  This article aims to reveal the methodology through which the Institutionalized Western Theological-agencies, by means of constant surveillance and an enforced seclusion-exclusion axis, exerted power on regional and native Christian group.

Notes in the History of Sir Jerome Alexander Second Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and Founder of the Alexander Library, Trinity College, Dublin

1872 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 220-240
Author(s):  
Charles Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Trinity College ◽  
Trinity College Dublin ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

The Will of Sir Jerome Alexander, a parchment transcript of which is preserved in the Chief Probate Office, Dublin, is a document of more than ordinary interest; even with its cumbrous repetitions we owe no apology for producing it in full:–“In the name of God Amen. I, Sr Jerome Alexander of the City of Dublin, one of the unprofitable servants of Almighty God, being of a perfect sound disposing memory, praised bee God, this three and twentieth day of March in the yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles the Second of that name by the grace of God of England, Scotland, Fraunce and Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c. the two and twentieth, and hereby renounceing and admitting and declareing all former Wills and Testaments by mee at any time heretofore made to bee utterly void & of none effect, doe declare this to bee my last true Will and Testament in manner & form following and doe now soe declare it to bee. And first of all I resigne my soul into the hands of Jesus Christ my blessed Saviour and Redeemer, confidently trusting and assureing myselffe in by and through his onely merritts and mediation to receive life everlasting; and I doe hereby profess myselfe to dye as I have allways lived, a sonne of the Church of England, which is the most absolute and best forme of government in all the world,’ twere to bee heartily wished that it were practised in all the Churches of Christendome, and my body I commend unto the earth from whence it came to receive decent and comely buryall, without any greate pompe or ceremonies whatso-ever, not doubting but at the last day it shall bee raised againe and united unto my soule with it for to partake of immortall and everlasting happiness.

scholarly journals “Mercy of the prince has confirmed Boniface as bishop of the city of Rome”: Emperor Honorius and the Legitimacy Crisis in the Church of Rome in 419

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Mikhail V. Gratsianskiy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
The Right ◽  
Legitimacy Crisis ◽  
The City ◽  
Personal Decision ◽  
The Church

This article examines the circumstances behind Boniface I’s ascension (418–422) to the See of Rome which was accompanied by rivalry between two candidates. Since his rival Eulalius had been initially approved as a legitimate bishop by Emperor Honorius (395–423), Boniface had to go through a complicated procedure of legitimation, whose decisive factor was the position of the emperor. The article examines the role of institutional factors in the legitimisation of church authority, in this case in relation to the See of Rome. By institutional factors the author means, first of all, state power represented by its regional and central authorities and the community of bishops united by the principle of conciliar functioning. The article examines the approaches of the imperial power to resolving the crisis of legitimacy of the Roman bishop. Based on the presentation of source data, it is demonstrated that Emperor Honorius intended to resolve the crisis through a deliberation by a council that was to include representatives of both prefectures of the Western Roman Empire. Despite his initial intention, the emperor was forced to resolve the crisis on his own and Boniface was confirmed as bishop of Rome by his personal decision. The author of the article draws a conclusion that the decisive role in the sphere of church administration belonged to the emperor and that the Roman bishop did not have an exceptional position among the bishops of the Western Roman Empire: the affairs of the See of Rome could be transferred by order of the emperor to the court of Western bishops, and the right of the final decision belonged to the emperor himself. Thus, the latter used the conciliar principle of administrating the church as a possible instrument for resolving internal church conflicts, but he also reserved the right of taking his own independent decisions in the ecclesial sphere, and the See of Rome was not an exception.

Oriel and the Making of John Henry Newman—His Mission as College Tutor

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nockles Peter
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Divine Providence ◽  
John Henry Newman ◽  
Religious Revival ◽  
Oxford Movement ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Church

From 12 April 1822 when John Henry Newman was elected a Fellow until 3 October 1845 when he tendered his resignation to Provost Hawkins, Oriel College was to be the centre of Newman's life. As Newman later recorded:he ever felt this twelfth of April, 1822 to be the turning point of his life, and of all days most memorable. It raised him from obscurity and need to competency and reputation. He never wished anything better or higher than, in the words of the epitaph, 'to live and die a fellow of Oriel'. Henceforth his way was clear before him; and he was constant all through his life, as his intimate friends knew, in his thankful remembrance year after year of this great mercy of Divine Providence, and of his electors, by whom it was brought about.Newman went on to assert that but for Oriel, he would have been nobody, entirely lacking in influence. It was through Oriel (and the pulpit of the Oriel living of St. Mary the Virgin) that he was able to exert such a dominant religious and pastoral influence on his academic generation and those that followed. It was through Oriel that he would be in a position to emerge by 1833 as the well-known leader of that great movement of religious revival in the Church of England known as the ‘Oxford Movement’ or ‘Tractarianism’ (the name being coined in consequence of the series of Tracts for the Times published by Newman and his cohorts).

scholarly journals Percy Dearmer Goes to America

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jane Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Family Work ◽  
New Family ◽  
Divinity School ◽  
The Church

Abstract Percy Dearmer’s time as a visiting lecturer at Berkeley Divinity School in Connecticut, USA, at the invitation of Dean William Palmer Ladd, from July 1918 to February 1919, marked a turning point in his life and career. As author of The Parson’s Handbook (1899) and Vicar of St Mary’s Primrose Hill (1901–1915), he was immersed in the Church of England. From 1919, when he left Berkeley Divinity School, with no offer of a clergy post until 1931, he worked on the margins of the church as a university lecturer, writer, and co-director of an experimental worshipping community. The experiences he had between 1915 and 1919 shaped this ‘second’ Dearmer: loss in the war; a second wife and new family; work with the YMCA in France and India; travels in the Anglican Communion and, not least, time at Berkeley where he consolidated these experiences, becoming attuned to those who wanted a spiritual life but were disillusioned by institutional religion, as expressed in The Art of Worship (1919).

The Spiritual Pilgrimage of the Rev. R. J. Campbell

1979 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Public Figure ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Review Of Reviews ◽  
The Times ◽  
The City ◽  
Spiritual Pilgrimage ◽  
The Church

The death of Canon R.J. Campbell on 1 March 1956 did not cause a national stir. There was an obituary the following day in The Times and some comment on subsequent days from friends and associates, but little to indicate that fifty years earlier he had been a substantial public figure. One obscure diarist, who had known Campbell as a young man, felt that ‘the grudging admission…of some academic distinction’ was an inadequate summary of Campbell's life and work. In part, of course, having outlived most of his contemporaries, Campbell was paying the penalty for his longevity. More important, however, was the fact that for decades he had consciously avoided the limelight. ‘No man’ he had written to the novelist Margaret Lane in December 1947 ‘could more carefully avoid publicity than I have done for a generation’. From 1930 to 1946 he had been a residentiary canon and then chancellor of Chichester and before that served as vicar of Holy Trinity, Brighton for six years. It would appear that he possessed an eminently Anglican pedigree. In May 1903, however, a frail, ascetic-looking, prematurely white-haired Campbell had commenced his ministry at the City Temple, the leading Congregational church in London. W. T. Stead's Review of Reviews looked forward to the ‘Renascence of Nonconformity’ under the leadership of this thirty-five-year-old young man. Over seven thousand people attended the services on his first Sunday. Picture postcards of Campbell were soon on sale and later admirers could purchase the R. J. Campbell Birthday Book containing his ‘favourite poetical quotations, portrait and autograph’. There was even A Rosary from the City Temple, described as being threaded from the writings and sermons of R. J. Campbell. The publicity which attended his arrival in London rarely left him for the next dozen years. In September 1915, rumours of Campbell's intention to resign the pastorate and speculation about his subsequent course were thought of sufficient interest to reach the news columns of The Times. His resignation merited a leader in the newspaper and, following his reception into the Church of England in early October, the comments of prominent religious leaders were printed. In 1916 Campbell published A Spiritual Pilgrimage, and a reconsideration of this volume throws interesting light on the cross-currents of Edwardian religious life.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document