2010 – Page 7 – Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music

October 11: Philip, Deacon and Evangelist

October 11, 2010gcoffice10 Comments

Welcome to the Holy Women, Holy Men blog! We invite you to read about this commemoration, use the collect and lessons in prayer, whether individually or in corporate worship, and then tell us what you think. For more information about this project, click here.

The baptism of the eunuch by Rembrandt, 1626, Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht

About this commemoration

Philip, who has been traditionally referred to as a Deacon and an Evangelist, was one of seven honest men appointed, some sources say ordained, by the apostles to distribute bread and alms to the widows and the poor in Jerusalem.

After the martyrdom of Stephen, Philip went to Samaria to preach the gospel. In his travels south to Gaza he encountered an Ethiopian eunuch, a servant of the Ethiopian queen, reading the Isaiah text on the Suffering Servant. They traveled together, and in the course of their journey the Ethiopian was converted and baptized by Philip.

Subsequently, Philip traveled as a missionary from Ashdod northwards and settled in Caesarea. It was in Caesarea that he hosted St. Paul. Philip’s activities at the end of his life are the subject of speculation, but some sources place him as a bishop at Lydia in Asia Minor. His feast day in the Eastern Church is October 11, and in the West usually June 6. Other provinces of the Anglican Communion also keep his feast on October 11.

Collects

I Holy God, no one is excluded from thy love, and thy truth transformeth the minds of all who seek thee: As thy servant Philip was led to embrace the fullness of thy salvation and to bring the stranger to Baptism, so grant unto us all the grace to be heralds of the Gospel, proclaiming thy love in Jesus Christ our Savior, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

II Holy God, no one is excluded from your love, and your truth transforms the minds of all who seek you: As your servant Philip was led to embrace the fullness of your salvation and to bring the stranger to Baptism, so give us all the grace to be heralds of the Gospel, proclaiming your love in Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Psalm 67

Lessons: Isaiah 53:7–11, Acts 8:26–40, and Matthew 28:18–20

Preface of Apostles and Ordinations

Also of interest

North American Association for the Diaconate

http://www.diakonoi.org/

On Reviving the Diaconate in the Episcopal Church by Richard Fabian

http://www.godsfriends.org/Vol14/No1/reviving-diaconate.html

Lifting Up the Servants of God: The Deacon, Servant Ministry, and the Future of the Church by Dr. Thomas Ferguson

http://www.sfd.edu/LiftingUpServants.html

We invite your reflections about this commemoration and its suitability for the official calendar and worship of The Episcopal Church. How did this person’s life witness to the Gospel? How does this person inspire us in Christian life today?

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October 10: Vida Dutton Scudder, Educator and Witness for Peace, 1954

October 10, 2010gcoffice13 Comments

About this commemoration

Vida Dutton Scudder was born on December 15, 1861, the child of Congregationalist missionaries in India. In the 1870s, Vida and her mother were conﬁrmed in the Episcopal Church by Bishop Phillips Brooks. After studying English literature at Smith College and Oxford University, Scudder began teaching at Wellesley College. Her love of scholarship was matched by her social conscience and deep spirituality. As a young woman, Scudder founded the College Settlements Association, joined the Society of Christian Socialists, and began her lifelong association with the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross in 1889, a community living in the world and devoted to intercessory prayer.

In 1893, Scudder took a leave of absence from Wellesley to work with Helena Stuart Dudley to found Denison House in Boston. Stresses from teaching and her activism led to a breakdown in 1901. After two years’ recuperation in Italy, she returned renewed and became even more active in church and socialist groups; she started a group for Italian immigrants at Denison House and took an active part in organizing the Women’s Trade Union League. In 1911, Scudder founded the Episcopal Church Socialist League, and formally joined the Socialist party. Her support of the Lawrence, Massachusetts, textile workers’ strike in 1912 drew a great deal of criticism and threatened her teaching position. Though she initially supported World War I, she joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1923, and by the 1930s was a ﬁrm paciﬁst.

Throughout her life Scudder’s primary relationships and support network were women. After retirement, she authored 16 books on religious and political subjects, combining her intense activism with an equally vibrant spirituality. “If prayer is the deep secret creative force that Jesus tells us it is, we should be very busy with it,” she wrote characteristically, adding that there was one sure way “of directly helping on the Kingdom of God. That way is prayer. Social intercession may be the mightiest force in the world.” Vida Scudder died on October 9, 1954.

Collects

I Most gracious God, who didst send thy beloved Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Raise up in thy Church witnesses who, after the example of thy servant Vida Dutton Scudder, stand ﬁrm in proclaiming the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

II Most gracious God, who sent your beloved Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Raise up in thy Church witnesses who, after the example of thy servant Vida Dutton Scudder, stand ﬁrm in proclaiming the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Psalm 25:1-14

Lessons: Isaiah 42:5–9, Romans 12:1–2,14–21, and John 6:37–51

Preface of a Saint (3)

Also of interest

Link to excerpts from some of her writings

http://www.anglocatholicsocialism.org/chrrev.html

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October 9: Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, Medical Missionary, 1940

October 9, 2010gcoffice7 Comments

About this commemoration

Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell was born in Cheshire, England in 1865, the second of four sons of the Reverend Algernon Sidney Grenfell, headmaster of Mostyn House School, Parkgate, and his wife Jane Georgina Hutchinson. While studying medicine at the London Hospital Medical School, he came under the inﬂuence of American revivalist Dwight L. Moody. An athlete skilled in boxing, cricket, rugby, and rowing, he was an early exponent of the “muscular Christianity” made famous by Charles Kingsley.

In 1887, following his medical qualiﬁcation, he joined the Royal National Mission to Deep-Sea Fisherman as a medical missionary, serving in Iceland and the Bay of Biscay. During a visit to Labrador in 1892, Grenfell was appalled by the near-starvation, poverty, and ill health of the British workers there. Devoting himself to their nurture and improvement, be built the ﬁrst hospital of the Labrador Medical Mission in 1893, eventually opening boarding schools, hospital ships, clothing distribution centers, and the Seaman’s Institute at St. John’s, Newfoundland, often with money he raised himself with speaking tours and books. Several of his books about Labrador and his religious books appealed to those with whom he worked due to his modest and simple style.

In 1912, he organized the International Grenfell Association, with branches in Newfoundland, the United States, and Canada, and this organization supported his work and ministry for the remainder of his career.

Grenfell retired from his work in 1935 due to ill health. He died in Vermont in October of 1940.

Collects

I Compassionate God, whose Son Jesus Christ taught that by ministering to the least of our brothers and sisters, we minister to him: Make us ever ready to respond to the needs of others, that, inspired by the ministry of Wilfred Grenfell to the sick and to seafarers in Labrador and northern Newfoundland, our actions may witness to the love of our Savior Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II Compassionate God, whose Son Jesus Christ taught that by ministering to the least of our brothers and sisters, we minister to him: Make us ever ready to respond to the needs of others, that, inspired by the ministry of Wilfred Grenfell to the sick and to seafarers in Labrador and northern Newfoundland, our actions may witness to the love of our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalm 107:23-32

Lessons: 2 Kings 2:19–22, 1 Corinthians 12:1–11, and Mark 6:45–56

Preface of a Saint (I)

Also of interest

The International Grenfell Society

http://www.iga.nf.net/

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October 8: William Dwight Porter Bliss and Richard Theodore Ely, Priest, 1926 Economist, 1943

October 8, 2010gcoffice9 Comments

About this commemoration

Richard Theodore Ely was born in 1854 in Ripley, New York. The son of Presbyterians, he became an Episcopalian while working on his undergraduate degree at Columbia. After receiving his doctorate in economics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, he taught at Johns Hopkins University and then at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

In 1894, Ely was accused of teaching socialist principles and effort was made to remove him from this professorship. Ely, who rejected the extremes of both capitalism and socialism, stated in his defense, “I condemn alike that individualism that would allow the state no room for industrial activity, and that socialism which would absorb in the state the functions of the individual.” What was needed instead, he argued, was a proper and healthy balance between public and private enterprise. Ely favored competition with regulation that would raise the moral and ethical level of economic practice.

Ely claimed that the Gospel was social rather than individualistic in nature, and he consistently called the Episcopal Church to work toward the reform of capitalism for the sake of the rights and dignity of the American worker. Ely’s principles were highly inﬂuential on his friend Walter Rauschenbusch, one of the major ﬁgures in the Social Gospel Movement.

Published in The Comrade (New York), v. 2, no. 7 (April 1903), pg. 164.

Like R.T. Ely, William Dwight Porter Bliss believed that the church was called to work for economic justice, the principles of which were grounded in the Gospel. Originally ordained a Congregationalist minister, in 1886 he became an Episcopal deacon and was ordained to the priesthood the next year. He served parishes in Massachusetts, California, and New York before organizing the ﬁrst Christian Socialist Society in the United States in 1899. Bliss consistently claimed that economic justice, for which all Christians were responsible, was “rooted and grounded in Christ, the liberator, the head of humanity.” Among his written works are The Encyclopedia of Social Reform (1898) and The Hand-Book of Socialism (1895).

Collects

I Blessed God, whose Son Jesus came as servant to all: We offer thanks for William Bliss and Richard Ely, whose dedication to the commonweal through economic justice led them to be bold reformers of the world and the Church; and we pray that we, with them, may ﬁnd our true happiness through self-sacriﬁce in service of thy reign, where all the hungry are fed and the downtrodden are raised up through Jesus Christ our Liberator; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

II Blessed God, whose Son Jesus came as servant to all: We thank you for William Bliss and Richard Ely, whose dedication to the commonweal through economic justice led them to be bold reformers of the world and the Church; and we pray that we, with them, may ﬁnd our true happiness through self-sacriﬁce in service of your reign, where all the hungry are fed and the downtrodden are raised up through Jesus Christ our Liberator; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Psalm 18:21-31

Lessons: Isaiah 61:1–4, Acts 2:41–47, and Luke 16:19–31

Preface of a Saint (2)

Also of interest

William Dwight Porter Bliss’s Christian Socialism by Richard B. Dressner. Church History Vol. 47, No. 1 (Mar., 1978), pp. 66-82  (article consists of 17 pages). Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3164615

The Star-Spangled Banner (adapted to the situation). From Hymns and Songs of Socialism for Social Meetings of the Church of the Carpenter, Boston 1893.

http://www.anglocatholicsocialism.org/morgan.html

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October 7: Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Lutheran Pastor in North America, 1787

October 7, 2010gcoffice8 Comments

Engraving of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, 1884, History Of Montgomery County Pennsylvania,Illustrated, online, ed. T. W. Bean

About this commemoration

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg is regarded as the patriarch of Lutheranism in North America.

Muhlenberg, born near Hannover, Germany, in 1711, received his education in Göttingen and Halle before immigrating to the American colonies in 1742. Lutherans came to the colonies from a variety of regional and ethnic backgrounds and tended to build churches wherever they settled, sometimes with Lutherans of different origins settling in closer proximity to each other. There was little organization among these disparate groups until the arrival of Muhlenberg.

Upon his arrival, Muhlenberg visited Lutherans in coastal Carolina and Georgia before making his way to Philadelphia. With enormous energy and unﬂagging patience, Muhlenberg began to call together the Lutherans, ﬁrst the Germans, then the Swedes, until the formation of the ﬁrst Lutheran synod in America in 1748, the Ministerium of Pennsylvania. At the inaugural synod, Muhlenberg offered a common liturgy for use among Lutherans. The liturgy was adopted and became the essential element in unifying the Lutherans in America for several generations. Muhlenberg’s axiom, “one book, one church,” has been a benchmark for liturgical revision among North American Lutherans to the present day.

Muhlenberg also recognized the pastoral challenges of organizing a new church in the new world. In the old countries, the church was closely allied with the state. Taxes to support of the churches were collected by the state and Christian education was part of the curriculum in every school. In the new world, the churches were to be voluntary, self-supporting associations and education in matters of Christian faith was to be the concern of church and home.

Muhlenberg’s family played prominent roles in the birth of the new nation. One of his sons served as a brigadier general in the Revolution while another was a member of the Continental Congress and later the ﬁrst speaker of the House of Representatives. His great-grandson, William Augustus Muhlenberg, was a priest who shaped the Episcopal Church in the mid-nineteenth century (see April 8).

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg died on October 7, 1787.

Collects

I Loving God, Shepherd of thy people, we offer thanks for the ministry of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, who left his native land to care for the German and Scandinavian pioneers in North America; and we pray that, following the teaching and example of his life, we may grow into the full stature of Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II Loving God, Shepherd of your people, we thank you for the ministry of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, who left his native land to care for the German and Scandinavian pioneers in North America; and we pray that, following the teaching and example of his life, we may grow into the full stature of Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalm 111

Lessons: Isaiah 60:1–5, Galatians 5:22–6:10, and Matthew 18:15–20

Preface of a Saint (2)

Also of interest

As his great-grandson, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (commemorated on April 8), served as an Episcopal priest, here are our contemporary guidelines for the ecumenical ties in this one family.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/oepp.pdf

Muhlenberg College is named for this patriarch of Lutheranism in America.

www.muhlenberg.edu

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October 6: William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale, Translators of the Bible, 1536, 1568

October 6, 2010gcoffice7 Comments

About this commemoration

William Tyndale was born about 1495 near the Welsh border. He received bachelors and masters degrees from Oxford and also studied at Cambridge. Ordained about 1521, he spent his early ministry as a domestic chaplain and tutor in Gloucestershire and London.

Tyndale was a man with a single passion—to translate the Holy Scriptures into English. Lacking ofﬁcial sanction, he went to Germany in 1524. Strongly opposed to his work, King Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, and others, sought to destroy his work and put him to death. He was betrayed by a friend and was strangled and burned at the stake on October 6, 1536, in Brussels.

Preparations to burn the body of William Tyndale. John Foxe's Book of Martyrs. 1563 The Horizon Book of the Elizabethan World (which credits the Folger Shakespeare Library), American Heritage / Houghton Mifflin, 1967, p. 73

By the time of Tyndale’s death, he had completed his translation of the New Testament and major parts of the Old Testament, particularly the Pentateuch. It is estimated that about eighty percent of Tyndale’s work found its way into later translations, notably the Authorized Version of 1611 (King James).

Miles Coverdale was born in Yorkshire around 1488. He studied at Cambridge and was ordained in 1514 and soon thereafter joined the Augustinian Friars. Passionate about scriptural translation, he left the monastery in 1526 and eventually went to the Continent where the work of translation enjoyed strong support.

He completed the ﬁrst translation into English of the whole Bible in 1535, which was issued as “The Great Bible” in 1539. Archbishop Cranmer adopted Coverdale’s translation of the Psalter for the Book of Common Prayer.

Miles Coverdale, from "The Letters of the Martyrs" collected and published in 1564, London, J.F. Shaw, 1837

Between times of unrest and relative calm, Coverdale shuttled between England and the Continent. He served as a Lutheran pastor while in exile from 1543-1547. He became Bishop of Exeter in 1551 but was deprived of that ofﬁce at the accession of Queen Mary due to his Protestant convictions. He again escaped to the Continent where he lived until the accession to the throne of Elizabeth I in 1559. He is remembered as an outstanding preacher, an uncommonly gifted linguist and translator, and a leader of the Puritan wing of the Church of England.

First Title Page of the Coverdale Bible, 1535

Collects

I Almighty God, who didst plant in the heart of thy servants William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale a consuming passion to bring the Scriptures to people in their native tongue, and didst endow them with the gift of powerful and graceful expression and with strength to persevere against all obstacles: Reveal to us, we pray thee, thy saving Word, as we read and study the Scriptures, and hear them calling us to repentance and life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II Almighty God, you planted in the heart of your servants William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale a consuming passion to bring the Scriptures to people in their native tongue, and endowed them with the gift of powerful and graceful expression and with strength to persevere against all obstacles: Reveal to us your saving Word, as we read and study the Scriptures, and hear them calling us to repentance and life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalm 119:89-96

Lessons: Proverbs 8:10–17, 1 Corinthians 15:1–11, and John 12:44–50

Preface of a Saint (2)

Also of interest

Link to the Coverdale Psalter and biographical information

http://www.lutheransonline.com/lo/675/FSLO-1059011476-804675.pdf

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Theological Principles for C056 Work

October 4, 2010gcoffice4 Comments

The 2009 General Convention of the Episcopal Church directed the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to collect and develop theological and liturgical resources for blessing same-sex relationships (Resolution C056). The Commission is eager to engage the wider church in theological conversation as one among many sources that will inform our work.

The reflection below was submitted by the Rev. Jay Emerson Johnson, Ph.D., chair of the task group preparing theological resources.

October 4: Francis of Assisi, Friar, 1226

October 4, 2010gcoffice16 Comments

Meditierender HI. Franziskus mit Totenshadel by Francisco de Zurbaran, 1658 at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich

About this commemoration

Francis, the son of a prosperous merchant of Assisi, was born in 1182. His early youth was spent in harmless revelry and fruitless attempts to win military glory.

Various encounters with beggars and lepers pricked the young man’s conscience, and he decided to embrace a life devoted to Lady Poverty. Despite his father’s intense opposition, Francis totally renounced all material values, and devoted himself to serve the poor. In 1210 Pope Innocent III conﬁrmed the simple Rule for the Order of Friars Minor, a name Francis chose to emphasize his desire to be numbered among the “least” of God’s servants.

The order grew rapidly all over Europe. But by 1221 Francis had lost control of it, since his ideal of strict and absolute poverty, both for the individual friars and for the order as a whole, was found to be too difﬁcult to maintain. His last years were spent in much suffering of body and spirit, but his unconquerable joy never failed.

Not long before his death, during a retreat on Mount La Verna, Francis received, on September 14, Holy Cross Day, the marks of the Lord’s wounds, the stigmata, in his own hands and feet and side. Pope Gregory IX, a former patron of the Franciscans, canonized Francis in 1228, and began the erection of the great basilica in Assisi where Francis is buried.

Of all the saints, Francis is the most popular and admired, but probably the least imitated; few have attained to his total identiﬁcation with the poverty and suffering of Christ. Francis left few writings; but, of these, his spirit of joyous faith comes through most truly in the “Canticle of the Sun,” which he composed at Clare’s convent of St. Damian’s. The Hymnal version begins:

Most High, omnipotent, good Lord,

To thee be ceaseless praise outpoured,

And blessing without measure.

Let creatures all give thanks to thee

And serve in great humility

Collects

I Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant unto thy people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may for love of thee delight in thy whole creation with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may for love of you delight in your whole creation with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalm 148:7-14

Lessons: Jeremiah 22:13–16, Galatians 6:14–18, and Matthew 11:25–30

Preface of a Saint (3)

Also of interest

Link to Society of St. Francis in The Episcopal Church

http://www.s-s-f.org/

And just for fun . . .

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-TXOsw8Dcc&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgWdbbC_yCw&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

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October 3: John Raleigh Mott, Evangelist and Ecumenical Pioneer, 1955

October 3, 2010gcoffice5 Comments

1910 - from (1910-08) "The Edinburgh Conference- A Forward Look." The American Review of Reviews XLII. New York- The Review of Reviews Co.

About this commemoration

John Mott was born in Livingston Manor, New York in 1865, and moved with family to Iowa in September of that same year. After graduating from Cornell University in 1888, Mott became student secretary of the International Committee of the YMCA and chairman of the executive committee of the Student Volunteer Movement. In 1895 he became General Secretary of the World Student Christian Federation, and in1901 he was appointed the Assistant General Secretary of the YMCA.

During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to the National War Work Council, for which he received the Distinguished Service Medal.

His ecumenical work was rooted in the missionary slogan “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation.” Convinced of the need for better cooperation among Christian communions in the global mission ﬁeld, he served as chairman of the committee that organized the International Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910, over which he also presided. Considered to be the broadest gathering of Christians up to that point, it is from this Conference that the modern ecumenical movement began. Speaking before that Conference, Mott summed up his view of Christian missions: “It is a startling and solemnizing fact that even as late as the twentieth century, the Great Command of Jesus Christ to carry the Gospel to all mankind is still so largely unfulﬁlled … The church is confronted today, as in no preceding generation, with a literally worldwide opportunity to make Christ known.”

Mott continued his involvement in the developing ecumenical movement, participating in the Faith and Order Conference at Lausanne in 1927, and was Vice-President of the Second World Conference on Faith and Order in Edinburgh (1937). He also served as Chairman of the Life and Work Conference in Oxford, also held in 1937.

In 1946 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in establishing and strengthening international organizations which worked for peace. The World Council of Churches, the founding of which was largely driven by Mott’s efforts, elected him its life-long Honorary President in 1948. Mott died in 1955.

Collects

I O God, the shepherd of all, we offer thanks for the lifelong commitment of thy servant John Raleigh Mott to the Christian nurture of students in many parts of the world; and we pray that, after his example, we may strive for the weaving together of all peoples in friendship, fellowship and cooperation, and while life lasts be evangelists for Jesus Christ, in whom alone is our peace; and who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

II O God, the shepherd of all, we give you thanks for the lifelong commitment of your servant John Raleigh Mott to the Christian nurture of students in many parts of the world; and we pray that, after his example, we may strive for the weaving together of all peoples in friendship, fellowship and cooperation, and while life lasts be evangelists for Jesus Christ, in whom alone is our peace; and who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Psalm 71:17-24

Lessons: Isaiah 60:1–5, 1 John 2:12–14, and Luke 7:11–17

Preface of All Saints

Also of interest

Link to Nobel Prize website with his biography, Nobel Lecture, and acceptance speech

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1946/

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October 3: George Kennedy Allen Bell, Bishop of Chichester, and Ecumenist, 1958

October 3, 2010gcoffice11 Comments

Welcome to the Holy Women, Holy Men blog! We invite you to read about this commemoration, use the collect and lessons in prayer, whether individually or in corporate worship, then tell us what you think. For more information about this project, click here.

Portrait of George Bell as Dean of Canterbury Cathedral by Philip Alexius de Laszio, 1931, the Deanery at Canterbury

About this commemoration

George Bell was a major voice in the Church of England during the Second World War and a major ﬁgure on the ecumenical stage during the post-war era.

Born in Hampshire in 1883, Bell trained for ordination at Christ Church, Oxford, and Wells Theological College. Ordained to the priesthood in 1908, he served for several years in inner city Leeds among the poor and disenfranchised, an experience that would shape the remainder of his ministry. He became the chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, in 1914, becoming Dean of Canterbury in 1924 and Bishop of Chichester in 1929.

During the rise of the Third Reich in Germany, Bell took an active role in securing safe haven in England for Jews and non-Aryans who wanted to escape the terror of the Nazis. He developed a close association with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church in Germany. He was a signer of the Barmen Declaration, the manifesto of the Confessing Church that stood in opposition to Hitler’s regime. It has been widely presumed that his outspoken condemnation of the indiscriminate bombing of German cities during the war cost him the See of Canterbury after the death of Archbishop William Temple in 1944. In the post-war era, Bell was a staunch critic of the cold war and the nuclear arms race.

Bell’s continuing legacy is surely his stature as an ecumenist. Since his appointment to the See of Chichester, Bell had taken a keen interest in the reunion of the churches and he devoted considerable time to ecumenical projects. After the war, Bell was a tireless advocate for the cause of unity and is to be numbered among the founders of the World Council of Churches in which he held leading ofﬁces. Through his ecumenical commitments, Bell developed a friendship with Giovanni Montini, the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, who was to become Pope Paul VI.

Bell wrote a biography of Archbishop Davidson (1935), and a number of works on Christian unity and ecumenism from an Anglican perspective.

George Kennedy Allen Bell." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 30 Sep. 2010 .

Collects

I God of peace, who didst sustain thy bishop George Bell with the courage to proclaim thy truth and justice in the face of disapproval in his own nation: As he taught that we, along with our enemies, are all children of God, may we stand with Christ in his hour of grieving, that at length we may enter thy country where there is no sorrow nor sighing, but fullness of joy in thee; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

II God of peace, you sustained your bishop George Bell with the courage to proclaim your truth and justice in the face of disapproval in his own nation: As he taught that we, along with our enemies, are all children of God, may we stand with Christ in his hour of grieving, that at length we may enter your country where there is no sorrow nor sighing, but fullness of joy in you; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Psalm 46:4-11

Lessons: Amos 7:10–15, Revelation 11:15–18, and Mark 13:1–13

Preface of Holy Week

Also of interest

The Barmen Declaration

http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/barmen.htm

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