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Charles Gore (1853-1932) 17th January
This aristocratic liberal was a reluctant Oxford don; a strict
Anglo-Catholic who dismayed extreme Puseyites; founder of one Anglican
community and destroyer of another; a bishop whose consecration was
delayed by a protestant lawsuit. A brief account cannot possibly do
justice to a man whose influence on the Church of England was
unequalled in his generation
From Trinity College, Oxford, Gore became vice-principal of
Cuddesdon, and in 1885 the first principal of Pusey House. His essay in
Lux Mundi, which he edited, though it would now be inoffensive,
shocked many orthodox Christians. In 1892 he founded the Community of
the Resurrection, a body of celibate priests living under a simple rule
which became perhaps the most influential community in the Anglican
communion. But in 1913 his enquiry led 'Abbott' Carlyle's motley
collection of Caldey Abbey Benedictines to secede to Rome.
As bishop of Worcester from 1902, Gore found the diocese big and
unwieldy, so helped (with his own money) to hive off the bishopric of
Birmingham, where he was installed in 1905. He turned down an Indian
bishopric, but his translation to Oxford in 1911 was perhaps
unfortunate and though his influence on university life was
considerable, it was not his happiest period.
Gore resigned in 1919, opposing a liberalising move by the Church
Assembly, and spent the rest of his life writing, teaching and
preaching in London. His blend of conservative and liberal theology and
politics made him a thorn in the flesh of nearly every body of
entrenched opinion in the church, yet paved the way for today's
catholic modernists.
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