“This world is the place to make friendships.
It is in the next that we shall really enjoy them”
+Edward King
Edward King (1829-1910), Bishop of Lincoln between 1885 until his death, was a leading light in the developments in Anglican thought and self-understanding that transformed the life and worship of the Church of England in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a student at Oxford in the 1840′s, King came under the influence of the leaders of the Oxford Movement, and took Holy Orders in 1854. He quickly earned a reputation for remarkable pastoral sensitivity and skill. Bishop Samuel Wilberforce of Oxford soon asked King to be chaplain at the new theological college opposite the gates of his palace at Cuddesdon, and in 1863 he became its Principal. Wilberforce and King both realised that to be effective ministers of the Gospel, young men needed to be properly trained and formed before ordination, and King later founded St Stephen’s House in Oxford for the same purpose. In 1873 Queen Victoria appointed King to the post of Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford and in 1885 she named him Bishop of Lincoln. King’s obvious holiness of life, coupled with care for his clergy and zeal for his people, won him the respect and love of the diocese. That affection endures today, over a hundred years after his death.
Like this:
Like Loading...
+Edward King so bravely stood up for his so called ‘ritualist’ views and was threatened with prosecution by the then bigoted hierarchy of the Church. I think we all ought to give special thanks for his courage in the face of that and it seems a shame that this was not included in the Lent 1 Section of the Course.
Thanks for your comments, Neil. +Edward King was indeed a man of great courage, and worth remembering with thanks.