The Bishop of Stepney

PRECURSORS
Since 1895 the Diocese of London has had a suffragan, or area, Bishop of Stepney, responsible for East London. From 1879-88 William Walsham How (1823-97) - known as 'Walsham' - [right at various periods of his life - final picture by Hugh Littleton Norris, 1897, held at Wadham College, Oxford] was suffragan Bishop of Bedford (prior to the creation of the diocese of St Alban's), who performed a similar function. It irked him greatly that some commentators assumed his area of responsibility was primarily rural - though his roots were in Shropshire, and he came to London after more than thirty years ministry there: son of a Shrewsbury solicitor from Cumbria, after Shrewsbury School, Wadham College Oxford, and University College Durham, he was ordained to a curacy at Kidderminster in 1846 (his incumbent became Bishop of St Albans), returning 'for family reasons' as curate of Shrewsbury Abbey from 1848, then for 28 years  from 1851 was Rector of Whittington (and Rural Dean of Oswestry from 1854, honorary canon of St Asaph in 1860, and Proctor in Convocation 1868). He became known as a devotional writer and effective leader of missions, retreats and quiet days, and is said to have declined the bishoprics of Natal (1867), New Zealand (1868), Montreal (1869), Cape Town (1873), and Jamaica (1878), besides a canonry, with superintendence of home mission work, at Winchester (1878), and the important livings of Brighton (1870), All Saints', Margaret Street (1873), and Windsor, with a readership to the queen (1878). But the following year he agreed to become a suffragan bishop and 'leader of an East End crusade'. The City parish of St Andrew Undershaft with St Mary-at-Axe, of which he became titular Rector the day after his consecration, provided his stipend.

In London, he lived at Stainforth House, Upper Clapton - provided free of charge by its owner for this 'crusade'. Though small in stature and a 'plain' preacher, he was much-loved by all (see

Walsham How's successor as Bishop of Bedford from 1888-98 was Robert Claudius Billing [left from the Strand magazine in 1894], though he resigned his duties from 1895, when his health broke down. Born in Maidstone in 1834 to a clerical family, he studied at Wye College, and Worcester College Oxford, and was ordained in 1857 to the curacy of St Peter Colchester [then in Rochester diocese]; was curate of Compton Bishop, Somerset from 1861 and also secretary of the Church Missionary Society until 1863, when he became Vicar of Louth in Lincolnshire (remaining with CMS as an honorary assistant secretary), and Chaplain of the Manor of Worlaby [near Brigg in Lincolnshire] in 1870, before coming to London, as Vicar of Holy Trinity Islington from 1873-78 and Rector of Spitalfields from 1878, and Rural Dean. He edited Missionary Leaves for CMS. From 1891, like his predecessor, he was titular Rector of St Andrew Undershaft with St Mary-at-Axe. He was a keen supporter of the volunteer movement, and chaplain of the 2nd Tower Hamlets Volunteers. On his death (aged 63) the title of Bishop of Bedford lapsed, until a suffragan of St Alban's was appointed in 1935.

From 1898 to 1923 there was a Bishop of Islington, again financed by the Rectory of St Andrew Undershaft, and living at Stainforth House - Charles Henry Turner, Rector of St George-in-the-East prior to his consecration; the title was then in abeyance until 2015, when Ric Thorpe, from St Paul Shadwell - right - was consecrated to the post as a bishop for church planting.

1895: BISHOP OF STEPNEY
The episcopal area of Stepney (and Archdeaconry of Hackney) comprises what are now the three deaneries of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Islington, more-or-less co-terminous with the London boroughs of these names, though the rural/area deanery boundaries have changed many times over the years.

For some years - certainly during the time of Bishops Mosley, Curzon and Moberly, and maybe before and after - the post was funded by the income of the City parishes of St Margaret Lothbury with St Christopher-le-Stocks, St Bartholomew Exchange, St Olave Old Jewry, St Martin Pomeroy, St Mildred Poultry, and St Mary Colechurch, with a combined population of 51 and an annual income of over £2000 plus a house; they were also titular Rectors of these parishes.

The roll-call is a distinguished one: many moved on to become diocesan bishops or archbishops, at home and overseas, and East Enders have taken pride in this. Even those for whom Stepney seemed (to local chagrin) a stepping stone, rather than a long-term commitment, took to their posts elsewhere the experience of the particular joys, sorrows and challenges of urban ministry. They did not always live in their 'patch' - Browne, Lang and Lunt, for example, lived in Amen Court, by St Paul's Cathedral (since they were also residentiary canons there), and Curzon moved to a house in Bedford Square WC1 on the grounds that this was more central and accessible; but Moberly lived in Islington, and more recent successors believed it was vital to live in the East End. Trevor Huddleston lived at 400 Commercial Road (the former parsonage house of one of our district churches), as did Jim Thompson before he moved further east to a smaller house; this proved too small, so the current see house is a former parsonage in Coborn Road, Mile End.

Where possible, they are pictured below at various stages of their ministry - in Stepney and later. Many of these images are held by the National Portrait Gallery. Trevor Beeson The Bishops (SCM 2003) has interesting comments on a number of them; some have full-blown biographies!

2: 1897-1901 Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram (1858-1946), then Bishop of London for 38 years until his retirement in 1939 at the age of 81, was born in Worcestershire (his father was a parson, his mother a bishop's daughter); he studied at Keble College Oxford, and was a private tutor and then a curate in Shrewsbury and chaplain to the Bishop of Lichfield before coming to the East End as head of the Oxford House settlement in Bethnal Green from 1888-97 (it's still there, now doing work appropriate for the 21st century): while there, he was also chaplain to the Bishop of St Albans and the Archbishop of York. At Oxford House, and then as Bishop of Stepney, he was a pioneer of social work initiatives in London - and, it's said, his accent took on a slight East End twang that he never lost. He never married, though during his time at Stepney was briefly engaged to Lady Ulrica Duncombe. The most controversial aspect of his time as Bishop of London was his uncritical stance during the First World War, and his 1927-28 world tour also attracted attention, when he was picked on by the Soviets. Because he was in office so long, he rather 'lost the plot' in terms of clergy discipline and other aspects of diocesan organisation. He wrote many books (including one in 1901 with the intriguing title The Afterglow of a Great Reign), particularly around the War years, and later published an autobiography Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram, D.D., K.C.V.O., Fifty Years' Work in London (1889-1939) (Longmans Green 1940); after his death S.C. Carpenter (Dean of Exeter) wrote The Biography of Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram, Bishop of London 1901-1939 (Hodder & Stoughton 1949). [Pictures show him at the time of his appointment to London (1) from Vanity Fair 1901, & (2); (3) Vanity Fair in 1912; (4) painting of 1918; (5) & (6) later in his ministry and (7) a painting of c1939 by Alice Mary Burton, from the Fulham Palace collection]

5: 1919-28  Henry Mosley (1868-1948), left - from Newcastle-under-Lyne, he studied at Keble College Oxford and trained for ordination at Ely College, beginning his ministry at St Andrew Bethnal Green in 1893, moving to Trinity College's mission at Stratford in 1898, and becoming Rector of All Saints Poplar in 1902 - where J.C. Pringle, future Rector of our parish, was his curate - moving to St John-at-Hackney in 1911 (where he was rural dean of Hackney and Stoke Newington from 1917, and also a commissary for the church in Korea). So he too had impeccable credentials for a Stepney episcopate, and was an urban priest at heart. In a farewell letter to East London churches [photograph left from that year] he wrote I will not attempt to tell you what a heartache it gives me to think of leaving East London after 37 years ... It was a hard decision to make. Last March, when you presented me with that beautiful motor-car, I looked forward to using it in East London for many a day to come. But that is not to be, and the car will now become a most treasured farewell gift from you all. He had been 'promoted' to become Bishop of Southwell, a mainly rural diocese at that time (telephone 'Southwell 12'), where he remained until retirement in 1941 - serving on the Council for the Church and the Countryside; he died at Kingsclere in 1948. His daughter Dame Betty Ridley was a Church Commissioner and a leading advocate for women's ordination.

6: 1928-36  Charles Edward Curzon (1878-1954) was born in London but attended Lancaster Royal Grammar School; after Christ's College Cambridge and Salisbury Theological College, he was ordained in 1901 as curate of St Andrew Fulham and then, after a short period as secretary of the Additional Curates Society, was Vicar of St Oswald Millhouses, in south Sheffield, then of Goole. Returning to London in 1920, he held another administrative post as secretary of the London Diocesan Fund, plus a brief incumbency at St Barnabas Kensington, before his consecration. He became Bishop of Exeter in 1936 (where he published various pamphlets, for Lent courses and the like) until his retirement in 1948 to Hatfield, Herts; he died in 1954. [prints (1) 1920-40 by Albert Howard Hester, (2) 1945 by Walter Stoneman; (3) painting by John Mansbridge, for Exeter Palace]

7: 1936-52  Robert Hamilton Moberly (1884-1978) was a protegé of his predecessor Paget, and a member of a distinguished clerical family: his grandfather George was a bishop, and his father Robert Campbell Moberly the author of the classic, still-read, works Ministerial Priesthood (1897) and Atonement and Personality (1901). He was a scholar of New College Oxford and trained at Cuddesdon; ordained in 1909 to a village parish in Kent (St Margaret-at-Cliffe), in 1914 he began an 11-year stint at Benoni, in the Transvaal, which included a period as a chaplain during the First World War and work with the bishops of Pretoria and Johannesburg - he continued as a commissary for Southern Rhodesia until he left Stepney. In 1925 be became Principal of Bishops' College, Cheshunt [right], a theological college taken over from the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion in 1909, sponsored by the Bishops of St Alban's, London, Southwark and Chelmsford (it closed in 1969).  He was consecrated for Stepney in 1936 and left in 1952 to become Dean of Salisbury, retiring in 1960 with permission to officiate in Ely until 1966; he then lived in West Wittering, Sussex until his death in 1978. [photos from 1930s, and in later life]

9: 1957-68

10: 1968-78  [Sir] Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston CR (1913-1998) was born in Bedford and attended Lancing College (a Woodard school in the Anglo-Catholic tradition); after Christ Church Oxford and Wells Theological College, he served a curacy at St Mark Swindon in 1937 and joined the Community of the Resurrection in Mirfield two years later, taking vows in 1941. Remarkably, two years later, Fr Raymond Raynes CR, who had been recalled from the Community's mission station at Rossetenville, Sophiatown in South Africa because of stress - and was nursed by Trevor, still a novice - arranged for him to replace him there, and he became priest-in-charge, and in 1949 the Community's Provincial in South Africa (and Superintendent of St Peter's School). These were heady days for the anti-apartheid cause (predating Joost de Blank's involvement) and for the next 13 years he was at the forefront. He earned the nickname Makhalipile ('dauntless one') and the honorific title, at the 1955 African National Congress in Kliptown, Isitwalandwe. He visited the young Nelson Mandela as a young man recovering from TB, and they worked together [both pictured in later life]; he also, famously, acquired a trumpet from Louis Armstrong [pictured] for a young student Hugh Masekela. But when he published Naught for your Comfort in 1956 - which among other things pointed a finger at American support for apartheid -  the Community judged his life, or at least his well-being, to be in danger and despite his protests recalled him. There followed four years as novice master at Mirfield and at their London house - frustrating, but he did at least found the Anti-Apartheid movement (later, in 1981, becoming its president). In 1960 he was elected Bishop of Masasi, Tanzania [then South Eastern Tanganyika] and he returned to the fray - only to come back eight years later to the Stepney post. Piers McGrandle Trevor Huddleston: Turbulent Priest (Continuum 2004) writes about this period in his life - Julian Scharf, priest-in-charge of this parish, was one of his chaplains. His final period in Africa - apart from short visits in retirement - was as Bishop of Mauritius and Archbishop of the (new) Province of the Indian Ocean, from 1978-83; he was awarded the United Nations' Gold Medal in 1982. Back in England once again, he worked from St James Piccadilly for the worldwide anti-apartheid cause, and had links with theological training at the ecumenical Queen's College Birmingham, before finally retiring to Mirfield. Various further honours followed, including (rather unusually for a friar - did he struggle to accept it?) Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael & St George in 1997. The simple, much-used prayer God bless Africa, guard her people, guide her leaders, and give her peace (which exists in various forms) is often attributed to him. On his death, Nelson Mandela said Father Huddleston was a pillar of wisdom, humility and sacrifice to the legions of freedom fighters in the darkest moments of the struggle against apartheid (full text, and more on his links with African leaders, in this blog by Charles Cameron).

Huddleston on Hawksmoor
In 1962 the Arts Council had mounted a major exhibition on Hawksmoor - a stage towards his 'rehabilitation' - and in 1977 Kerry Downes, author of both the standard and popular books on Hawksmoor (1959 and 1969) curated a large display at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. This was criticised by some for failing to set his masterpieces in the context of urban renewal in the East End - at that time both Christ Church Spitalfields and St Anne Limehouse were vulnerable. One critic wrote St George-in-the-East ....is well looked after and the modern interior seems open at all times during the day and loved. Its gaunt and magnificent exterior rises above the dereliction and desolation of The Highway and Cable Street - great wastes of vacant land and, now, brutal housing estates going up.

This prompted the following letter in The Times (20 April 1977) by Bishop Trevor and Sir John Betjeman (who among his many other involvements was a member of the Council for the Care of Churches):

11:  1978-91 James (Jim) Lawton Thompson (1936-2003), subsequently Bishop of Bath and Wells until his retirement in 2001, was born in Birmingham and qualified as a chartered accountant; after National Service in Germany, he studied at Emmanuel College Cambridge and trained at Cuddesdon where Robert Runcie was principal. After a curacy in East Ham he returned to Cuddesdon as chaplain, and in 1971 became Rector of the new ecumenical parish of Thamesmead before coming to Stepney. As a well-known and effective broadcaster - for which he received various awards - he was passionate on issues of social and racial justice, supporting the marginalised communities of his patch; as a result, it's said that Margaret Thatcher rejected his nomination to the see of Birmingham - unlike his next-but-one successor! - though he always claimed to be non-party political. From 1983 until he went to Bath & Wells he was moderator of the Committee for Relations with People of Other Faiths (as it was then known), and co-chair of the Inter-Faith Network for the United Kingdom from 1987-1992. In his later years he also chaired the Children's Society and the English Churches Housing Trust. He published several books, including Half Way: Reflections in Middle Life (1986), The Lord's Song (1990), Stepney Calling (1991 - a retrospect of his time here), Why God? (1997) and Good Morning! a Decade of Thoughts for the Day (2003). The best obituary is by Ruth McCurry (whose husband was Rector of Stepney, and who still lives and worships in Tower Hamlets deanery, and works for SPCK) in The Independent on Sunday.

13: 1996-2002 John Tucker Mugabe Sentamu (b.1949): previously styled Bishop John, now Archbishop Sentamu, he was born near Kampala in Uganda, the sixth of thirteen children, and studied law at Makerere University, becoming an advocate of the Supreme Court. He was imprisoned for 90 days for his opposition to Idi Amin's regime before coming to Britain in 1974, where he read theology at Selwyn College Cambridge (receiving an adult believer's baptism) and trained for ordination at Ridley Hall; ordained in 1979, he continued to study - gaining a doctorate in 1984 on the 'classic' texts of the early 20th century theologian J.K. Mozley on divine passibility, examining the question that is both African and unversal 'must God suffer in order to save?' - while serving variously as assistant chaplain of Selwyn, at a remand centre, and posts in Southwark diocese, particularly around Tulse Hill, where he became incumbent of a vibrant group of parishes (enlivened not least by his own drumming at services), and an honorary canon. He was consecrated for Stepney in 1996; during this time was an adviser to the Stephen Lawrence judicial enquiry, and in 2002 chaired the Damilola Taylor review; he was also vocal on the issue of the impact of police 'stop and search' on the black community, of which he was personally a victim on several occasions, and on other justice issues. In 2002 he became Bishop of Birmingham, and a mere three years later Archbishop of York. He has received many honours, both from universities and as 'Yorkshireman of the Year' - claiming in response that his third name is 'ee-bah-gum' in reverse. Ironically, he shares this name with the president of Zimbabwe, whom he has roundly denounced, cutting up and eschewing his clerical collar until he has gone. As a public figure, he is sharp and prominent (even writing a column for Murdoch's relaunched Sunday Sun), treading a precarious course between the conservative values that he espouses - and on which African Christians look to him to speak out - on matters such as sexuality, the family and multiculturalism, and the more liberal values on social justice, including challenging oppression and corruption at home and abroad, to which he is also committed. [Pictures selected from a huge range of past and present images!]

14:  2003-10 Stephen John Oliver (b.1948) trained at King's College London, and after posts in Southwell diocese worked in religious broadcasting at the BBC from 1985-91. He was then Team Rector of Leeds parish church (and involved in the production of various texts as a member of the Liturgical Commission) and from 1997 Canon Precentor of St Paul's Cathedral (planning various high-profile services) before his appointment to Stepney. He retired to Nottinghamshire after the death of his beloved wife Hilary in 2010, a senior nurse, whom he himself nursed through her long final illness, and wrote Inside Grief (2013); he continues to preach and broadcast. One of their two sons, Simon, is associate professor philosophical theology at Nottingham and honorary Canon Theologian of Southwell Minster. 

15:  2011-

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