Richard William Church

Background

Richard William Church was the son of John Dearman Church, brother of Sir Richard Church (q. v. ), a merchant, was born at Lisbon on the 25th of April 1815, his early years being mostly spent at Florence.

Education

After Church's father's death in 1828 he was sent to a school of a pronounced evangelical type at Redlands, Bristol, and went in 1833 to Wadham College, Oxford, then an evangelical college.

He was a diligent parish priest and a serious student, and contributed largely to current literature.

Career

In 1844- 1845 Richard William Church was junior proctor, and in that capacity, in concert with his senior colleague, vetoed a proposal to censure Tractgo publicly.

In 1869 he refused a canonry at Worcester, but in 1871 he accepted, most reluctantly (calling it " a sacrifice en pureperte "), the deanery of St Paul's, to which he was nominated by W. E. Gladstone. His task as dean was a complicated one.

He described the intention of his appointment to be " that St Paul's should waken up from its long slumber. "

But he performed his difficult and uncongenial task with almost incredible success, and is said never to have made an enemy or a mistake.

The dean was distinguished for uniting in a singular degree the virtues of austerity and sympathy.

He was preeminently endowed with the faculty of judgment, characterized by Canon Scott Holland as the gift of " high and fine and sane and robust decision. "

Though of unimpressive stature, he had a strong magnetic influence over all brought into contact with him, and though of a naturally gentle temperament, he never hesitated to express censure if he was convinced it was deserved.

In the pulpit the voice of the dean was deliberately monotonous, and he employed no adventitious gesture.

He said of the Church of England that there was " no more glorious church in Christendom than this inconsistent English Church. "

The dean often meditated resigning his office, though his reputation as an ecclesiastical statesman stood so high that he was regarded in 1882 as a possible successor to Archbishop Tait.

He was buried at Whatley. The dean's chief published works are a Life of St Anselm (1870I, the lives of Spenser (18 7 9) and Bacon (1884) in Macmillan's " Men of Letters " series, an Essay on Dante (1878), The Oxford Movement (1891), together with many other volumes of essays and sermons.

A collection of his journalistic articles was published in 1897 as Occasional Papers.

In these writings he exhibits a great grasp of principles, an accurate mastery of detail, and the same fusion of intelligent sympathy and dispassionate judgment that appeared in his handling of business.

His style is lucid, and has the charm of austerity.

Achievements

• Richard Church was a man of genius, whose moral stainlessness and instinctive fire were indicated rather than revealed by his writings.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Oxford Movement Twelve Years, 1833-1845

Connections

Richard Church married in 1858.

Father:

John Dearman Church

Mother:

Bromley Caroline Metzener

Grandfather:

Matthew Church