ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

Second Sunday of Lent, 2006

Fr Ivan Aquilina

Charles Gore

In Oxford, Charles Gore met Joseph Arch, a trade union leader. Arch took Gore for a walk among the slums of Oxfordshire. This moment was fundamental for Gore. His inclinations towards social justice were confirmed and from that moment till his death he remained passionately committed to this cause. Even his biblical teaching and theological reflection had this in mind. His own personal devotion to Jesus Christ, and single-minded determination to serve him in the poor, shines through page after page of his writings. In Charles Gore was a strong note of social protest against oppressive systems and structures. As with the warmth of his personal devotion, one senses that he had only to get a whiff of social justice in a text before he was on to it, calling (for instance) for a new sense not just of sin but of social sin, a very new concept at the time.

Educated in Harrow and Balliol College he became the first principal of Pusey House at the age of 31. He was a committed High Churchmen who because of his convictions brought a new dimension to Anglo-Catholicism especially when at the age of 36 he edited the publication “Lux Mundi”. The famous Lux Mundi showed the relevance of the Church’s prophetic ministry to the new order of society. The Lux Mundi group read the signs of the times and used them to proclaim the eternal values of Scripture, Tradition and Reason. The guiding principle of their reasoning is taken from St John’s Gospel. The Eternal Word entered the world to re-establish the relationship that God has with creation. Lux Mundi looked back behind redemption to creation. Evolution was accepted as the work of the Logos through whom all things were made. Humanity is part of the creative movement of the Word, and therefore it manifests His Light. The Lux Mundi group are against whatever hides this saving Light, whatever disfigures the Image of God in men.

Gore saw the Church as a community engaged in social life. The Church, by allowing its light to shine, represents Christ in the world. The Church community must be the model of how life is meant to be. Gore stood for the prophetic office of the Church as interpreting to the world that which is good.

It may be that with these thoughts in mind he gathered around him like minded men to be called the Community of the Resurrection. This community, first founded in Oxford, than moving to London with its founder who became Canon of Westminster Abbey finally settled in West Yorkshire, in Mirfield. The reason for going there was in order for this community to be amongst people whose work was hard, who had little colour or beauty in their life. They wanted to show that the Church of England was not only for the wealthy or comfortable middle classes. Their Gospel spoke of a Christ who took on flesh, lived with the poor and the outcast and died the death of a criminal. The community stood in the Catholic Social tradition of the Church. There they opened a Seminary to train future priests in those ideals, personally I am grateful to have been prepared for the Sacred Priesthood in Mirfield.

From Westminster Gore became Bishop of Worcester, than Birmingham and finally Oxford. During that time several Anglican clergy publicly declared that an Anglican might reasonably deny the Virgin Birth and the physical Resurrection of Christ and remain an Anglican. Gore was horrified, and proposed to resign his bishopric to devote himself against a position that he believed to be destructive of the Christian faith. His friends persuaded him to reconsider. He did for a while but after the First World War he resigned his See.

Charles Gore came to live here in number 6 Margaret Street from 1919 till 1927 when he was asked to move as the Choir School required the house. Here he engaged himself in teaching Theology at King’s and at London University and he also wrote his trilogy, later published as one work called: “The Reconstruction of Belief.”

In one of his books called: “The Religion of the Church”, after placing beyond any reasonable doubt the Church of England as part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church he speaks about prayer. He says that prayer must be our chief occupation as in prayer we reach out to God and reach out to humanity. This brings wholeness and in it we can find our true vocation. We pray through Christ, with Christ and in Christ to the Father and so our private prayer becomes the prayer of the Church. Prayer brings results and we need to be ready for a prayer answered as it is answered only when we are really open to the will of Him who is granting. Gore than comments on the best of all prayers, the Lord’s Prayer. A prayer he says that every child can understand but only a saint can pray perfectly. He emphasises the point that this is not an individual prayer but the prayer of the Church as we address Our Father rather than my father and to give us today our daily bread rather than give me my daily bread. Among other advice that he gives is that concentration in prayer is helped if we concentrate in other aspects of life as well. He also shows that when we start praying we are not starting something new but just tapping in the eternal prayer of Christ to the Father through the Holy Spirit. He ends by showing that the climax of all prayer is reached in the celebration of the Mass. Indeed one can see his holiness shining through these thoughts which are good thoughts to consider in this our Lenten journey.

After Margaret Street Gore went to Mirfield, but he did not enclose himself within the monastery. His driving passion for social justice was still there. In fact he went to tour India. During this tour he was taken ill and returned to Mirfield where he died.
Charles Gore is now one of the Anglican Beati, his feast day kept on the 17th January, the day of his birth to heaven. Indeed he was a prophet and as all prophets something of an enigma: during his life he was often accused by conservatives of being too liberal, and by liberals of being too conservative. He was indeed ahead of his times and may be seen, in the principles, as a forerunner of the movement of the Theology of Liberation, but after all, all good theology is theology of liberation, of liberation and redemption from sin. The last word must be from Charles Gore, who looking at comfortable Anglican congregations challenges them by saying: "I dare any one of you to say that [Christ's teaching] was not a revolutionary doctrine. It is only because we are so used to the sound of words that they can be uttered in any one of our congregations . . ."

During this week let us think if we have grown over familiar with the words of the Saviour, if we have made religion a little bit much respectful, if we still divorce our faith from our role in society.