On this date the Anglican Communion honours the memory of William Temple (1881-1944), Archbishop of Canterbury.
The son of an Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple studied the classics at Oxford and began his career as a philosophy teacher before turning toward a life as a clergyman. Recognized now as one of the pillars of Anglican theological thinking, Temple was, at first, denied admission to studies for the priesthood because he confessed that his belief in the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection were shaky. He rose quickly in the clerical ranks, becoming first Bishop of Manchester, then Archbishop of York by 1929. He had a glowing reputation as a philosopher and as a proponent of Jewish-Christian reconciliation. Temple’s thinking focussed on the creation of a just social order and he was sympathetic to working-class movements.
Temple was named Archbishop of Canterbury in 1942 when Britain was engaged in the Second World War. He supported the bombing campaign of the RAF directed against German cities but was also in favour of a negotiated peace rather than the unconditional surrender which the Allies were demanding. Temple died in 1944, the last Archbishop of Canterbury to die in office.
A man so broad, to some he seem’d to be
Not one, but all Mankind in Effigy.
Who, brisk in Term, a Whirlwind in the Long,
Did everything by turns, and nothing wrong.
Bill’d at each Lecture-Hall from Thames to Tyne,
As Thinker, Usher, Statesman, or Divine.