The Last Crusade: The Church of England in the First World War. By Albert Marrin. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1974. 9 + 303 pp. $9.75.

The twenty-five theological colleges of the Church of England entered the 1960s in buoyant mood. Rooms were full, finances were steadily improving, expansion seemed inevitable. For four years in succession, from 1961 to 1964, ordinations exceeded six hundred a year, for the first time since before the First World War, and the peak was expected to rise still higher. In a famously misleading report, the sociologist Leslie Paul predicted that at a ‘conservative estimate’ there would be more than eight hundred ordinations a year by the 1970s. In fact, the opposite occurred. The boom was followed by bust, and the early 1970s saw ordinations dip below four hundred. The dramatic plunge in the number of candidates offering themselves for Anglican ministry devastated the theological colleges. Many began running at a loss and faced imminent bankruptcy. In desperation the central Church authorities set about closing or merging colleges, but even their ruthless cutbacks could not keep pace with the fall in ordinands.

Download Full-text

The Chancellors’ Dilemma: The Impact of the First World War on Faculty Jurisdiction

Studies in Church History ◽

10.1017/stc.2019.26 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 56 ◽

pp. 471-486

Author(s):

Anne C. Brook

Keyword(s):

Church Of England ◽

First World War ◽

World War ◽

Death Toll ◽

The First World War ◽

Ancient Monuments ◽

The Impact ◽

First World ◽

The Church

The Church of England successfully resisted proposals to bring decisions about alterations to its churches within the provisions of the Ancient Monuments Act (1913). However, the quid pro quo for the continuation of that ecclesiastical exemption was a strengthening of the operation of the faculty jurisdiction of diocesan chancellors. The First World War brought more urgent concerns for dioceses, but what no-one had foreseen was the huge death toll that war would bring, and the consequent pressure for communal and individual memorials to be created in churches and churchyards. In addition to the greatly increased volume of faculty applications, and the problem of some churches going ahead with commemorative projects without seeking the necessary faculties, some war memorial plans involving crucifixes began to raise the spectre of Ritualistic illegality.

Download Full-text

The Church of England and the First World War. By Alan Wilkinson. Pp. xiv, 370, Cambridge, The Lutterworth Press, 2014, £22.50/$45.00.Subversive Peacemakers: War Resistance 1914-1918 - An Anglican Perspective. By Clive Barrett. Pp. xi, 299, Cambridge, The

The Heythrop Journal ◽

10.1111/heyj.12857 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 59 (2) ◽

pp. 326-328

Author(s):

Jan Marten Ivo Klaver

Keyword(s):

Church Of England ◽

First World War ◽

World War ◽

The First World War ◽

First World ◽

The Church

Download Full-text