Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Sidonia Porteous was with us in Mid B from c.1985 ... see Middleton photo's!

Anyone remember been given a sermon from Enoch Powell in chapel?

jhopgood wrote:As usual, I am a little confused.
Why is the chaplain appointed by the school and not by the church?
Who is in charge in the chapel, the chaplain or the Headmaster?
I can understand the school selecting someone to teach RE, or whatever it is now called, and getting the ok from the church that he could also hold communion etc.
Or the Church puts up a load of candidates and the school selecting.
Does anyone know how it works?

As I understand it, the post was advertised (e.g. in Times Ed), but from the first round no candidates were suitable (ref "preach off"). The chaplain is employed by the school, but as a cleric, the chaplain will hold the licence of the Bishop of the Diocese, and in this case his area bishop remains the Bishop of Horsham, who incidentally is Provost of the Southern region of the Woodard Corporation of Schools, to which Ardingly belongs.

I am interested to learn that Horsham has its own bishop, which must, I am sure, be of recent creation. The present incumbent is The Right Reverend Lindsay Goodall Urwin OGS, who is an Australian by birth.

Yes, David. Bp Lindsay has been with us for many years (I can recall several Confirmation services in my own Church, alone.....he is very charismatic).But now he is leaving, in order to manage the pilgrimage site at Walsingham (apparently something very close to his heart). The diocese (especially our part of it) will be seriously deficient when he has moved on.
Kerren

I am pretty sure that when I was confirmed, it was not the Bishop of Horsham, but I can't find anything to substantiate my doubt.

PS The Bishops of Horsham and of Lewes are the Suffragen Bishops under the Bishop of Chichester. This is not new.....

I have nothing against Bishop Urwin, I was only expressing surprise that there was a Bishop of Horsham, a post I had never heard of before. As I recall, in the late 40s/early 50s CH Horsham came direct under the Bishop of Chichester, a Bishop Bell, I believe.
Glad to see he is going (translating?) to Walsingham. I once walked there (from Twickenham) which was all very well except that the last 80 miles or so were very, very flat, and the roads were very, very straight - certainly not the most exciting walk I have ever done.

jhopgood wrote:As usual, I am a little confused.
Why is the chaplain appointed by the school and not by the church?
Who is in charge in the chapel, the chaplain or the Headmaster?
I can understand the school selecting someone to teach RE, or whatever it is now called, and getting the ok from the church that he could also hold communion etc.
Or the Church puts up a load of candidates and the school selecting.
Does anyone know how it works?

I don't know if this is current practice in the C of E but it was explained to me in the early fifties when our parish had a situation like this.
Some parishes have the right to present their own chosen rectors - in fact it is done by the churchwardens who are elected by the congregation annually; the bishop has the right to not accept the proposed appointment but that would be most unusual. If the churchwardens are tied or do nothing then the bishop can then act.
In other parishes the vicar is appointed by the bishop

I don't know how a parish gets the right to a rector rather than a vicar; I suspect that it is top do with a church having a sponsor (many churches were built by the local lord either in the village or in his own palace / castle) and in any case it seems that the distinction between vicar and rector has been lost.

Who is in charge of the church? The churchwardens / sponsor are responsible for the fabric of the church, the rector for the ceremonies. Inn the parish where I was involved in fact everyone was involved with the fabric and the churchwardens could affect the continued presence of the rector / vicar if he really upset them. So far as CH is concerned the school is the sponsor and chooses a rector (called a chaplain); who represents the school I don't know.

The church puts up a load of candidates ............... the school has to choose a suitable (clerically) qualified person. That person also has to get through the state checks as fit to be around children (which should be no problem) and be acceptable to the governors and headmaster. It will find candidates in whatever manner it chooses - someone the governors know or an advert in a church periodical or perhaps a suggestion by the bishop .........

jhopgood wrote:I am pretty sure that when I was confirmed, it was not the Bishop of Horsham, but I can't find anything to substantiate my doubt.

You and I are pretty close, age-wise John.

I was confirmed by the Bishop of Chichester.

Ring any bells ?

J.R. wrote:

jhopgood wrote:I am pretty sure that when I was confirmed, it was not the Bishop of Horsham, but I can't find anything to substantiate my doubt.

You and I are pretty close, age-wise John.

I was confirmed by the Bishop of Chichester.

Ring any bells ?

Big Ben

Thanks

I'm sure his name was George.....

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERbellG.htm

At OU summer school one year we had a lecture on the selection and appointment of clergy in the Church of England. It proved to be so complicated and with so many provisos and "ifs-and-buts" that we eventually persuaded the lecturer that he was as confused as we were.
The Roman Catholic system is much simpler. A friend of mine was a parish priest and something of a firebrand, who also "liked his pint" to both of which his elderly parishionersa did not take too kindly. Eventually, he was sent for by the bishop and almost literally marched into the presence of the great man.
"Father Terry," said the bishop, "I think you will do very well in the Army. As you leave my office you will find the papers already made out on the clerk's desk. If you would just sign and you'll hear from the War Office within the week. Good-day, Father." And that was that. In and out of the bishop's office in about forty seconds flat, no messing around with "would you like...?" or "have you ever considered...?"

blondie95 wrote:

Eruresto wrote:Yes; our new Senior Chaplain Elect is Father/Rev. Ian Colson. Currently chaplain at Ardingly (hence the HM's faith in him), he has a BSc in Biology, a BTheo, a Diploma in RE and is working on a PhD. He's also a hill walker, so I'm going to see if we can snatch him for the scouts before the DofEs get their hands on him!

I hear the potential candidates had to all come and do a sermon in chapel-sort of like a 'preach off'

Yes, they did! The one who spoke to us...and I've forgotten his name...vicar of Southwater...was very good.

From what I gather, when you finish your training and get your collar, you choose a path, e.g. chaplaincy, parishes etc. Those on the chaplaincy path - again, I gather from what I have been told - are mostly left to their own devices, and go for jobs as chaplains, doing teaching or whatever it is on the side...

Eruresto wrote:From what I gather, when you finish your training and get your collar, you choose a path, e.g. chaplaincy, parishes etc. Those on the chaplaincy path - again, I gather from what I have been told - are mostly left to their own devices, and go for jobs as chaplains, doing teaching or whatever it is on the side...

In the old days (my father died in 1971) the paths weren't fixed in stone. He served as a parish priest first, then as a school chaplain for seven years before going back to parish work. I was too young to be told his reasons for changing tack. He had actually trained for the mission field, but that was stymied by the Japanese so he joined the RAF. I know he tried to get back to be appointed to the mission field but there were three of us by then ....

Foureyes wrote:in the late 40s/early 50s CH Horsham came direct under the Bishop of Chichester, a Bishop Bell, I believe.

Shame on you. He was possibly the greatest bishop the C of E had in the 20th century.

Incidentally, when he retired in about 1959, he was presented with a CH Leaving Bible -- an almost unique honour (possibly actually unique)