Eric Waldram Kemp

Eric Waldram Kemp (born April 27, 1915 in Waltham , † November 28, 2009 in Chichester ) was a British Anglican clergyman and bishop of the Church of England .

education

Kemp was born as the only child of Tom and Florence Lilian Kemp. Kemp attended the Brigg Grammar School in Brigg in the county of North Lincolnshire . At Exeter College of Oxford University he studied modern history . There he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1936 and a Master of Arts in history in 1940 . In 1944 he obtained a Bachelor of Divinity in theology. In 1961 he received a doctorate in theology from Oxford University as Doctor of Divinity . He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1951. He received an honorary doctorate as Doctor of Letters ( Hon DLitt ) from the University of Sussex .

Church career

In the 1930s, Kemp came into contact with Freddy Hood , director of Pusey House , a religious institution in Oxford that was strictly in the tradition of Anglo-Catholicism . Kemp then gave up his original intention to become a lawyer and prepared for the priesthood at St Stephen's House in Oxford from 1936 to 1939 .

He was ordained a deacon in 1939 and a priest in 1940 . From 1939 to 1941 he served as an assistant vicar at St Luke's Church in the Newtown neighborhood of Southampton . He was an air raid guard during the bombing of the port in World War II . In 1941 Kemp returned to Oxford . He became an employee of the Pusey House and worked there from 1941 to 1946 as a librarian ( Priest Librarian ). In 1943 he took over two chaplain positions in Oxford, one at St John's College and also at the cathedral of Christ Church College . From 1943 to 1946 he was chaplain of Christ Church in Oxford.

After the end of the Second World War he went to Exeter College as a fellow and chaplain in 1946 and became a lecturer in theology and medieval history . Kemp taught in Exeter until 1969 .

He was elected to the General Synod of Canterbury in 1949 as Proctor ( Proctor on Convocation ) for Oxford. Geoffrey Fisher , the Archbishop of Canterbury , succeeded in convincing Kemp not to take up a professorship and a position as resident canon in Durham , as his expertise in canon law would still be needed in the General Synod.

In 1969 he became Dean of Worcester , although it was anticipated that he would be appointed bishop. There he introduced a sung Eucharist for mass on Sunday morning. He remained Dean of Worcester until 1974. He became Bishop of Chichester in 1974 and held that office until 2001. Archbishop Arthur Michael Ramsey had advocated Kemp's calling as Bishop of Chichester.

As Bishop of Chichester, Kemp worked closely with Cormac Murphy-O'Connor , the Roman Catholic Bishop of Arundel and Brighton . After the 1984 IRA bombing in Brighton , they prayed with then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher . Kemp developed close relationships with Chartres Cathedral and the Diocese of Chartres . Kemp became the responsible representative at the Old Catholic Churches on the European continent; two of their bishops had attended his ordination. He campaigned for the 1988 Meissen Declaration , which strengthened relations between the Anglican Church and the German Protestant churches.

Kemp continued to hold several honorary church positions. From 1967 to 1969 he was chaplain of Elizabeth II. He was 1,952 to 2,001 canons ( Non-residentiary Canon ) and Präbendar of Lincoln Cathedral . In April 1998 he was appointed Chanoine d'Honneur ( Canon of Honor ) at Chartres Cathedral.

Kemp wrote several books, essays and theological literature, especially on canon law . Kemp's dissertation for a Bachelor of Divinity , Canonization and Authority in the Western Church was published in 1948. In 1954 he published with Walther Holtzmann Twenty-Five Papal Decretals Relating to the Diocese of Lincoln . In the same year followed a biography of NP Williams (1883-1943), an influential Anglo-Catholic theologian. In 1957 he published An Introduction to Canon Law in the Church of England and in 1959 By the Life and Letters of KE Kirk . His last major book, Counsel and Consent , is based on his 1960 Oxford Bampton Lectures , for which he was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology from Oxford University. In 2006 his memoirs appeared under the title Shy but not Retiring .

After retiring in 2001, he became Bishop Emeritus of Chichester. Eric Kemp continued to live in Chichester after he retired . In recent years, Kemp has become increasingly blind and deaf. He died on November 28, 2009 at the age of 94. Kemp was buried in Chichester on December 18, 2009.

family

Kemp's father-in-law, Kenneth E. Kirk , was Regius Professor of Moral Theology and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford and Bishop of Oxford . Kemp wrote a book on Kirk. In 2001 he left his papers and letters to the Lambeth Palace Library . He had been married since 1953 and had a son and four daughters with his wife, Patricia.

Membership in the House of Lords

Kemp was from 1979 to 2001 as Spiritual Lord of the House of Lords . His inaugural address was on February 27, 1980. While he was a member of the House of Lords, Kemp was a regular attendee. He has spoken on many House of Lords reform debates during Prime Minister Tony Blair's tenure . In particular, Kemp commented on constitutional issues .

Working in public

He was ordained a bishop before a statutory retirement age was introduced in 1975. Hence, he could hold this office as long as he wished. When he retired, he was therefore one of the oldest and longest serving diocesan bishops in the history of the Church of England . After the departure of David Sheppard , Bishop of Liverpool in 1997, Kemp was the last Bishop of the Church of England to remain a Bishop for life.

Kemp belonged in the Church of England to the direction of Anglo-Catholicism , which made Anglicanism Catholic , i.e. H. interpreted sacramentally and in unbroken tradition with the ancient Church . For some time he shared the unofficial role as the recognized leader of the Anglo-Catholic wing with Graham Leonard , the Bishop of London .

Kemp was seen as a fundamental opponent of the ordination of women . Kemp's diocese therefore became a retreat for priests who rejected the ordination of women. His decision to remain in office until the next century was particularly shaped by his rejection of the ordination of women as priests . He viewed the Church's decision to do so in 1992 as a catastrophe and believed he had to prevent "the worst consequences". In 1992, he said that the issue of women's ordination would make a schism inevitable. Although Kemp encouraged women to work in the diocese , he was generally opposed to the ordination of women as priests. He himself did not accept women as priests during his tenure. He ordained women deacons but not priestesses. During Kemp's tenure, women were usually ordained by suffragan bishops from other dioceses. However, these could then, with the permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury, operate in the Diocese of Chichester. Only his successor, John William Hind , consecrated a woman in the diocese.

In questions of canon law, Kemp always took a conservative position. He was assigned to the group of traditionalists in the Church of England. This was also evident in his general attitude towards the question of homosexuality . Kemp was one of the most famous opponents of gay rights. Together with George Leonard Carey , John Sentamu and David Hope, he was one of four bishops of the Church of England who refused to sign the Cambridge Accord, which was passed at the Lambeth Conference in 1998, on the rights of homosexuals in the Anglican community first established and forbade any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Kemp was one of the leading scholars working on canon law. During his time as a Fellow of Exeter College from 1946 to 1969, he was heavily involved in the lengthy revision of the 17th century canon. He was a member of the Ecclesiastical Causes of the Church of England . An edition of the English Canon Law was published in 1998 in his honor .

He was a regular participant in conversations between the Church of England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain .

He supported the campaign to save the French Convalescent Home in Brighton . Kemp was particularly committed to helping the homeless and people suffering from AIDS .

In 1994 he became president of the National Liberal Club .

In his 2006 memoir Shy But Not Retiring , Kemp stated that the discovery of sexual abuse cases by Peter Ball , later Bishop of Gloucester, was the work of "mischief makers".

Publications

author

• 1948: Canonization and Authority in the Western Church (London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press )
• 1954: NP Williams (London: SPCK )
• 1956: Bishops and Presbyters at Alexandria (London: Faber )
• 1957: An Introduction to Canon Law in the Church of England (London: Hodder and Stoughton )
• 1959: The Life and Letters of Kenneth Escott Kirk, Bishop of Oxford, 1937–1954 (London: Hodder & Stoughton )
• 1961: Counsel and Consent: Aspects of the Government of the Church as exemplified in the History of the English Provincial Synods (London: SPCK )
• 1964: The Anglican-Methodist Conversations: a Comment from within (London: Oxford University Press )
• 1979: Square Words in a Round World (London: Fount )
• Shy but not retiring . The memoirs of the Right Reverend Eric Waldram Kemp. Continuum, London 2006, LCCN  2007-618352 .

Contributions

• 1948: EG Wood, The Regal Power of the Church: or, the Fundamentals of the Canon Law , with an introduction and a bibliography by EW Kemp (London: Dacre Press )
• 1954: Papal Decretals relating to the Diocese of Lincoln in the Twelfth Century (published with an introduction to the sources by Walther Holtzmann , with translations of the texts and an introduction to canon law and its administration in the 12th century by Eric Waldram Kemp, publications of Lincoln Record Society Vol. 47, Hereford: Lincoln Record Society )

editor

• 1969: Man: Fallen and Free: Oxford Essays on the Condition of Man (London: Hodder & Stoughton )

Web links

• Eric Kemp at Hansard (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eric Kemp: A Life Remembered . Obituary by Christopher Hill in: Cambridge Journals
2. ^ The Right Reverend Eric Kemp obituary in: The Daily Telegraph, November 30, 2009
3. ^ The Right Reverend Eric Kemp (1915–2009) Obituary by John William Hind on the homepage of the Diocese of Chichester of November 29, 2009
4. ↑ Eric Waldram Kemp, Bishop RIP
5. ↑ Obituary: THE RT REVD DR ERIC WALDRAM KEMP Obituary in: Church Times, December 4, 2009
6. ^ The Right Rev Eric Kemp: Bishop of Chichester obituary in: The Times, December 2, 2009
7. ^ The Right Rev Eric Kemp obituary obituary in: The Guardian, November 30, 2009
8. ↑ Diocese licenses first woman priest article in: BBC News from November 16, 2001
9. ↑ Cambridge Accord ( Memento of July 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Wording and signatory on the homepage of Changing Attitude
10. ↑ George Conger: Retired Bishop of Gloucester arrested for child abuse ( January 7, 2014 memento on the Internet Archive ), November 13, 2012, archived from the original on January 7, 2014, retrieved June 28, 2019

predecessor	Office	successor
Roger Plumpton Wilson	Bishop of Chichester 1974-2001	John William Hind