George Kennedy Allen Bell

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George Kennedy Allen Bell (born February 4, 1883 on Hayling Island , Hampshire , † October 3, 1958 in Canterbury ) was Bishop of the Church of England (Anglican) and a leading representative of the ecumenical movement . He is known in Germany and Great Britain as a close friend of Dietrich Bonhoeffer , as an opponent of the British air war strategy in World War II and for his ecumenical peace and reconciliation work.

Socially committed ecumenist

Bell was born to the pastor of Hayling Island and later Canon of Norwich , James Allen Bell, and his wife Sarah Georgina Megaw. He studied theology in Oxford ( England ) and was ordained Anglican priest in 1907. Then he worked for three years as a social pastor in the slums of the English industrial city of Leeds . His task was the Christian mission among the industrial workers there, a third of whom were Indians and Africans from the former British colonies . Bell learned a lot from the Methodists , whose combination of personal creed and social commitment he saw as a role model for his church.

In the fall of 1910, Bell went back to Oxford for almost four years as a student pastor and academic tutor at Christ Church College . Here, too, he was socially committed. He was one of the founders of a successful consumer cooperative for students and university members and campaigned for settlement projects ( settlements ) and workers 'education through the WEA (Workers' Educational Association).

Lambeth Palace, Bell's workplace 1914–1925

In 1914 he became private secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace and took on a special department for international and interdenominational relations. In this office he achieved in 1915 that Indians baptized Lutheran were allowed to continue the work of the Leipzig and Goßner missions in Chota Nagpur (East India) after their German missionaries had been interned . Until the end of the war he was also involved in the Order of St. John , a non-denominational campaign to save war orphans and - together with the Swedish Lutheran Archbishop Nathan Söderblom , one of his closest lifelong friends - for the exchange of prisoners of war . In this work he saw the inner evangelical contradictions more and more as irrelevant.

After the war, Bell became an excellent initiator and promoter of the fledgling ecumenical movement. In 1919, at the first post-war meeting of the World Association for Church Friendship Work in the Netherlands , he successfully suggested the establishment of a commission for religious and national minorities. At the Stockholm World Conference of Churches in 1925 he helped bring about the "Ecumenical Council for Practical Christianity (Life and Work)". Together with Adolf Deißmann he organized German-British theological conferences.

Canterbury Cathedral

From 1925 to 1929 Bell was Provost ( Dean ) of Canterbury Cathedral . During this time he launched an art festival in and around the cathedral ( Canterbury Festival ). His guest authors at the time included John Masefield , Gustav Holst ( The Coming of Christ ), Dorothy L. Sayers and TS Eliot , whose drama " Mord im Dom " (1935) Bell commissioned.

Chichester Cathedral

In 1929 Bell was named Bishop of Chichester . In this office he organized sponsorships between his diocese and workers affected by the global economic crisis . To this end, he attended meetings of the National Union of Public Employees , where he was delighted to be addressed as "Brother Bell". In 1931 he received a visit from Mahatma Gandhi in Chichester .

In 1932 he was appointed President of “Life and Work” at the World Council in Geneva for two years . At its Berlin conference in early February 1933 he witnessed the so-called seizure of power by National Socialism .

Ally of the Confessing Church

Bell now took an active part in the German church struggle . In April 1933 he publicly declared the ecumenical concerns about the beginning of the persecution of Jews in Germany and in September supported a resolution that sharply protested against the Aryan paragraph and its adoption by parts of the German Evangelical Church (DEK). He had already met Dietrich Bonhoeffer at a meeting of the World Federation in Sofia in autumn 1931. When he went to London for two years as a pastor abroad in autumn 1933 , a close relationship of trust developed between the two. Bonhoeffer became Bell's most important informant about what was going on in Germany; Bell, for its part, informed the British public about this, including through regular letters to the editor to the London Times .

On June 1, 1934, the Barmen Theological Declaration, as the founding manifesto of the Confessing Church (BK), proclaimed the incompatibility of Christian faith and National Socialism and rejected the theology of the Nazi-affiliated German Christians as "false doctrine" ( heresy ). On June 6th, Bell reported on this to the assembled bishops of the Church of England and explained the confession and rejection, which are difficult to understand for them, i.e. the current implementation of a divorce between legal and illegitimate appeal to Jesus Christ. This was the first response in ecumenism to the Barmer Declaration.

In 1934, as President of Life and Work , Bell ensured that Bonhoeffer was invited to the world ecumenical conference in Fanö, Denmark, as a representative of the BK, along with Karl Koch , President of the Westphalian regional church . As the elected youth secretary, Bonhoeffer was responsible for the affiliated World Youth Conference anyway. During a morning devotion he addressed world Christianity as an “Ecumenical Council” and called on them to stand up against the threatening war. At Bell's suggestion, the world conference passed a declaration of solidarity for the BK and their struggle against the protest of the representatives of the DEK present. The violent measures of the National Socialists were again made public, including the concentration camps .

In 1936 Bell took over the chairmanship of the International Christian Committee for German Refugees (International Christian Committee for German Refugees). In it he stood up especially for Jewish Christians who were not supported by either Jewish or Christian organizations at the time. In order to help them emigrate, he sent his sister-in-law Laura Livingstone to Berlin and Hamburg and let the exiles live temporarily in his private house. In the same year he printed a prayer for Jews and "non-Aryan" Christians in his diocese gazette:

“Pray for the Jews in Stepney, and Whitechapel, and Bethnal Green; pray for the German Jews; for all those who are in pain, in shame because of their race. Pray for those who have a Jewish parent or grandparent and who are Christians according to their faith ... "

In 1937 he became Lord Spiritual member of the House of Lords . In his first major speech on July 27, 1938, he called on the British government to provide increased aid for Jewish refugees from Germany. He also used this influence to specifically protect those persecuted by the Nazi regime. So he could z. B. save the life of the most famous representative of the Confessing Church, Martin Niemöller , by making his imprisonment in Sachsenhausen concentration camp from February 1938 and later in Dachau concentration camp known to the British public and branding it as an example of the anti-church attitude of the Hitler state. As a result, Adolf Hitler refrained from planning Niemöller's planned murder in 1938.

With personal guarantees in the winter of 1938/39, Bell enabled 90 people, mainly pastor families (including Hans Ehrenberg , Christ Church Bochum ), who were persecuted by the National Socialists as "non-Aryan" Christians and abandoned by the official church, to emigrate to England . Among the refugees he particularly supported were Bonhoeffer's twin sister Sabine and her husband, the lawyer Gerhard Leibholz , who became an important interlocutor to Bell about the future of Germany during the war, and the artist Hans Feibusch , for whom he received commissions for large-format frescoes in his diocese and moreover provided.

During the war, Bell also worked for displaced persons and other needy people who fled the continent to England. He also campaigned for Germans and British conscientious objectors interned there .

Opponents of the area bombing and helpers of the German resistance

As early as 1939 Bell wrote that the church should not become the spiritual assistant of a state, but should advocate peaceful international relations and take a stand against displacement, enslavement and the destruction of morality. You must not give up condemning repeated retaliatory strikes or bombing the civilian population. He urged the churches to take a critical stance on the conduct of war in their own countries.

In 1940 he met with some ecumenical friends in the Netherlands to orient the churches on a common initiative for peace after the victory over the Nazi regime. On April 17, 1941, Bell wrote to The Times: It is barbaric to deliberately target unarmed women and children. He directly contradicted Winston Churchill , who was then a carpet bombing ( area bombing ) German cities planned.

In May 1942 Bell traveled to Sweden by plane ; the British government had sent him on a two-week goodwill tour to intensify ecclesiastical and cultural ties with the neutral country. Here he met Hans Schönfeld on May 26th in Stockholm and on June 1st in Sigtuna, completely surprising for Bell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who gave him information from the German resistance as a secret courier . These included the real names of those involved in the Wehrmacht and defense in the planned Hitler attack and putsch to overthrow the Nazi regime. In order to make this plan a success and then to be able to negotiate a ceasefire , the conspirators asked the British government for a public signal not to equate the Germans with the National Socialists.

Anthony Eden, 1943

Bell passed this information on to the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden , but received a negative reply on July 17 that further contacts were not in the national interest. In another letter dated July 25th, Bell expressed his disappointment and hoped that the government would at least be able to

"... to state emphatically and publicly that the British government (and the allies) have no desire to enslave a Germany that Hitler, Himmler and their accomplices will have eliminated."

But this correspondence did not lead to anything. At the Casablanca Conference the Allies decided to wage the war until Germany surrendered unconditionally , and began area bombing .

When the first attacks on Hitler failed and some of the conspirators had already been imprisoned, Bell tried again in vain to change the course of British policy. After July 20, 1944 , he accused Eden of having done nothing to help them in good time, despite knowing about those involved.

On February 14, 1943, Bell condemned area bombing in the House of Lords : It called into question all humane and democratic values ​​for which Great Britain was at war. This provoked vehement protests. On February 9, 1944, he again described the bombing of German cities such as Hamburg and Berlin as disproportionate and thus contrary to international law:

“I would like to challenge the government about its policy of bombing enemy cities on the current scale, particularly on civilians, non-combatants, as well as non-military and non-industrial targets. [...] I am aware that the attacks on centers of the war industry and on military transports inevitably lead to the death of civilians, insofar as it stems from a military action carried out in good faith. But there must be a proportionality between the means used and the purpose achieved. To wipe out an entire city just because some of its areas have military and industrial facilities is to reject proportionality. [...] I do not believe that His Majesty's government aims to destroy Germany. She accepted the distinction between Germany and the Hitler state. [...] The Allies stand for something greater than power. The main inscription on our banner is 'right'. It is of the utmost importance that we, who are the liberators of Europe with our allies, use power in such a way that it is under the control of the law. But the bombing of the enemy cities, this area bombing, brings up the issue of such limitless and exclusive power, and therefore it is of immense importance how it influences the policies and actions of the government. "

The speech asserted the distinction between non-fighters (civilians) and fighters (soldiers) under Article 22 of the Hague Land Warfare Regulations for British air warfare strategy. Bell caused violent tumult in the House of Lords. There the declared opponent of National Socialism was isolated with his attitude. In the lower house, too, only two Labor MPs shared his criticism of the area bombing .

Bell was also highly controversial in his church. William Temple , who as the then Archbishop of Canterbury held the highest, politically influential office in the Anglican Church , refused to criticize the bombing of enemy inner cities. Before the start of the war, he had mentioned precisely this specific point at which the Church, due to its teaching on the Just War, was compelled to object to politics and to call for conscientious objection. Since the Blitzkrieg, however, he justified the British air war as a fateful necessity.

Bell, however, was accused of only helping Nazi propaganda with his protest . His opposition to British warfare cost him his further career: although he was considered a suitable candidate for the highest office in his church, he was probably passed over twice in succession arrangements at Churchill's instigation and remained Bishop of Chichester until his retirement for reasons of age in early 1958.

Bonhoeffer's last message immediately before being transported for his execution on April 9, 1945 was to his closest ecumenical friend Bell and, according to the messenger Sigismund Payne Best , read :

“Tell him: This is the end for me; but also the beginning - with him I believe in the principle of our universal Christian brotherhood, which goes beyond all national hatreds and that our victory is certain - also tell him that I never forgot his words at our last meeting. "

Bell held together with Franz Hildebrandt and Julius Rieger on July 27, 1945 in the (now defunct) Holy Trinity Church on Kingsway in London, a memorial service for Bonhoeffer in front of thousands of listeners, including his twin sister. The BBC broadcast the celebration to Germany, so that many of his relatives, friends and students received the first certain news of Bonhoeffer's death.

Advocate of the defeated Germans, visionary of a reconciled Europe

As early as July 1945, Bell spoke out in favor of political self-determination for the Germans, since there was a resistance movement in Germany supported by the Christian minority . On this basis, he considered a thorough turning away from National Socialism by the Germans and reconciliation with them possible.

On October 18 and 19, 1945, Bell took part in the first meeting of the newly formed Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) in Stuttgart as a member of an ecumenical delegation . The council handed over to the delegation the "Declaration of Guilt by Evangelical Christianity in Germany" .

Marienkirche in Berlin

In his response, Bell also recalled the Holocaust , which was not mentioned in the declaration of guilt. He then held the first ecumenical service after the war in Germany with Otto Dibelius , the Russian Orthodox Archbishop Alexander and other high-ranking church representatives in the Marienkirche in Berlin . He called on “all the churches of the world” to the assembly of the World Council, which was re-established in Amsterdam in 1948 . There Bell received the honorary chairmanship.

Bell was not a pacifist , but a staunch anti-fascist . In 1946 he answered the Stuttgart declaration of guilt with a look back at the failure of Great Britain in the Munich Agreement of 1938:

“We here in England have misjudged our obligation to defend peace and order in a downright criminally frivolous way; and if the Germans behaved fatally passive during the rise of Hitler, our passivity and those of other peoples was hardly less reprehensible. We and our churches also watched how the National Socialist system gradually gained the upper hand over life in Germany, and we were too worried or too lazy to take the necessary military measures to secure the freedom of Europe. "

In the same year Bell gave a much-noticed passionate speech in Basel about Europe, Germany and the churches. It said:

“The unity of Europe is the real concern. [...] And we have to look at Europe's unity not primarily from the political, but first from the cultural and then from the economic point of view. [...] The Christian Church, be it Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox, has a difficult task everywhere today, especially in Europe. In Germany both the Protestant and the Catholic Church did not manage to give the people that strong moral stance that would have enabled them to make a regime like the Hitler regime impossible. Above all, the Protestant Church has shown too little interest in social issues, work, housing issues and peace and has been too submissive to the state, and the Germans are - generally speaking - so docile, so undemocratic in temperament that the responsibility of the church is around it is even greater when it preaches the gospel to the people and emphasizes God's rule over the state and over the whole of human life. "

He saw the future task of the churches in keeping alive and promoting this basic moral attitude, democratic and social awareness as a unifying bond of Europe. For him, the basis for this was belief in the “rule of God” over the state, as formulated in the 1934 Barmen Theological Declaration. After this speech he said in an interview:

“The question is how to discourage and erase the diabolical and encourage the healthy and good. It cannot be said that the Germans are left alone in their current catastrophe. That will only add to the despair. Nor can it stop with a simple condemnation of the past and the philosophy of the past. You have to give them an active role model of a better philosophy. "

Critic of the evictions

Accordingly, Bell was also one of the first British bishops to contradict the injustice that many defeated Germans experienced when they were expelled from the former German eastern territories . He spoke out against their inhumane treatment and protested repeatedly and clearly against the expulsion of around 14 million German Silesians , Pomeranians , East Prussians and Sudeten Germans from their homeland. On August 15, 1945, however, he wrote a letter to the editor in the Spectator , and on September 12, 1945 he signed an appeal against these evictions with the British-Jewish publisher Victor Gollancz , Lord Bertrand Russell and others, which was published by several London daily newspapers.

Shortly before, on September 8th, he had written to the Berlin provost Heinrich Grüber , head of the Confessing Church's escape aid office for Jews:

“May I tell you that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York are deeply moved for their part and want to undertake a joint demarche with the leaders of the Evangelical Free Church and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster ... I feel the inhumanity of the displacement deeply with you and I spoke about this point in the House of Lords, stating that the uprooting of millions on racial grounds is incompatible with the ideals for which the United Nations fought. "

On January 30, 1946, he again condemned the expulsion of the Germans in the British House of Lords:

“There is nothing like the current population transfers ... This transfer is not just the transfer of land, but a ripping out of the roots of an immense population for racial reasons in order to prepare grounds for new occupiers. It is bad in itself. It contains a denial of human rights, and it is extremely difficult to fundamentally differentiate it from the mass deportations of civilian populations for which the Nazi leaders are now on trial as war criminals in Nuremberg. "

Then he pointed to the joint responsibility of the Allies for the particularly cruel expulsion of the Germans from Czechoslovakia , warned of the precedent effect for other states and gave examples that the "transfer" by no means, as decided at the Potsdam Conference , was "proper and humane" successes.

Opponents of nuclear armament and the Cold War

In the 1950s Bell campaigned against nuclear armament and, like many Christian initiatives at the time, opposed the Cold War . In 1955, through his ecumenical contacts, he met Giovanni Montini in Milan , who in 1963 was named Paul VI. Pope became and in 1965 brought the Second Vatican Council to a conclusion.

The memory of George Bell

Unlike his friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Great Britain, George Bell is little known in Germany today. The memory of him is cultivated almost exclusively among ecumenists, academic theologians or pacifist church groups.

In the immediate post-war period, however, he particularly enjoyed ecumenism because of his attitude as an early warning of Nazi domestic policy, his support for the German resistance against Hitler, his criticism of the British bombing war and the expulsions, for reconciliation work and a democratic post-war order Look at. He embodied the rare example of a high church leader who credibly combined Christian faith, personal commitment and political influence even in war and maintained this attitude even when it resulted in personal disadvantages.

Some observers assume that Bell has fallen into oblivion in Germany, not despite, but precisely because of this indomitable love of truth and his sense of justice. Because he justified his willingness to reconcile with the Germans with the minority of Christian and democratically-minded resistance fighters and thus opposed attempts at a restorative renewal of the authoritarian subordination that comes to terms with National Socialism in German Protestantism and contributed to the failure of the church against the Nazi crimes would have. Bell and Bonhoeffer's conspiratorial support for the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, were extremely unpleasant and suspicious to the large majority in the EKD, as were his ideas of an ecumenically solidarity and universal church committed entirely to the poor and persecuted as the nucleus of a renewed, pan-European, humane order of values.

His criticism of the expulsions as well as his opposition to the atomic weapons of the NATO countries made him again an outsider in Great Britain after 1945. After his death, he was also rejected by the German left from around 1965, not least because of his criticism of the expulsion. Bell, who died in 1958, no longer played a role for the student movement of the 68s because they no longer noticed him.

Child abuse allegation

In 1995 a woman accused the then Bishop of Chichester Eric Waldram Kemp that Bell had sexually abused her several times around 1949/1950. Kemp did not investigate the allegation. In 2013, the woman complained to the incumbent Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby . This notified the police, who said that Bell had been arrested while he was still alive. The Church compensated the woman financially, and on October 22, 2015, Chichester Bishop Martin Warner publicly apologized to her.

The press then reported that Bell was a pedophile. A public discussion ensued as to whether the church saw the abuse allegation as proven and whether Bell's achievements had been sufficiently appreciated. Peter Hitchens described Bell as a fair, just, and brave man and called for him to be presumed innocent. Franz Hildebrandt's daughter made a similar statement. Warner disagreed with the allegation that he sacrificed Bell's reputation in favor of the short-term interests of the church. It is important that victims of abuse no longer have to fear that they will not be taken seriously. Bishop Paul Butler said the Church has never claimed to be convinced of Bell's abuse. In February 2016, the victim described the abuse in an interview.

In March 2016, a top-class "George Bell Group" published a review that systematically criticized the Church's actions. In particular, the church failed to question an important living witness and consult Bell's extensive diary.

Lord Carlile was commissioned by the Church in November 2016 to prepare an independent review. The review should be limited to the review of the Church's approach since 1995. In contrast, the question of whether the allegations against Bell are true or not should not be investigated. The Church presented the Carliles Review on December 15, 2017.

Honors

Works

  • A Brief Sketch of the Church of England. Student Christian Movement, London 1929, 1930 (German in: Ekklesia. Collection of self-portrayals of the Christian churches. Ed. Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze, Klotz, Gotha 1934)
  • Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury. Biography, 2 volumes, Oxford University Press, Humphrey Milford, London 1935
  • Christianity and World Order. Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, London 1940
  • George Bell, Hans Kramm, John Oldcastle Cobham (Eds.): The Significance of the Barmen Declaration for the Ecumenical Church. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London 1943 (preface)
  • The Background of the Hitler Plot. In: The Contemporary Review. 10. Isbister, London 1945, ISSN  0010-7565
  • The Church and Humanity. Longmans-Green, London 1946 (anthology, therein: The Church's Function in Wartime. November 1939).
  • The Task of the Churches in Germany. SPCK, The Sword of the Spirit, London 1947
  • Christian Unity. The Anglican position. Hodder and Stoughton, London 1948
  • Church in the world. Speeches and essays by the Bishop of Chichester Dr. George Bell. Translated by Rudolf Weckerling, Wichern-Verlag, Berlin 1948 (including German translations of Bell's speech in the House of Lords on February 9, 1944 and the article The Background of the Hitler Plot from 1945)
  • The Kingship of Christ. The Story of the World Council of Churches. The Pinguin books, Harmondsworth 1954, Reprint Greenwood Press, Westport 1979, ISBN 0-313-21121-3 .
(German) The royal rule of Jesus Christ. The History of the World Council of Churches. Translated by Rudolf Dohrmann. With an addendum on the development of the World Council of Churches from 1954 to 1957 by Francis House. Reich, Hamburg-Bergstedt 1960 (German edition of "The Kingship ...")
  • The church u. the resistance movement . Political-historical lecture series at the University of Göttingen. In: Evangelical Theology . Chr. Kaiser, Munich 1957 No. 7 ISSN  0014-3502
Correspondence

literature

  • Franz Hildebrandt (Ed.): 'And other Pastors of thy Flock', a German tribute to the Bishop of Chichester. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1942
  • Ronald CD Jasper: George Bell, Bishop of Chichester. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1967, ISBN 0-19-213109-5 .
  • Kenneth Slack: George Bell . SCMP Book Club 204, London 1971, ISBN 0-334-00093-9 .
  • Annegret Winkler-Nehls, Andreas Nehls: They find themselves between the upper and the nether millstones. Bishop Bell's papers on the problem of non-Aryan refugees 1933–1939. A documentation. Contributions to diaconal science 152. Diakoniewwissenschaftliches Institut, Heidelberg 1991. In: DWI-Info. 26/1992, ISSN  0949-1694
  • Stephen A. Garrett: Ethics and Airpower in World War II. The British Bombing of German Cities. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 1993, ISBN 0-312-08683-0 .
  • Edwin Robertson: Unshakeable Friend. George Bell and the German Churches. CCBI Publications, London 1995, ISBN 0-85169-234-6 .
  • Paul Foster (Ed.): Bell of Chichester - A Prophetic Bishop. Otter Memorial Paper 17th University College, Chichester 2004, ISBN 0-948765-84-4 .
  • Andrew Chandler (Ed.): Brethren in Adversity. Bishop George Bell, the Church of England and the Crisis of German Protestantism. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2005, ISBN 0-85115-692-4 .
  • Andrew Chandler: Patronage of Resistance: Bishop Bell and the "Other Germany" during World War II. In: Joachim Garstecki (Hrsg.): The ecumenical movement and the resistance against dictatorships: National Socialism and Communism as a challenge to the churches. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-019966-8 , pp. 47-70.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Foster (Ed.): Bell of Chichester - A Prophetic Bishop. 2004, p. 82.
  2. ^ Ronald CD Jasper: George Bell, Bishop of Chichester. 1967, p. 262.
  3. ↑ See Bell's diary notes and memoranda, edited in DBW 16, pp. 280–303.
  4. ↑ DBW 16,343
  5. ^ Ronald CD Jasper: George Bell, Bishop of Chichester. Quoted in DBW 16, p. 345.
  6. ↑ English full text from the speech protocol ( Hansard ), German translation in Kirche in der Welt (lit.) pp. 49–60.
  7. ↑ DBW 16, p. 468.
  8. ↑ quoted from Eberhard Bethge : Bonhoeffer's path from pacifism to resistance. In: Bertold Klappert , Ulrich Weidner (Ed.): Steps to Peace: Theological Texts on Peace and Disarmament. Aussaat-Verlag, Wuppertal 1983, ISBN 3-7615-4662-9 , p. 89.
  9. ↑ quoted from Eberhard Bethge: Bonhoeffer's path from pacifism to resistance. In: Bertold Klappert, Ulrich Weidner (Ed.): Steps to Peace: Theological Texts on Peace and Disarmament. 1983, p. 89.
  10. ↑ quoted from Eberhard Bethge: Bonhoeffer's path from pacifism to resistance. In: Bertold Klappert, Ulrich Weidner (Ed.): Steps to Peace: Theological Texts on Peace and Disarmament. 1983, p. 89.
  11. ↑ Full English text according to the protocol (Hansard)
  12. ↑ Bishop of Chichester George Bell's sex abuse victim gets compensation. In: BBC News . October 22, 2015, accessed February 14, 2016 .
  13. ^ Statement on the Rt. Revd George Bell (1883-1958). Chichester Diocese , October 22, 2015, accessed February 14, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Revered Bishop George Bell was a pedophile - Church of England. In: The Telegraph . October 22, 2015, accessed February 14, 2016 .
  15. ^ Alan Pardoe QC : The Church of England media statement about Bishop George Bell. In: Church Times . November 13, 2015, accessed February 14, 2016 .
  16. ↑ Peter Hitchens : The Church of England's shameful betrayal of bishop George Bell. (No longer available online.) In: The Spectator . November 7, 2015, archived from the original on November 7, 2015 ; accessed on February 14, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / new.spectator.co.uk
  17. ^ Letters to the editor: Chewing-gum is a sticky little hazard on pavements and public seating. In: The Telegraph. January 5, 2016, Retrieved February 14, 2016 (see letters from Dr. Ruth Hildebrandt Grayson and Bishop Martin Warner).
  18. ^ Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure: Motion to Direct. In: Lords Hansard . January 28, 2016, Retrieved February 14, 2016 (statements by the Lord Bishop of Durham in columns 1515 and 1516).
  19. ↑ Victim describes how she was abused by bishop George Bell. In: The Guardian . February 3, 2016, accessed February 14, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Challenge to Bishop George Bell abuse claim. BBC News, March 20, 2016, accessed March 26, 2016 .
  21. ^ A review by the Bell Support Group of the treatment by the Church of England of the late Bishop of Chichester, George Bell. The George Bell Group, March 20, 2016, accessed March 26, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Lord Carlile of Berriew: Bishop George Bell: The Independent Review. (PDF) The Church of England, December 15, 2017, accessed December 15, 2017 .
  23. ^ Publication of Bishop George Bell independent review. The Church of England, December 15, 2017, accessed December 15, 2017 .
  24. ^ Church apology over Bishop George Bell abuse inquiry. In: BBC News. December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017 .
  25. ↑ Harriet Sherwood: Anglican church 'rushed to judgment' in George Bell child abuse case. The Guardian , December 15, 2017, accessed December 15, 2017 .
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on January 28, 2006 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Bell, George Kennedy Allen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES George Cicestr
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglican bishop
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Hayling Island, Hampshire , UK
DATE OF DEATH 3rd October 1958
Place of death Canterbury