Sir, — On 9 February, the present Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, spoke about his wartime predecessor Bishop George Bell and his controversial House of Lords speech 79 years earlier, on 9 February 1944: “Bell asserted that the rule of law was emblazoned on the banner beneath which the forces of the Crown were engaged in 1944. The symbol of the sceptre entrusted to the Sovereign in the Coronation is the acknowledgement of a higher authority and law, to which all are accountable.”
This accountability includes every country and its government — not just our own.
RICHARD W. SYMONDS The Bell Society 2 Lychgate Cottages Ifield Street, Ifield Village Crawley, West Sussex RH11 0NN
International law and Israel’s response to Hamas
From Dr Jonathan Chaplin
Sir, — Two correspondents last week trenchantly exposed the weakness of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s responses to the Israeli government’s retaliatory assault on Gaza (Letters, 3 November). Since they wrote, the House of Bishops has now put its collective name to an equally inadequate statement, issued on 31 October (News, 3 November).
Rightly, the statement begins by emphatically “condemning” Hamas’s horrendous terrorist attack on Israel. Rightly, it “condemns” the surge in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the UK. But all that it can say about Israel’s counter-attack is that we must “reflect on” it.
The Bishops’ reflection suffers from three grave deficiencies. First, the “huge number of civilians killed in three weeks of bombardment” — by the time this letter appears the number will have exceeded 10,000, including 4000 children — is not a “humanitarian catastrophe”. It is a war crime.
International humanitarian law emphatically excludes the kind of disproportionate and indiscriminate bombardment of civilian populations, including hospitals and schools, that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are daily engaging in, not to speak of its cutting off of essential supplies to civilians and its attempt to force the removal of half of Gaza’s population to the south while continuing to bombard that area indiscriminately as well. Five hundred and eighty-seven senior British lawyers have asserted as much in a letter to the UK Government on 26 October. Why can’t our Bishops?
Hamas’s barbaric policy of using civilians as human shields is, of course, a war crime. But, as the lawyers’ letter makes clear, “the commission by one party to a conflict — including an armed group — of serious violations of international humanitarian law does not . . . justify their commission by another party.” Compelling evidence of the IDF’s war crimes is now vastly more abundant than that of Hamas’s. The IDF are bound by law to find other ways to take out Hamas’s military and political structures, even as they rightly seek to recover Israeli hostages.
The Bishops’ failure to charge Israel explicitly with breaking international humanitarian law in specific, indictable ways is a chronic failure of truthful moral description. This omission is even more egregious since the IDF’s acts clearly violate fundamental just-war principles to which the Church of England is itself officially committed.
Second, as the UN Secretary General said on 24 October, the assault on Gaza “did not happen in a vacuum”: “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.” The Bishops’ statement says not a single word about this, divorcing these events from the longstanding and complex context from which they emerged and which is essential for their larger moral assessment.
Third, the Bishops affirm “absolutely” Israel’s right to defend itself, but are wholly silent on the Palestinians’ right of resistance against illegal occupation, also affirmed in international law (which is not remotely to imply that Hamas’s attack was any part of such legitimate resistance). Do they affirm that principle of international law as well, or not?
I take no pleasure in saying that these failings will be long remembered by Palestinians, especially by Palestinian Christians, many of whom are Anglicans. It is, perhaps, not yet too late to correct them.
JONATHAN CHAPLIN 19 Coles Lane, Oakington Cambridge CB24 3AF
From Sue Claydon and Jan Benvie
Sir, — The recent statement from the House of Bishops was titled “An Appeal for Peace”. While it rightly condemns the actions of Hamas, it only “reflects” on the actions of the Israeli government, which have already led to the deaths of more than 10,000 civilians, 4000 of whom are children. Although it calls “for immediate humanitarian pauses . . . holding out hope for a ceasefire in the longer term”, the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship believes that it is now time to call for a ceasefire. Several Anglican Archbishops have done so in the Christian Aid statement of 26 October, which said, “Only a full ceasefire will deliver aid safely and effectively.”
We do welcome the House of Bishops’ calling “for the Israeli Government to protect the population of the Occupied Territories and arrest anyone threatening them, without fear or favour”, as this aspect of the current situation seems to be ignored by the general media.
APF believes that the only way to break the cycle of violence and build a lasting peace is to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza, and create conditions of justice, equality, and peace for all Israelis and Palestinians.
If any aspect of the recent conflict is beyond dispute, it is surely that settling current issues by military force leads to the suffering and death of innocent civilians and children — on both sides.
SUE CLAYDON, Chair, Anglican Pacifist Fellowship JAN BENVIE, Secretary, Anglican Pacifist Fellowship 112 Whittlesey Road March PE15 0AH
From the Revd Dr Peter Liddell
Sir, — Peter Shambrook’s Policy of Deceit and Bishop Pritchard’s review (Books, 6 October) should be required Advent reading.
For some, the beginning of the present conflict was the horrific slaughter by Hamas on 7 October; for others, it was the preceding decades of oppression. Shambrook confronts Britain’s shameful betrayal of promised sovereignty to Arabs.
But it is before recorded time that we must look for the beginning. “Creation myths breed violence,” wrote Tikna Frymer-Kensky (Bible Review, June 1998). The “full historical sweep of the combat myth from the battles of Ba’al and Yam, of Marduk and Tiamat, through biblical Israel’s declaration that ‘YHWH is king’ demonstrates the power of this paradigm.”
Christians added their own layer in seeing themselves as more chosen than the chosen. To the paradigm of brother set against brother, younger against elder, Christians perpetrated anti-Semitism through medieval centuries. What from one perspective is visionary conviction from another is crowned-sibling rivalry. “Violence is cyclical, creating resentment and revenge fantasies in those it defeats.” “To create a new peaceful order we must break the pattern of violence.”
In regard to Shambrook’s truths, Pritchard calls for repentance and apology from Britain. The responsibility rests with Britain to go back and unravel its contribution to the conflict thread. In regard to anti-Semitism, the Church needs to do a Shambrook on itself in a way that is widely understood. We are not bystanders in the 2023 conflict, innocent and apart, but brothers and sisters. We need to own our responsibility and see aspects of ourselves in the estranged combatants, brothers caught up in a pre-historical myth.
In eight weeks’ time, “Away in a manger”, “Silent night”, and “O little town of Bethlehem” will be sung in schools and churches throughout the land. The words already turn to ashes in my mouth. We are watching Good Friday. Christmas and Good Friday are not seasonal events, but everyday occurrences. They make their own urgent and unforeseen timing.
Chronology is occurring in reverse: flight into Egypt, preceded by massacre of the innocents, preceded by births in the rubble, preceded by shattered tower blocks and kibbutzim. In the ruins, there has to lie a betrothed couple, who were looking ahead with promise and in the divinity of their love to the miracle of a child.
PETER LIDDELL 25 St Marys Court, Ottway Walk Welwyn AL6 9AU
From Mr Nigel Wildish
Sir, — I live among many Jewish people, as I am a resident of Finchley. I am, therefore, more painfully aware than many of the suffering of our British Jews as a result of the rise of anti-Semitism. I am sure we all condemn that anti-Semitism. I would like to see our religious leaders publicly reaching out to the leaders of other faiths in this country in order to share platforms calling for an end to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Our bishops have a difficult job in knowing what to say. They are right, in my view, to call for a pause of the bombing of Gaza for humanitarian purposes. Perhaps they should also call for an end to the attacks on non-Jewish Israelis by settlers who have occupied lands previously occupied by others. Your report on 3 November highlighted the plight of the victims of those attacks.
In my view, there is more that our Bishops can say. They should be calling on Hamas to return the hostages (being held against all the rules of war, and in return for which the Israeli government has said it will agree to the pause) and to protect their own people: if they want to have a secure electricity supply into Gaza, they should cease bombing the supply lines; they should move their civilians south, and stay away from hospitals. They should not abuse the small success of the corridor into Egypt by smuggling across injured Hamas terrorists.
Leaders and those who conduct war have a duty, which the Bishops can remind them of, of caring for the innocent on their own side as well as the other. They should also call out the “child murder” denial, in relation to those people in this country who deny the pictures of Israeli children who were cruelly murdured.
NIGEL WILDISH (Reader) 25B Ravensdale Avenue London N12 9HP
From Mr Richard W. Symonds
Sir, — On 9 February, the present Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, spoke about his wartime predecessor Bishop George Bell and his controversial House of Lords speech 79 years earlier, on 9 February 1944: “Bell asserted that the rule of law was emblazoned on the banner beneath which the forces of the Crown were engaged in 1944. The symbol of the sceptre entrusted to the Sovereign in the Coronation is the acknowledgement of a higher authority and law, to which all are accountable.”
This accountability includes every country and its government — not just our own.
RICHARD W. SYMONDS The Bell Society 2 Lychgate Cottages Ifield Street, Ifield Village Crawley, West Sussex RH11 0NN
From the Revd Dr Ian K. Duffield
Sir, — The inability to distinguish between terrorist atrocities and a military response directed at a terrorist organisation embedded within a civilian population is a matter of concern. Just because it is a messy and distressing situation, with many casualties on both sides, moral discernment is vital. To equate one with the other is to make a profound moral misjudgement.
On Saturday in The Times, the Chief Rabbi called for “moral clarity” and spoke of the “moral chasm” between Hamas and Israel. Why is it that so many of our citizens (even Christians), especially those marching on our streets, apparently lack moral discernment on this issue? Perhaps it is partly because of the diminishment of the Judaeo-Christian moral tradition within our society and its replacement by other norms, such as a utilitarian calculus that arithmetically determines morality by totalling casualties.
On this basis, almost all victors in war would find themselves on the wrong side of the calculation, including Britain in the Second World War. Such crude calculations obviate the need for moral discernment, as they, at the same time, can be cynically used to lend legitimacy to terrorist entities such as Hamas — an unfortunate and morally hazardous result.
IAN K. DUFFIELD Director of Research Urban Theology Union Victoria Methodist Hall Norfolk Street, Sheffield S1 2JB
From Canon M. R. Ainsworth
Sir, — There are various ways of reading the psalms and scriptures at morning and evening prayer, some of them painful. May I suggest that, for the time being, we attempt to read them as through the eyes of Palestinian Christians (who are largely forgotten in the media)?
MICHAEL AINSWORTH 4 Beech Court, 4 Willow Bank Fallowfield, Manchester M14 6XN
The extraordinary courage of his speech was recognised by many at the time. But it also brought him ridicule from the cartoonists, and disfavour from those in charge of military operations and ecclesiastical appointments. Before this speech, it had been thought that Bell would move from Chichester to higher office. That did not happen.
Bell had tabled a question asking His Majesty’s Government for “a statement as to their policy regarding the bombing of towns in enemy countries, with special reference to the effect of such bombing on civilians as well as objects of non-military and non-Industrial significance in the area attacked”.
Bell began his speech by stating his credentials as a well-known opponent, from 1933 onwards, of Hitler and the Nazis. His view was informed by close ecumenical friendship with Christians in Germany. Bell went on to acknowledge the destruction by the Luftwaffe of “Belgrade, Warsaw, Rotterdam, London, Portsmouth, Coventry, Canterbury, and many other places of military, industrial, and cultural importance. Hitler is a barbarian. There is no decent person on the Allied side who is likely to suggest that we should make him our pattern or attempt to be competitors in that market.”
But it was precisely in the policy of bombing targets that included areas of major cultural importance and dense civilian population that Bell saw the Allies following Hitler’s barbarian strategy. Bell gave examples of the destruction of Hamburg and Berlin, with terrible loss of human life, together with loss of a cultural and intellectual inheritance that belonged to more than just the people of Germany. He warned that a similar fate could befall the city of Rome.
Bell’s close connection with Germany gave him a sense that it was possible to draw a distinction between the German people and the Nazi regime that held them in thrall. He believed that Germans could recover their senses and be drawn back into the habits of the free world. “I do not believe that His Majesty’s Government desire the annihilation of Germany,” he declared: “they have accepted the distinction between Germany and the Hitlerite State.”
Hansard records that this observation drew verbal rebuke from a number of the noble Lords in the chamber.
Bell’s anxiety was stirred by the demonisation of a whole people. He believed that German people could aspire to something far better that the war crimes of the Nazi regime, and he had found an example of this in his friend and theological ally Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Bell’s belief that the German people had not completely lost their sense of moral goodness prompted him to speak of “Anti-Nazis who long for help to overthrow Hitler [and] are driven to despair”. This was a reference to the Christian leaders of the resistance, whom he knew. And his point was given a degree of affirmation later in 1944, when disaffection with Hitler’s regime resulted in an assassination attempt by officers of the military high command in July that year.
Hitler survived, largely uninjured, but Bonhoeffer was a victim of the vicious revenge that followed. He had already been arrested, in April 1943, and he was executed in Flossenburg concentration camp on 9 April 1945, but not before delivering a final message to Bell, communicated by Captain Payne Best, a British prisoner in the camp. Bonhoeffer said: “Tell him that for me this is the end but also the beginning — with him I believe in the principle of our universal Christian brotherhood which rises above all national interests.”
BELL spoke in the Lords as a bishop who embodied the Christian ideal that rises above national interests because it is grounded in the sacramental reality of baptism into Jesus Christ, and draws its life from him.
Bell drew denunciation from the noble Lords who could see no good or potential for reform and new life in the German people. These were peers who did not have Bell’s benefit of experiencing the bonds of faith, hope, and charity that define the life of the universal — katholische — Church.
Bell concluded his speech in the Lords with these words: “The Allies stand for something greater than power. The chief name inscribed on our banner is ‘Law’. It is of supreme importance that we who, with our Allies, are the liberators of Europe should so use power that it is always under the control of law. It is because the bombing of enemy towns — this area bombing — raises this issue of power unlimited and exclusive that such immense importance is bound to attach to the policy and action of His Majesty’s Government.”
Earlier in his speech, Bell had noted that the Allies had set themselves against the destructive law that declares “Might is right.” And, although he does not state the identity of the law that was emblazoned on the banner under which British troops linked arms to resist the threat of Nazi power, what was clearly in his mind was a law, derived from faith, that promoted justice, truth, and mercy.
In the five years before his speech in 1944, Bell had befriended Gerhard Leibholz, whose wife, Sabine, was Bonhoeffer’s twin sister. In 1930, at the age of 28, Leibholz had been appointed Professor of Public Law at Göttingen University. Though he was Lutheran, Leibholz was also Jewish, and so was “purged” from the law faculty in 1935. He eventually came to England, and, through Bell’s connections, gave a series of lectures in 1932, at Christ Church, Oxford, on the subject “Christianity, Politics and Power”.
Leibholz’s exploration of the Church’s proper interest in politics was founded on an appreciation of natural law, contrasted by the totalitarian regimes (Russia, Germany, and Italy) that were besieging Europe with “a revolutionary process of general secularism”. Leibholz wrote: “At the end of this development stands the man who deifies himself, no longer the servant of God, but the lord of the world, the self-appointed judge in the last resort over good and bad.”
One commentator on Bell’s life observes that it was “not an eminent British churchman, politician or scholar, but a barely known refugee lawyer, exiled from the very state with which his own country was at war” who filled Bell’s vision with a wider and richer understanding of society and its purposes.
ONE can see in this friendship some of the influences that shaped Bell’s speech in the Lords. The very act of making that speech was prompted by an instinct that it is proper for a bishop to draw the nation’s attention to the nature of the law as we know it and to the moral groove that it makes in our national life.
The inheritance of that moral groove was noted by the late Pope Benedict XVI, when he addressed both Houses of Parliament in a speech in Westminster Hall in September 2010.
Touching on concerns that Leibholz had also outlined, Pope Benedict spoke about the relationship between natural law and the exercise of civil, secularised authority: “Each generation, as it seeks to advance the common good, must ask anew: what are the requirements that governments may reasonably impose upon citizens, and how far do they extend? By appeal to what authority can moral dilemmas be resolved? These questions take us directly to the ethical foundations of civil discourse.
“If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident — herein lies the real challenge for democracy.”
The moral groove of our inheritance does go deep, and should elicit our attention in the forthcoming Coronation, which has traditionally put into the Sovereign’s right hand the sceptre surmounted by the cross, with these words: “Receive the royal sceptre, the ensign of kingly power and justice.”
Bell asserted that the rule of law was emblazoned on the banner beneath which the forces of the Crown were engaged in 1944. The symbol of the sceptre entrusted to the Sovereign in the Coronation is the acknowledgement of a higher authority and law, to which all are accountable.
This is the authority of Jesus Christ, the Son whom God the Father has anointed and enthroned in judgement (Hebrews 1.9), and it is to this source of authority that the state prayers of the 1662 Prayer Book bear witness. So, in the order for holy communion, we ask Almighty God “to rule the heart of thy chosen servant, Charles, that he (knowing whose minister he is) may above all things seek thy honour and glory”.
The direct outcome of Bell’s speech is difficult to assess. But, as we survey the international situation of our own time, the importance of the recognition in law of war crimes and crimes against humanity is consistent with the concerns that Bell was voicing in 1944, when he noted that “What we do in war . . . affects the whole character of peace, which covers a much longer period.”
“A true apology, for a wrong done, to a great man” ~ Lord Carlile on Archbishop Welby’s ‘I was wrong’ about Bishop Bell in 2021
“The total exoneration of George Bell in his home area – Chichester and the South Coast – has been affected by some issues about stories that appeared particularly in local newspapers at the time he was ‘hung out to dry'” ~ Lord Carlile
“It’s easier to make a story. It’s much harder to make a fair story” ~ Lord Carlile on Media stories and Providers of Media stories
“Let us stop trying to forget and let us start to try and remember” ~ Lord Carlile on Bishop Bell’s character assassination
“My message is that the establishment of this fund and the restoration of George Bell’s amazing good name and his heroism should be the time when the Church of England says enough Is enough of bad regulation” – Lord Carlile
“It is not built on anything fairly obscure, I hate to say this, like the Synod at the Church of England which acts like a state within a state which many of us feel is not a very professional one…We need the Synod which is regarded as a dinosaur, to wake itself up and recognise that it is not fit for purpose for the 21st century…When I met the Archbishop he absolutely agreed that the present system is not fit for purpose” – Lord Carlile
“I would like to hear what the present Bishop of Chichester will say in the light of the Archbishop’s recent statement” – Lord Carlile
“The answer to your question was that George Bell was not guilty and this has now been recognised by the Archbishop of Canterbury” – Lord Carlile to Peter Hitchens
“I don’t think there was any misunderstanding that people understood that I thought that the whole process was absolutely outrageous” – Lord Carlile
“I still remain mystified by the separate roles of the diocese, the Synod and other parts of the Church of England” – Lord Carlile
“If people say what is right even if it goes wrong for them in the beginning they are usually justified in the end. Bonhoeffer is an example” – Lord Carlile
____________________________________________
“One of the greatest miscarriages of justice of the early 21st century within the Church of England” ~ Richard W. Symonds – The Bell Society
“His reputation should never have been compromised in the first place” ~ Lord Lexden on the wartime Bishop of Chichester George Bell
LETTERS OF COMPLAINT TO THE ARGUS AND CHICHESTER OBSERVER – OCTOBER 21 2023
Dear Editor
FORMAL COMPLAINT REGARDING YOUR PAPER’S COVERAGE OF THE BISHOP BELL CASE [2015-2023] – “ONE OF THE GREATEST MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE IN THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY”
“The total exoneration of George Bell in his home area – Chichester and the South Coast – has been affected by some issues about stories that appeared particularly in local newspapers at the time he was ‘hung out to dry'”.
Your coverage of the Bishop Bell case was nothing less than a journalistic disgrace in 2015/16 [I have the archive evidence on file].
A formal apology by your newspaper is unlikely – especially as you have ignored the recent submissions regarding the ‘Bell’ events at both Lambeth Palace and Chichester Cathedral this month – but it would go some way in righting the wrongs done.
A written acknowledgement of this formal complaint would be appreciated.
“Barnabas Aid provides practical help to persecuted leaders, converts and especially convert leaders, following the example of Bishop George Bell in the Nazi era”
Bishop George Bell Memorial Fund
“The creation of the Bishop George Bell Memorial Fund is a further testament to the fact that his work has withstood the test of time and is as relevant now as it was 80 years ago”
Rt. Revd. Dr Martin Warner, Bishop of Chichester – September 2022
THE VISION OF GEORGE BELL: LAW NOT WAR – AN ALTERNATIVE TO WAR IS POSSIBLE – “WE HAVE GOT TO MAKE A REVOLUTION IN OUR THINKING” – DECEMBER 2 1941]
‘BOMBING POLICY’ – LORD BISHOP BELL – HOUSE OF LORDS SPEECH – HANSARD – FEBRUARY 9 1944
“The Washington Conference on Limitations of Armaments in 1922 appointed a Commission of Jurists to draw up a code of rules about aerial warfare…
“Article 22 reads: ‘Aerial bombardment for the purpose of terrorizing the civilian population, of destroying or damaging private property not of military character, or of injuring non-combatants, is prohibited’.
“Article 24 says: ‘Aerial bombardment is legitimate only when directed at a military objective – that is to say, an objective of which the destruction or injury would constitute a distinct military advantage to the belligerent’.
“Professor A.I. Goodhart, of Oxford, states: ‘Both these articles are based on the fundamental assumption that direct attack on non-combatants is an unjustifiable act of war’….
“The policy is obliteration, openly acknowledged. That is not a justifiable act of war…
“…to justify methods inhumane in themselves by arguments of expediency smacks of the Nazi philosophy that Might is Right…
“I do not believe that His Majesty’s Government desire the annihilation of Germany. They have accepted the distinction between Germany and the Hitlerite State…
“Why is there this inability to reckon with the moral and spiritual facts?
“The sufferings of Europe, brought about by the demonic cruelty of Hitler and his Nazis, and hardly imaginable to those in (t)his country who for the last five years have not been out of this island or had intimate association with Hitler’s victims, are not to be healed by the use of power only, power exclusive and unlimited.
“The allies stand for something greater than power. The chief name inscribed on our banner is ‘Law’.
“It is of supreme importance that we who, with our Allies, are the liberators of Europe, should so use power that it is always under the control of law.
“It is because the bombing of enemy towns – this area bombing – raises this issue of power unlimited and exclusive, that such immense importance is bound to attach to the policy and action of His Majesty’s Government.
I beg to move”.
“Wars have rules. Civilians, hospitals, schools, clinics and UN premises cannot be a target”
United Nations Relief & Works Agency for Palestine Refugees [UNRWA] https://www.unrwa.org
‘THE CHURCH’S FUNCTION IN WAR-TIME’ – Bishop George Bell – Fortnightly Review – Sept 1939]:
“If the Church does not fulfil its function now, how will it ever persuade mankind that it has a function.
“This matter of functions is vital. The State has a function, and the Church has a function. They are distinct. The State is the guarantor of order, justice and civil liberty. It acts by the power of restraint, legal and physical. The Church, on the other hand, is charged with a gospel of God’s redeeming love. It witnesses to a Revelation in history. It speaks of the realities which outlast change. It aims at creating a community founded on love, So when all the resources of the State are concentrated, for example, on winning a war, the Church is not a part of those resources . It stands for something different from these. It possesses an authority independent of the State. It is bound, because of that authority, to proclaim the realities which outlast change. It has to preach the gospel of redemption…[the church] is not the State’s spiritual auxiliary with exactly the same ends as the State. To give the impression that it is, is both to do a profound disservice to the nation and to betray its own principles…[the church must still settle] the question of right and wrong – the moral law:
“The Church…ought to declare both in peace-time and war-time, that there are certain basic principles which can and should be the standards of both international and social order, and conduct. Such principles are the
[1] equal dignity of all men,
[2] respect for human life,
[3] acknowledgement of the solidarity for good and evil of all nations and races of the earth,
[4] fidelity to the plighted word, and
[5] appreciation of the fact that power of any kind, political or economic, must be co-extensive with responsibility.
The Church therefore ought to declare what is just”
“There can be no peace without justice, no justice without law and no meaningful law without a court to decide what is just and lawful under any given circumstance”
Benjamin B. Ferencz – Nuremberg Trials Chief Prosecutor
“In times of war civilians bear the disproportionate brunt of the resultant violence. It therefore becomes important to robustly seek solutions towards peace, and the reality is that there can be no peace where there is an absence of justice, and justice requires truth”
“Isn’t this a plan to commit an international war crime of genocide? Isn’t what the Zionist State are planning for the Palestinians the same as what the Nazi State planned for the Jews? Isn’t this an unfolding war crime with Netanyahu the wat criminal?”
The Thanksgiving Service took place in the Chancel of the Cathedral with a Homily by Precentor, The Reverend Canon Dr Daniel Inman. This was followed by a Rededication of George Bell House led by Interim Dean, The Reverend Canon Simon Holland– with a Reading by Ruth Hildebrandt Grayson.
The Old Testament and New Testament Lessons were read out by Lord Lexden OBE and Desmond Browne CBE KC respectively.
From the Diary and Notes for Chichester Cathedral October 1st.Tuesday 3 October 2023 (5.30pm): Evensong with Thanksgiving for the Life of George Bell and the Re-dedication of George Bell House. Within a service of Choral Evensong, readings, prayers and a homily given by our Precentor will express our thanksgiving to God for the life of Bishop George Bell, after which we will process to George Bell House for further prayers and its rededication by our Interim Dean, Simon. This is followed by refreshments. All are very welcome. Hope to see you there
Chichester Cathedral – West Entrance
The Cross, Chichester
Interim Dean, Reverend Canon Simon Holland rededicating George Bell House
George Bell House, 4 Canon Lane, Chichester Cathedral
[Photo by Richard W. Symonds 2/10/23]
George Bell House, 4 Canon Lane, Chichester Cathedral
[Photo by Richard W. Symonds 2/10/23]
AUGUST 7 2023 – “WE HAVE GOT TO MAKE A REVOLUTION IN OUR THINKING” – BISHOP GEORGE BELL [DECEMBER 2 1941] – Quoted in ‘Power Unlimited and Exclusive – Nuclear Arms and the Vision of George Bell’ by Peter Walker, Bishop of Ely [January 25 1985] – “THE WORLD IS NOT PREPARED…THIS IS NOT A NEW WEAPON. IT IS A NEW WORLD” – NIELS BOHR
“The power you are about to reveal will forever outlive the Nazis, and the world is not prepared…this isn’t a new weapon, it is a new world” – Niels Bohr in ‘Oppenheimer’
“The person in whom all the issues of humanity today are strangely focussed”
Peter Walker, Bishop of Ely [on his friend George Bell, Bishop of Chichester] – Bishop Walker’s talk to the Cambridge CND – January 25 1985 – ‘Power Unlimited and Exclusive – Nuclear Arms and the Vision of George Bell’
Remember Hiroshima
1945
Humanity Justice Peace
1970
[Plaque in Tilgate Park, Crawley – under the Ginkgo Tree [adjacent to Smith & Western]
Tilgate Park, Crawley
Hopefully, watching films like ‘Threads’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ will make us act positively and decisively- but will it?
I think for most of us who watch such films and knowing what a nuclear war will mean for humanity, the initial reaction will be one of paralysis and a resigned acceptance of the inevitable – and we will do nothing…or not enough.
Despair over hope will set in and that despair will show itself in different guises.
Hope also has its
different guises and comes in many different forms.
Hope, to me, is a form of action – a choice to act on the basis of that hope.
After watching such films, we have to make a personal choice – to act according to hope or act according to despair.
It is a stark, critical choice which has to be made – and made quickly and decisively.
Bishop George Bell provides us with a moral compass of hope in Christian form. Professor Noam Chomsky provides us with a moral compass of hope in a different form.
We can choose hope or we can choose despair. If we choose hope, what does that mean in practice?
1. Choose beauty – not its opposite.
2. Choose freedom – not its opposite.
3. Choose happiness – not its opposite.
4. Choose life – not its opposite.
5. Choose love – not its opposite.
6. Choose peace – not its opposite.
7. Choose truth – not its opposite.
Yours sincerely
Richard W. Symonds
The Bell Society
AUGUST 7 2023 – ‘THE BOX’ AND NUCLEAR WAR
“Now there’s a way to stop the ball. It isn’t difficult at all. All it takes is wisdom, and I’m absolutely sure That we can get it back into the box, and bind the chains, and lock the locks“
Once upon a time, in the land of Hush-A-Bye, Around about the wondrous days of yore, They came across a kind of box Bound up with chains and locked with locks And labeled “Kindly do not touch; it’s war” A decree was issued round about, and all with a flourish and a shout And a gaily colored mascot tripping lightly on before. Don’t fiddle with this deadly box, or break the chains, or pick the locks. And please don’t ever play about with war. The children understood. Children happen to be good And they were just as good around the time of yore. They didn’t try to pick the locks or break into that deadly box. They never tried to play about with war. Mommies didn’t either; sisters, aunts, grannies neither ‘Cause they were quiet, and sweet, and pretty In those wondrous days of yore. Well, very much the same as now, And not the ones to blame somehow For opening up that deadly box of war. But someone did. Someone battered in the lid And spilled the insides out across the floor. A kind of bouncy, bumpy ball made up of guns and flags And all the tears, and horror, and death that comes with war. It bounced right out and went bashing all about, Bumping into everything in store. And what was sad and most unfair Was that it didn’t really seem to care Much who it bumped, or why, or what, or for. It bumped the children mainly. And I’ll tell you this quite plainly, It bumps them every day and more, and more, And leaves them dead, and burned, and dying Thousands of them sick and crying. ‘Cause when it bumps, it’s really very sore. Now there’s a way to stop the ball. It isn’t difficult at all. All it takes is wisdom, and I’m absolutely sure That we can get it back into the box, and bind the chains, and lock the locks. But no one seems to want to save the children anymore. Well, that’s the way it all appears, ’cause it’s been bouncing round for years and years In spite of all the wisdom wizzed since those wondrous days of yore And the time they came across the box, Bound up with chains and locked with locks, And labeled “Kindly do not touch; it’s war.”
PETER HITCHENS ON GEORGE BELL – MAIL ON SUNDAY – AUGUST 6 2023
Eight years ago I and a group of friends and allies took on the task of rescuing the reputation of a man we believed to have been falsely convicted of a terrible crime. The late Bishop George Bell of Chichester (not, please, to be confused with the disgusting proven criminal Peter Ball) was accused, nearly 60 years after his death, of child abuse. If you take on such causes, you may expect to be accused of sympathising with such crimes, and of other nasty things. It mattered because George Bell, unusually for the Church of England, had been a man of huge moral courage, an anti-Nazi before it was fashionable, an ally of German resistance to Hitler and – most important of all – a courageous opponent of the British bombing of German civilians, a proper Christian position. I am pleased to say that last week the C of E finally admitted it had been wrong to convict him without a fair trial (a serious legal review showed that the evidence simply did not stand up). They abandoned attempts to wipe his great name from the record, and restored it to a building long called after him. I forgive them with all my heart. And I consider this may be the best thing I ever did.
2009 – ‘Bishop George Bell – House of Lords Speeches and Correspondence with Rudolf Hess’. Edited by Peter Raina [Publishers: Peter Lang – 2009] – “To The Right Reverend Peter Knight Walker, D.D. Sometime Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and Bishop of Ely. Who has never ceased to love and admire what Bishop George Bell stood for. This book is dedicated in affection by the Editor”. The book was ‘discovered’ by Richard W. Symonds – July/August 1 2023.
Bishop of Ely and familiar figure at Oxford and Cambridge who was an ardent admirer of the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer ~ January 11 2011, 12:01am, The Times
Bishop Peter Walker
With the death of Peter Walker, the Church of England loses its last living link with Bishop George Bell of Chichester. He knew him well, and like him had a great interest in the arts and an appreciation of the theology of Bell’s friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor and martyr. Walker had vast contacts in Church and State, especially in Oxford and Cambridge, and was a regular figure at memorial services….
The Church of England has reinstated a tribute to a bishop wrongfully smeared with a sex abuse allegation.
Bishop George Bell was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until his death in 1958.
He was one of the Church’s most revered figures and was honoured by having one of the buildings at the cathedral named after him in 2008.
However, the Church of England made an allegation of abuse against him public in 2016.
Officials apologised and paid compensation to the complainant, known as “Carol”, following an inquiry into allegations he had sexually abused her from the age of five until she was nine in the 1940s.
As a result, the bishop’s name was stripped and scrubbed from Chichester Cathedral – and George Bell House became 4 Canon Lane.
The cathedral chapter said it came from “a desire to do the right thing by the complainant” after Bishop Bell had been named in a legal civil claim of sexual abuse.Bishop Bell was honoured by having one of the buildings at Chichester Cathedral named after him in 2008 CREDIT: Topical Press Agency
However, an independent review carried out by Lord Carlisle in 2017 found the church’s investigation into the claims had “rushed to judgement” when they had concluded that Bishop Bell was an abuser and had been “deficient” and unfair to both sides.
Sussex Police also closed an investigation concerning Bishop Bell in April 2018.
In a statement at the time, the Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev Justin Welby also apologised “profoundly and unconditionally” and said he took responsibility for the church’s failures in the case, adding: “I do not consider there to be a ‘significant cloud’ over Bishop George Bell’s name”.
As a result of the review, this week the cathedral confirmed that the decision to restore the name George Bell House to 4 Canon Lane has been made after “prayerful consideration” and will occur on October 3.
It added that the decision to remove the bishop’s name in 2016 “was made in good faith under deeply sensitive circumstances”.
“However, the chapter acknowledges that this decision was deficient and apologises for this.”
‘Anger at injustice must make room for forgiveness’
The Bell Society has been campaigning for his name to be cleared and for 4 Canon Lane to revert to its previous name.
Richard Symonds, founding member of the Bell Society told the Church Times: “Seven long years to right this wrong is beyond unacceptable.
“This wartime Bishop of Chichester would have expected nothing less in the Cathedral City – and beyond it.”
Built in the late nineteenth century, 4 Canon Lane was dedicated to Bishop Bell in 2008 as a gift to the cathedral from the Sisters of the Community of the Servants of the Cross.
Formerly an archdeaconry, the house was secured in trust to be primarily a centre dedicated to Bishop Bell’s concern for vocation, education, and reconciliation.
“Will the Bishop do a public renaming and make a statement as to why it is being renamed? Given previous action that would be entirely reasonable for him to do so“
‘The Jupiter’
“It is the regaining of a sense of justice, the removal of deep shame and trauma that the survivors [and falsely accused – Ed] seek…One crucial failing in the Church…is the way power operates within its structures…Many of us want to see damaging power networks challenged, so that the forces of transparency and democracy can flourish better”
Bishop George Bell’s name restored to Chichester Cathedral building after ‘prayerful consideration’
Premier Christian News
The name of a building in Chichester Cathedral will be changed back to George Bell House, after several years of campaigning by defenders of Bishop Bell.
In 2016, the Chapter of Chichester Cathedral announced it was changing the name of the building to 4 Canon Lane, after Bishop George Bell, who is considered by some as one of the most important figures in the history of the Church of England in the 20th century, was investigated for sexually abusing a young girl by the Church of England in the 1950s.
However, a 2017 review found the church’s investigation had been “deficient,” unfair to both sides, and had “rushed to judgment” when they concluded Bishop Bell had allegedly abused the girl.Get the latest Christian World News stories via emailSIGN ME UPSee our privacy notice
A year later, Sussex Police closed their investigation after fresh information was passed on to them by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team. At the time, Sussex Police said: “The information was assessed, and a proportionate investigation has been carried out to clarify the circumstances. This was done thoroughly and sensitively, although, of course, further police investigation or action is not possible as Bishop Bell died 60 years ago.”
The Police’s statement was followed by one by the Archbishop of Canterbury the following year, apologising “unreservedly” for “mistakes made” during the investigation.
Now, the Chapter has announced that after “prayerful consideration” George Bell’s name would be reinstated from 3rd October.
The statement said: “The Chapter recognises that the decision to remove Bishop Bell’s name from 4 Canon Lane in 2016 was a response to a serious allegation and was motivated by a desire to do the right thing by the complainant. The decision was made in good faith under deeply sensitive circumstances. However, the Chapter acknowledges that this decision was deficient and apologises for this.”
The Chapter also announced that the title 4 Canon Lane will continue to be used for some commercial activities.
George Bell’s name is to be reinstated at a Chichester Cathedral centre for vocation, education and reconciliation – three issues that were close to the late bishop’s heart.
His name was removed from the building in 2016, a year after sexual abuse allegations against him were made public.
The claims were later deemed to be “unfounded” by an independent inquiry and the Church of England apologised for its handling of the allegations.
Chichester Cathedral said the decision to remove Bishop Bell’s name and re-designate the centre as 4 Canon Lane was “motivated by a desire to do the right thing by the complainant”.
“The decision was made in good faith under deeply sensitive circumstances. However, the Chapter acknowledges that this decision was deficient and apologises for this,” it said.
4 Canon Lane is a beautiful former archdeaconry built in the late 19th century and situated within the historic Cathedral Close.
In 2008, it was gifted to the cathedral in memory of Bishop Bell by the Sisters of the Community of the Servants of the Cross.
It primarily acts as a centre for vocation, education and reconciliation – three issues that were close to Bishop Bell’s heart, but it also provides guest house accommodation to visitors to Chichester.
4 Canon Lane will now become George Bell House. The cathedral said that the title of 4 Canon Lane will continue to be used for some commercial activities.
Last week, 4 Canon Lane, Chichester, was renamed George Bell House. It had been called 4 Canon Lane since 2016. Before that, it had been called George Bell House. This forth-and-back reflects the strange sequence of events. In 2015, the diocese paid compensation to ‘Carol’ for an alleged sexual assault by Bell, when Bishop of Chichester, in the late 1940s or thereabouts. In that year, the present Bishop of Chichester also gave her a formal apology. Bell had died, unaccused, in 1958. The church process by which he was posthumously convicted nearly 60 years later had not included anyone speaking on his behalf. A number of us, one or two of whom had known Bell, started an informal group to clear his name. We were confident that the accusation was false and certain that the process had been wrong. The latter point was conceded by the Church after a fine review by Lord Carlile. The former was not. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, asserted that a ‘significant cloud’ still hung over Bell. He finally retracted this in November 2021. By then, poor Bell had been unpersoned by the diocese – his name, which had been hallowed, effaced. George Bell House, founded to promote his interest in vocation, education and reconciliation, was one example. The re-renaming all but completes the formal restoration of Bell’s reputation. The Chapter of the cathedral, especially the interim Dean, Simon Holland, deserves credit, because this change was resisted in some quarters. The innocent man won in the end. I hope history will record this fully. If, for example, you look online at the ICSA report on child abuse, which made Bell one of its cases, you will not pick up the vital fact that Bell did not abuse anybody.
RELIGION MEDIA CENTRE AUGUST 3 2023
Bishop George Bell name restored to Chichester Cathedral guest house
A guest house owned by Chichester Cathedral is to have its name “George Bell House” restored, seven years after it was removed when allegations came to light against George Bell, the bishop of Chichester from 1929-58. He was accused of abusing a young girl in the 1940s, and she was given compensation in a case made public in 2016. But a review said the church’s investigation into the claims was deficient and the decision against the bishop was taken without serious investigation or inquiry. The Archbishop of Canterbury apologised and Sussex Police closed an investigation. The house at 4 Canon Lane is an eight bedroom former Archdeaconry and is in the Cathedral precincts.
Bishop George Bell name restored to Chichester Cathedral building
Image caption, George Bell was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until his death in 1958
By Bob Dale
BBC News
The name of Bishop George Bell will be reinstated on one of the buildings of Chichester Cathedral.
His name was removed after allegations the bishop, who died in 1958, had sexually abused a young girl.
In 2015, the Church of England apologised and paid compensation to the complainant.
But a 2017 review found the church’s investigation into the claims against Bishop Bell had been “deficient” and unfair to both sides.
The cathedral said the decision to restore the name George Bell House to 4 Canon Lane from 3 October was made after “prayerful consideration”.
Originally named in honour of the Bishop in 2008, his name was removed in 2016 for what the cathedral chapter said was “a desire to do the right thing by the complainant”.
Image caption, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said there is no “significant cloud” over Bishop Bell’s name
The statement added: “The decision was made in good faith under deeply sensitive circumstances. However, the chapter acknowledges that this decision was deficient and apologises for this.”
It added the name 4 Canon Lane would continue to be used for “some commercial activities”.
In a statement in 2021, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: “I do not consider there to be a ‘significant cloud’ over Bishop George Bell’s name.”
The cathedral property 4 Canon Lane is to be known as George Bell House again from 3 October
THE Chapter of Chichester Cathedral has decided to change the name of one of its properties back to George Bell House, after a years-long campaign by defenders of the reputation of the late bishop after whom it was named (News, 9 February 2019).
In 2016, the Chapter announced a decision to call George Bell House — named in memory of the Bishop of Chichester from 1929 till 1958, the late Dr George Bell — 4 Canon Lane, a year after he had been named in a legal civil claim of sexual abuse (News, 30 October 2015). The complaint concerned the abuse of a young girl in the late 1940s and early 1950s, later known as Carol.
In 2017, an independent review of the case carried out by Lord Carlile said that Church of England officials had “rushed to judgement” when they had concluded that Bishop Bell was the alleged sexual abuser (News, 22 December 2017).
Sussex Police closed their latest investigation concerning Bishop Bell in 2018 (News, 27 April 2018). In 2019, the Archbishop of Canterburyapologised for “mistakes” made in the handling of the allegation (News, 1 February 2019). Archbishop Welby had said that, after the Carlile review, “a significant cloud” was left over the name of Bishop Bell. He later said that “nothing of substance” had been added to previous allegations and that “[Bishop Bell’s] legacy is undoubted and must be upheld.”
The Bell Society has been campaigning for the Bishop’s name to be cleared and for 4 Canon Lane to revert to its previous name.
On Thursday, a statement from the Chapter was issued which said that — “after prayerful consideration” — it had been decided to “reinstate Bishop George Bell’s name to 4 Canon Lane” from 3 October. The name 4 Canon Lane would still be used for “some commercial activities”, however.
“The Chapter recognises that the decision to remove Bishop Bell’s name from 4 Canon Lane in 2016 was a response to a serious allegation and was motivated by a desire to do the right thing by the complainant. The decision was made in good faith under deeply sensitive circumstances. However, the Chapter acknowledges that this decision was deficient and apologises for this.”
The statement explains: “Built in the late nineteenth century, 4 Canon Lane was dedicated to Bishop Bell in 2008 as a gift to the Cathedral from the Sisters of the Community of the Servants of the Cross. Formerly an archdeaconry, the House was secured in trust to be primarily a centre dedicated to Bishop Bell’s concern for vocation, education, and reconciliation.”
Richard Symonds of the Bell Society told the Church Times: “Seven long years to right this wrong is beyond unacceptable. . . But anger at the injustice must now make room for forgiveness in a spirit of understanding and reconciliation. This wartime Bishop of Chichester would have expected nothing less in the Cathedral City — and beyond it.”
Protest to clear the name of Bishop George Bell and re-name 4 Canon Lane to George Bell House in 2019. Pic Steve Robards SR1914005
A spokesperson for Chichester Cathedral said 4 Canon Lane has been renamed to George Bell House this week, although the title of ‘4 Canon Lane’ will continue to be used for some commercial activities.
The change comes as the Chichester Cathedral Chapter reconsiders a decision to strip Bell’s name from the 19th century property back in 2016, after the Church of England issued a formal apology and compensation to a woman under the pseudonym of “Carol” who claimed to have been abused by Bell nearly seventy years earlier, when she was only five.
“The decision was made in good faith under deeply sensitive circumstances. However, the Chapter acknowledges that this decision was deficient and apologises for this,” a spokesperson said.
In 2019, the Church of England (C of E) apologised for publishing the allegations against Bell after an inquiry by an ecclesiastical lawyer revealed the decision was taken “without serious investigation or inquiry”. A second report, commissioned to investigate fresh claims submitted to Sussex Police, also found that there was no evidence to support them.
In a statement made at the time, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: “I apologise unreservedly for the mistakes made in the process surrounding the handling of the original allegation against Bishop George Bell. The reputation of Bishop Bell is significant, and I am clear that his memory and the work he did is of as much importance to the Church today as it was in the past”
George Bell served as Bishop of Chichester Cathedral from 1929 until his death in 1958. He was celebrated in life and after it for his vocal opposition to allied bombing of German civilians, and supporting a range of refugees and other displaced persons throughout the Second World War.
4 Canon Lane was first dedicated to the late Bishop in 2008, as a gift to the Cathedral from The Sisters of the Community of the Servants of the Cross. Once an archdeaconry, a spokesperson said “the house was secured in trust to be primarily a centre dedicated to Bishop Bell’s concern for vocation, education and reconciliation.”
George Bell (1883-1958) was considered one of the finest Bishops of the 20th century. His reputation has been almost irreparably damaged by a single allegation of sexual abuse. The Rebuilding Bridges conference seeks to find practical, specific ways to repair the damage caused by this one allegation, and to restore the good name and legacy of Bishop Bell. The money raised will be spent on hiring a suitable conference room at Church House Westminster, providing communication support for deaf and deafened attendees, as well as securing a keynote speaker.
4 Canon Lane at Chichester Cathedral to be renamed George Bell House
28th Jul 2023
After prayerful consideration, the Chapter of Chichester Cathedral has decided to reinstate Bishop George Bell’s name to 4 Canon Lane.
From 3rd October 2023, 4 Canon Lane will become George Bell House, 4 Canon Lane. The title 4 Canon Lane will continue to be used for some commercial activities.
The Chapter recognises that the decision to remove Bishop Bell’s name from 4 Canon Lane in 2016 was a response to a serious allegation and was motivated by a desire to do the right thing by the complainant. The decision was made in good faith under deeply sensitive circumstances. However, the Chapter acknowledges that this decision was deficient and apologises for this.
Built in the late nineteenth century, 4 Canon Lane was dedicated to Bishop Bell in 2008 as a gift to the Cathedral from the Sisters of the Community of the Servants of the Cross.
Formerly an archdeaconry, the House was secured in trust to be primarily a centre dedicated to Bishop Bell’s concern for vocation, education and reconciliation.
“The tapestry is the focal point and reminder of Anglo-German reconciliation and friendship. It is particularly significant that this should also be related to the memory of Bishop Bell in recognition of his work for German refugees and his links to the German churches” [Source: ‘Chichester Cathedral’. Authored by the Dean and Chapter [A Pitkin Cathedral Guide 1991 – Reprint 1996 – Page 23]
Book review: The Precarious Church: Redeeming the body of Christ by Martyn Percy
23 JUNE 2023
Martin Warner on the gauntlet thrown down to the ‘management’
MARTYN PERCY’s The Precarious Church is not for the faint-hearted. It is a hefty pebble cast into a pond, with the intention that it create ripples that will upset the status quo and bring about profound change.
The structure of the book reflects its origins in a series of blogs for Modern Church, an international organisation that promotes liberal Christian theology. The introduction by the Acting Archdeacon of Liverpool, Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, understandably expresses a hope that the book will invite theological reflection more wide-ranging than the specific issues that prompted the original blogs.
Percy adopts a journalistic style that is condensed and hard-hitting. The 20 chapters are short, arranged into seven parts, each of which ends with guidance for discussion, though the text is generally strong enough to prompt its own questions, as does the book’s curious subtitle, Redeeming the body of Christ.
The titles for each part are enigmatic: “Leaps and Bounds”, “Nuts and Bolts”, “The See of Faith”, etc. The overall purpose is clear, however: it is a relentless critique of the contemporary Church of England.
The book takes issue with a formulaic approach to mission which is obsessed with numerical growth, thereby engendering a managerialism that pervades every aspect of the Church’s life. Percy defines the Church’s true vocation as being led by the Holy Spirit, the wind that blows where it wills. He sees the commodification of that calling in structures of governance and regulation which suffocate the life of the spirit.
Safeguarding and spending are areas that come under scrutiny, as is evidence of a fearful and self-serving exercise of episcopacy, symptomatic of an institution that is more concerned about self-preservation than the divine mission of salvation entrusted to it.
Lack of engagement with the culture and needs of contemporary society draws stinging comments from Percy. Whatever we might think about his style or the content of the book, we have to acknowledge that, as Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, he was ministering where Generation Z is prominent and articulate. There is a self-consciously prophetic tone in his call to recognise how very different Gen Z is from the experience of many clergy and laity who have a voice in the Church of England’s structures.
Throughout the book, his sharpest observations focus on the bishops responsible for the way in which the household of faith lives its life. He is right to criticise, where failure is wanton and egregious. Though I share some of Percy’s misgivings about the Church of England right now, some of his critical observations encompass the writer of this review. I felt rightly judged by his demands that we be better pastors, teachers, and practitioners of Christian faith.
The book resonates with Percy’s anger and hurt at how he has been treated. This is sensitively and robustly addressed in a generous afterword from Bishop Peter Selby. As a background to the book, Selby states that the treatment of Percy calls for single-minded confrontation, courage, solidarity, justice, and repentance.
In response to the book’s foreground, that touches on the Church and the world, on holiness and salvation, Selby invites “reflection and debate, the virtues of wisdom and careful analysis”. Therein lies hope for us all.
‘ANOTHER PLEA FOR BISHOP’ – CHICHESTER OBSERVER – LETTERS – JUNE 15 2023
Dear Editor
The Friends of Chichester Cathedral AGM took place last week, with interim Dean Simon Holland and John Lippiett as guest speakers.
This meeting included a repeated plea for the full restoration of the reputation of George Bell, Bishop of Chichester.
Roll on the day when 4 Canon Lane is at last renamed back to George Bell House within the Cathedral precincts, and the promised statue of this wartime Bishop of Chichester is finally completed at Canterbury Cathedral.
Yours sincerely
Richard W. Symonds
The Bell Society
Ifield
George Bell House [before 2014]
‘IT’S GONE ON LONG ENOUGH’ – CHICHESTER OBSERVER – LETTERS – JUNE 22 2023
Dear Editor
Your correspondent Richard Symonds continues courageously to urge the Chichester diocesan authorities to restore the name of George Bell House to the building at present known as [4] Canon Lane.
How right he is. The diocesan inactivity has gone on long enough.
The procedures of the cathedral’s “core group” which condemned Bishop Bell have been shown by the highest legal authority to have been chaotic; the Archbishop of Canterbury eventually apologised, yet no one in the diocesan hierarchy has shown the sense of responsibility needed if a start is to be made on Bell’s rehabilitation by restoring its name to George Bell House.
The Church of England still expects to be respected, but in return we can expect its officials to do the right thing, or to explain why they are not doing it.
Yours sincerely
Christopher Hill
Midhurst
‘OPPORTUNITY TO RESTORE’ – CHICHESTER OBSERVER – LETTERS – JUNE 22 2023
Dear Editor
Richard Symonds’ letter [Chichester Observer, June 15] makes a repeated plea for the full restoration of the reputation of George Bell Bishop of Chichester, and that 4 Canon Lane should at last be renamed back to George Bell House.
George Bell House was opened by Archbishop Rowan Williams in 2008 and Dean Nicholas Frayling had worked hard together with the Chapter and the Community of the Servants of the Cross to achieve its opening.
Soon after his retirement, Dean Frayling gave the address at the funeral in 2017 of His Grace the Duke of Richmond – who had graciously signed a 3,000 plus petition in support of the wartime Bishop just before his death [and it was delivered personally to Lambeth Palace – Ed].
I did not sign the petition, but in 2018 I did approach the Archbishop of Canterbury and I was witness A in the Briden Report, giving evidence that George Bell was mis-identified.
I understand that Dean Nicholas Frayling made both of these efforts as well.
Now with a new Dean and Chapter there is still no reference to Dean Frayling on the cathedral website about his much-praised work in Chichester Cathedral.
This is a Week of Reconciliation.
Will not the funeral of the Dowager Duchess of Richmond next week be an excellent opportunity to invite Dean Frayling back to Chichester and to restore the name of George Bell House House?
Chapter needs to act on Bell name – Church Times – February 24 2023
From Mr David Lamming
Sir, — Roy Sully (Letters, 17 February) * is entirely right to call for the restoration of the name George Bell House to the diocesan guest house at 4 Canon Lane, Chichester. Although Dr Warner’s view must surely be influential, restoring Bell’s name is, however, a matter for the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral, not the bishop.
After the recent retirement of the Very Revd Stephen Waine as Dean, the former Dean of St Paul’s, the Rt Revd Graeme Knowles, was installed by Dr Warner on 11 January as Acting Dean, to serve until Easter 2023.
May I suggest that Bishop Knowles could ensure that his brief tenure as Dean is memorable by securing the restoration of Bell’s name — a restoration that, at the latest, should have followed the Archbishop of Canterbury’s apology for his “significant cloud” remark (News, 19 November 2021).
DAVID LAMMING 20 Holbrook Barn Road Boxford, Suffolk CO10 5HU
Restoration of the name of George Bell House
From Mr Roy Sully
Sir, — It was good to read the reflections of the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner (Comment, 10 February), on the bravery of his predecessor at Chichester, George Bell, in speaking out against the blanket bombing of German cities during the Second World War. May I suggest that Dr Warner now go a step further and restore the name of the diocesan guest house at 4 Canon Lane, which until recently was named in honour of Bishop George Bell?
“Restore the memorials to Bishop Bell” – Lord Lexden on the wartime Bishop of Chichester George Bell and the current Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner
When Bishop George Bell was wrongly condemned by the Church of England as a child abuser in 2015, his name was removed from a number of buildings in his Chichester diocese that had been dedicated to his memory. Now that the Archbishop of Canterbury has belatedly accepted the Church’s error (see below), the Bishop’s name must be restored to all the places from which it was shamefully expunged. In a letter published in The Daily Telegraph on 25 November, Alistair Lexden urged Anglicans to demand action by the current Bishop of Chichester.
SIR — Bishop Bell’s name must be put back on the buildings in Chichester, as the Rev Dr Barry Orford insists (Letters, November 23). There is no sign, however, that the current Bishop of Chichester, Martin Warner, with whom I have clashed in the House of Lords, intends to lift a finger.
Last week he praised the statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as “both humble and courageous, reminding us that these virtues, evident in George Bell himself, do still surface in the Church of England”.
It is an outrage to put Archbishop Welby on the same plane as the great man whose reputation he traduced. Bishop Warner added that he had “no plans to make any further comments”. Anglicans must give him no peace until he either does his duty or resigns.
Lord Lexden London SW1
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Tom Watson atones
Tuesday, 27 December, 2022
There has been much criticism of the award of a peerage to Tom Watson, the former deputy leader of the Labour Party, on the recommendation of Keir Starmer. Watson was quite rightly condemned for encouraging the Metropolitan Police to pursue totally false allegations of child sex abuse, based on the ludicrous claims of a fantasist (now serving a long prison sentence), against distinguished public figures, including Leon Brittan and Field Marshal Lord Bramall, who were hounded mercilessly. In his maiden speech in the Lords on 21 December, Watson apologised, prompting the following letter from Alistair Lexden, which was published in The Daily Telegraph on 27 December.
SIR – The former Labour deputy leader’s words of remorse in the Lords (“Tom Watson apologises for pushing false sex abuse claims against Lord Brittan”, report, December 22) struck the right note.
Lord Watson of Wyre Forest’s many merits include admiration of Stanley Baldwin, who coined the phrase “one nation”. He now promises to champion police reform on a cross-party basis. It is a subject I have raised several times with strong support from his Labour colleagues, and he must now join us.
Our target is the Home Office, which must, among other things, give Sir Mark Rowley the extra powers he needs to purge the Met of corrupt and underperforming officers, and end the astonishing state of affairs that permits a former chief constable, facing a gross misconduct hearing after a damning independent report, to retain a senior police role. I hope Lord Watson’s apology will be noted on the episcopal benches of the Lords.
Chi Cathedral has not been in a happy place for a while. Lots of problems, not least with treatment of essential volunteers (who seem to be voting with their feet). Add to that the widely known Bishop-Dean friction & you have the definition of a poisoned chalice.
Only bright note has been very recent introduction of Girl Choristers.
Richard W. Symonds
Stephen Waine has accomplished much as Dean – not least securing funds for the Cathedral roof – but this has been overshadowed by him overseeing the smearing of Bishop Bell’s good name [eg by erasing the name of George Bell House] and, under his watch, the Education Department has been closed – as has the much-loved Cloisters Cafe and Shop.
Richard W. Symonds
We now await the formal ecclesiastical apologies regarding the orchestrated character assassination of Bishop George Bell – both from the Dean and Bishop of Chichester…and significant others within the Diocese and beyond:
But perhaps there is more chance of flying pigs getting landing rights here at Gatwick?
Richard W. Symonds
Awaiting approval
October 22 2015 – Bishop of Chichester (Martin Warner) Statement on the Rt. Revd George Bell [1883-1958]
“In this case, the scrutiny of the allegation has been thorough, objective, and undertaken by people who command the respect of all parties”
Richard W. Symonds
Awaiting approval
Lord Carlile’s report was a devastating demolition of the entire way the Church of England had conducted its investigation into the claims of ‘Carol’ against Bishop Bell.
Here was a leading QC who said as diplomatically as possible, but very clearly, that the Church had perpetrated a monumental cock-up.
It took Archbishop Welby six years to say “I was wrong”. It is to his credit that he finally did. It is to the discredit of the Dean and Bishop of Chichester that they did not.
It is perhaps a wise decision for the Dean of Chichester, the Very Reverend Stephen Waine, to embrace ministry above bureaucracy in becoming parish vicar of the benefice of Piddle Valley, Hilton and Ansty, Cheselbourne and Melcombe Horsey.
George Bell, Chichester’s greatest 20th-century bishop, is above all memorable for his rapprochement with German Christians before and during the Second World War.
For six years recently, until cleared by the Archbishop of Canterbury, he suffered the indignity of an accusation of paedophilia based on uncertain evidence.
Perhaps one day his statue, by a sculptor such as Philip Jackson, will join that of St. Richard in the surroundings of Chichester’s small but lovable Cathedral.
Professor Martyn Percy – a committed advocate for justice in the Bishop of Chichester George Bell scandal – has described Church of England Safeguarding thus:
“If this was a plane, you’d never ever board”
The Archbishops’ Council is now being reported to the Charities Commission by General Synod member Martin Sewell, who urges an investigation into the Council’s Independent Safeguarding Board [ISB] – for breach of charity law and the standards expected of a charity.
“What is especially concerning is that there was no recognition of error”, states Mr Sewell in his letter to the Commission.
The hierarchy at Chichester Cathedral should take serious note and act accordingly – unless it too wants to be investigated by the Charities Commission.
Martyn Percy has written three articles which Modern Church has published.
“In three short articles, Martyn Percy looks at three words currently being given the full 1984 treatment: independent, ethical and trustworthy. Is the Church of England using these words as defined by most dictionaries in 2022? Or, are we now enmeshed in an Orwellian church in which little that is said corresponds to our normal frames of reference?”
Dr Percy mentions the flood (or ‘flood’) at Bishopthorpe, and the fire at Chichester. This reminds me that the British state, like the Church of England has ‘form’ in misappropriating documents, as at Hanslope Park, Bucks (the FCDO migrated archives):
The Harvard historian Caroline Elkins was able to make much hay from this with respect to her campaigns for justice in Kenya; see here for a recent discussion:
note that one of the villains of her story, Evelyn Baring, chaired the committee which produced the Howick report on crown appointments in the Church (1964, as Lord Howick of Glendale). The desire for secrecy and concealment seems to be a profoundly unappealing aspect of the national character. As is the do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do approach to government in Church and State. The unpleasant Savoyard philosopher, de Maistre, noted that a nation often gets the government it deserves; perhaps the same might be said of its prelates. *If* this is true, what does it say about modern Britain?
In his essay “Politics and the English Language” (1946) George Orwell wrote: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind”. We have been witness to the ‘murder’ and character assassination of not only Martyn Percy but also Bishop Bell – and others. In 1935, poet TS Eliot wrote ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ – a play commissioned by the Bishop of Chichester George Bell on the martyrdom of the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket. The play can be seen as a prophetic warning to the Church of England.
In 1965, Stephen Spender wrote: “Orwell perhaps lacked poetry, but…he echoes the message of Wilfred Owen, the greatest poet of the First World War: ‘All a poet can do today is to warn’. 1984 remains…a necessary warning”.
The Church of England are clearly not listening to the warnings – by poets or anyone else.
This is beyond a tragedy as we celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty – its Supreme Governor.
Michael Mulhern
There will be no expressions of sorrow, regret or acknowledgement of the need for repentance on the part of anyone at Christ Church, let alone its clergy, simply because they will have been told by Winkworth Sherwood and Luther Pendragon that such admissions of failure could be constructed as an admission of guilt and further diminish the already abysmal reputation of the institution.
Gilo
Why does the Oxford scandal matter?
Similar could happen to any priest in the CofE. Dodgy lawyers and disreputable laundries have shown how easy it is to work alongside the structures of a dysfunctional diocese and malevolent college to assist in the design and production of the giant carcrash that has happened in Oxford diocese. And the CofE must now add ‘weaponized safeguarding’ to its list of forms of abuse.
A judicial inquiry is required. Nothing less will disinfect Oxford malfeasance (diocese, cathedral, college, lawyers, laundries) with the sunlight of scrutiny.
Whatever this is … it does not look like safeguarding. It is misappropriation of process for malign purpose and looks to have involved many layers of dishonesty and even fraud.
All needs full investigation. And the Archbishops should be putting Oxford Diocese into Visitation and its bishop and cathedral under suspension pending investigation.
Excerpts from ‘Archbishop Cranmer’ article [above]
The Church of England’s Independent Safeguarding Board is not independent. They are funded by the Archbishops’ Council, accountable to it, and have no remit or powers that render it independent. It operates out of Church House in Westminster. Ergo, it is another internal laundry machine, merely branded ‘independent’ in order to satisfy the PR imperative for reputational damage control.
Alex Carlile’s review into the Church of England’s treatment of George Bell was independent, and given his searing judgment against the Church of England’s woeful and chronic maladministration of justice, you might understand why they don’t want to commission another one of those.
But an “independent inquiry” has to mean what it says, and do what it says on the tin. To achieve that, the Church of England cannot protect itself by setting the Terms of Reference, and then picking the coppers, counsel, judge and jury; and then controlling the PR on the verdict.
Dear Editor
On my way to the ‘Devil’s Jumps’ archaeological site on the South Downs, I decided to go into Funtington village church.
Sitting in the peaceful calm, I read its parish magazine – a piece by the Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner.
The Bishop was asking the diocese parishioners to focus on being more engaged, more generous, and more open.
Regarding the wartime Bishop of Chichester George Bell, Bishop Warner could hardly be said to be more engaged, more generous or more open – in fact, his silence has been deafening.
I left the beautiful church of peace and calm, and carried on to my destination.
on Wednesday, 11 May 2022 at 11.48 am by Peter Owen categorised as Opinion
Martyn PercyProspectWhy I’m leaving the Church of England “Mired in allegations of partisanship and incompetence, the Church is now incapable of running its own affairs. After a series of farcical “safeguarding” claims, the former dean of Christ Church, Oxford, no longer feels he belongs” [This is covered as a news item in The Guardian and Church Times.]
Religion news 12 May 2022Religion Media CentreMartyn Percy, former Dean of Christ Church Oxford, quits the Church of England; More money for struggling parishes and front-line services; …
“The Bishop of Oxford, the Sub Dean, and whoever is ‘advising’ them, need to be called out for perpetuating a miscarriage of justice – and perverting the course of justice by obstructing it” – Richard W. Symonds – The Bell Society
“That he is here with me now gives me a constant reminder of what I might have lost – and how the innocent can be wrongly accused in the so-called name of justice”– Ann Jones – ‘No Smoke, No Fire’ – The Autobiography of Dave Jones – Page 189 [Know The Score Books 2009]
“No doubt there will be people who are going to think there is no smoke without fire. I can do nothing about that except to say such an attitude would be wrong” – Judge David Clarke – ‘No Smoke, No Fire’ – The Autobiography of Dave Jones – Back Flyleaf
Pilate was a representative of civil power and clearly unpersuaded by the allegation that Jesus claimed to be a king. He realised that Jesus had done no wrong over which he had legitimate jurisdiction. Even after Jesus had been “accused of many things”, Pilate asked, “What evil has [Jesus] done?”. He did not receive any kind of answer. He could have regarded the issues as internal to the Jews and for them to settle. However, Pilate’s aim was not justice but expediency. He showed little interest in a fair-minded and dispassionate investigation, and saw the death of Jesus as an instrumentally good for civil order, and his own reputation with Rome. The outcome of the hearing before Pilate, with its palpable lack of evidence, was craven, and it led to the destruction of an innocent man. Such a use of power is neither just nor based on truth. It is not the way that power with God is to be used.
So, there it is: expediency, flawed justice, lack of evidence, a crowd baying to destroy an innocent man: “what need have we have of any proper process, or of further testimony?”. Does this sound at all familiar to any of you here today? Or others crying out for justice? Alexander Solzhenitsyn once opined that there always is this fallacious belief: “it would not be the same here and now…”: such evil things would now be impossible. He did not agree.
Hannah Arendt, our foremost scholar of totalitarianism, had this to say: “totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” That is part of the reason why Donald Trump got away with so much. He once said: “I value loyalty above everything else, more than brains, more than drive and more than energy”. Trump’s exultation of personal loyalty over expertise is exactly what we see in the Church of England today.
The National Safeguarding Team is riddled with this crippling virus; they caught it off the Archbishops’ Council. Indeed, almost every Bishop’s Senior Staff Team has the virus, as do all Diocesan Synods and most of General Synod. There is no vaccine. Most church committees that have the virus do not even know they are ill, and have no way of recognising how weak they have become.
Those leading the Church of England claim that we are making progress on all safeguarding fronts. In truth, we are locked in an endless, cruel slow circularity. One that is not overseen by theological leadership, but rather an ecclesial version of Foucault’s “carceral system” – process-orientated project-managed persecution that makes an example of one; but then sets entire cohorts of Barabbas’ free. Where is the justice, reason and proportionality?
The Church of England runs an unsafe, unprofessional, untrustworthy, unreliable and unstable safeguarding system. It is partial in who it expedites, and who it excoriates. The system lacks self-awareness, emotional intelligence, integrity (i.e., has no employment law rights for clergy accused), probity or compassion. Its Core Groups are untrained, unlicensed and unregulated. There are barely written conflicts of interest policy. The accused and the abused are not allowed legal representation and instead are met with bias and gassy-gossip masquerading as ‘pastoral concern’.
The only safe thing left to do is not be part of an unsafe system. The system is incompetent, corrupt and unfit for purpose, and one that fails, soils and stigmatises everyone it comes into contact with. The system set up to deal with abuse is systematically abusive. It is harmful, and dangerous. The system is riddled with favouritism, nepotism, incompetence and scapegoating. Small institutions run by small people will strive for sectarian objectives…and produce sickly results.
I have called this out because I dare to believe we might be speaking for the many, not the few. I am also free to speak my mind, and I choose to do so. As George Orwell (Nineteen Eighty-Four) wrote, “if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”. Yes, that was Orwell. It could just as easily have been Tutu, Gandhi, Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr. Bonhoeffer wrote “Not to speak is to speak; not to act is to act”. Far too many of our church leaders will not comment or speak out. They fail to register concern or any compassion, as though their silence and inaction absolved them.
I am not asking for protests or for rebellion. I call instead for quiet revolution, reform and loyal dissent. Our refusal to put up with the poor leadership in the Church of England that has given us this culture and ecclesial politics, and expects us to live with it. We should not tolerate it one bit longer. We should instead seek a proper, deep and cleansing spiritual renewal. But first we may need some proper public exorcism within our institution before we can even get this work started.
Giving ourselves totally to Christ is not an abstraction or a pious thought. It must be concrete and communal. Freedom is responsibility. It means to live within the truth, even when it hurts. The early twentieth century Young Christian Workers movement who went by the name of ‘Jocists’ had a motto: See, Judge, Act. See meant to be awake to the realities around you. Judge was a command to discern soberly the meaning of those realities in the light of what you knew to be true, especially from the teachings of Christ. Act, that finally, after you reach a mind, you are then required to resist evil.
The cowardice and indifference amongst our church leadership is extremely disturbing to observe, and even worse to experience. I have seen far too much of it over the years. But my experience of it, personally, and first-hand, has left me wondering if any person who is unable to care and show moral courage and leadership should ever be a Bishop of anywhere to anyone. I think not. A Bishop who cannot show care for their clergy surely needs to find a different job.
Perhaps like me you are weary of lame excuses that sanction poor procedures, poor practice, and poor prelates. We are in desperate need of fearless care and moral leadership that begins at home, and weeds out the dysfunctional and damaging systems, customs and praxis that cause much suffering. We should perhaps begin with safeguarding, which is now so unsafe that it has become as wicked as any of the abuse it was supposed to be addressing. But where will we find a Bishop today with courage and conviction to take responsibility?
John Banville, writing of the abuse scandals that have engulfed the Roman Catholic Church for decades, noted that “everyone knew, but no-one said…I have heard no-one address the question of what it means, in this context, to know” (‘A Century of Looking the Other Way’, New York Times, 22 May 2009). The Church of England knows its own corruption too; yet chooses silence, indifference and amnesia. I have no right to a Good Samaritan. Nobody does. But surely that is the point of the parable? Good, humane care is what Jesus asks us to do. It is worth the risk. In God’s eyes, every person is worth that risk – Jesus embodies that. Is it really too much to ask for Bishops, governance and leadership in our churches who understand this, to now act? I dare to hope we will live to see the day when our churches are led with courage, compassion, care and wisdom. By lions, not donkeys; shepherds, not wolves; Good People, not Daleks (with flat batteries and circuitry issues). I fear we cannot wait much longer, but wait in hope, we must.
“My criticism of Chichester Cathedral’s hierarchy is as nothing compared to Martyn Percy’s criticism of the Church of England hierarchy. Both hierarchies have nowhere to hide” – Richard W. Symonds – The Bell Society
Thank you to Archbishop Cranmer for highlighting the continuing shame of the Christ Church Oxford scandal.
The shameful treatment of Martyn Percy at the end of his time at Christ Church – must be called out.
Has the Bishop of Oxford authority to stop a person preaching in St Mary’s, Oxford and if he does surely he must say why.
What is the position of the sub dean of the Cathedral in all this? This must be called out too. It is said he ordered locks to be changed (and what expense?) to keep the Dean out of the Cathedral. Really – how Christian is that. Surely he could have organised a conciliatory farewell to the Dean. Apparently charges against the sub dean have been made of a more serious nature (in the church’s procedures) than those made against the dean. However it seems they are being swept under the carpet.
How can the Bishop of Oxford be called out to explain his conduct? Has he no accountability for his actions – or lack of action?
The Bishop of Oxford, the Sub Dean, and whoever is ‘advising’ them, need to be called out for perpetuating a miscarriage of justice – and perverting the course of justice by obstructing it.
“That he is here with me now gives me a constant reminder of what I might have lost – and how the innocent can be wrongly accused in the so-called name of justice”– Ann Jones – ‘No Smoke, No Fire’ – The Autobiography of Dave Jones – Page 189 [Know The Score Books 2009]
“No doubt there will be people who are going to think there is no smoke without fire. I can do nothing about that except to say such an attitude would be wrong” – Judge David Clarke – ‘No Smoke, No Fire’ – The Autobiography of Dave Jones – Back Flyleaf
Things are looking up at the Cathedral [‘Not a soul to be seen’/‘Bell Tower renaming’, Observer Letters, March 31].
Not only is the Cloisters cafe likely to be opening again soon with a new Catering Partner – “we have received a number of exciting expressions of interest” – Cathedral Friends were promoting an event last Wednesday as “Book at Breakfast at George Bell House”.
As Sandra Saer has penned [‘Poem…’, Observer, March 31]:
“So we wait, in hope, for the greening of the trees”.
Yours sincerely
Richard W. Symonds
Dear Editor
Following the due process of law, the Church of England has restored Bishop Bell’s good name – especially with Archbishop Welby’s personal statement last November.
But the Chichester Cathedral authorities have yet to restore the name of George Bell House to 4 Canon Lane.
Why?
Yours sincerely
Richard W. Symonds
The Bell Society
Dear Editor
If the authorities at Chichester Cathedral do not take prompt action in restoring the name of George Bell House to 4 Canon Lane, a powerful case could be made that any further delay will bring the Church of England into disrepute.
The Bell Society 