Forty Years On

Canon Eric James is a former Canon and Precentor of Southwark Cathedral and Chaplain to the Queen. He writes:

Mervyn Stockwood was made Bishop of Southwark in 1959 and - against Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher's advice! - brought with him from Cambridge: John Robinson to be Bishop of Woolwich (and Bill Skelton to be Rector of Bermondsey and me to be Vicar of St George, Camberwell).

It was a huge privilege to work alongside Bishop John on - for instance - the beginnings of the Southwark Ordination Course: which, amazingly, opened in 1960 and on the provision of a building for the course, "Wychcroft" at Bletchingley which, with Canon Douglas Rhymes as its Warden, opened by the end of 1961 as the Diocesan Lay Training Centre. Bishop John soon gathered together a group of 'radical' young clergy. We met at lunchtimes in our different vicarages and, for instance, devised our own Baptism Service. (The Prayer Book Services - 1662 and 1928 - were at that time the only alternatives.) Southwark soon became attractive to 'radical' vicars and curates. Nicholas Stacey, for instance, was made Rector of Woolwich in 1960. The Press soon began to talk about "South Bank Religion".

The 'Lady Chatterley Bishop'

It was on 7 September 1960 that Bishop John phoned me to ask whether I'd read D.H. Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'. He had just received the letter that was to make him notorious throughout England as 'The Lady Chatterley Bishop'. The shy Bishop John Robinson became, by his appearance at the Old Bailey on behalf of the publication of the unexpurgated version, a hero to many in the Diocese - though not to all! He said in court: "What Lawrence is trying to do is to portray the sex relationship as something essentially sacred" - and went on to quote William Temple. Every reader of an evening paper making their way home would have read in banner headlines: 'CHRISTIANS SHOULD READ LADY C. Bishop: "Essentially something sacred".

Two days later, Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, strongly criticised the Bishop. But there was little doubt in the Diocese that it was their suffragan bishop who had most of the people's support.

It is essential to begin any assessment - 'Forty years on' - of how the publication of Robinson's bestseller "Honest to God" affected the Diocese of Southwark with this reminder that it was the product of 'The Lady Chatterley Bishop'. His Court appearance made him familiar to the people of the Diocese as no other Bishop of Woolwich had been.

On the Sunday after the Bishop's appearance in Court, he conducted a Confirmation at St George's, Camberwell. Millie Best, a Cockney character who, after paralysis, had lived most of her life in a wheelchair, said to the Bishop, as he walked up the centre aisle before the service in purple with his episcopal crook in his hands: "Well, if it ain't Lady Chatterley's Lover 'imself!" No one enjoyed the joke more than the Bishop.

Time to read... and write

But the publicity made huge physical demands on John Robinson and his body began to protest at his punishing timetable. His back began to show the first signs of the trouble that would be with him for the rest of his life.

Confined to bed, he did much of the reading, and thinking, from which 'Honest To God' emerged - books like Paul Tillich's 'The Shaking of the Foundations' and Gibson Winter's 'The Suburban Captivity of the Churches' (1961). John knew that the religious situation in Southwark - particularly of inner city Southwark - presented him, and the Church, with problems that had never confronted him in Cambridge.

John not only read in bed, he discussed what he read with Ruth Robinson, his wife, who was no mean theologian. And he wrote. And the manuscript he produced, he shared with several friends - asking them: "Should this be published?" "What amendments would you make?" and "What title should it be given?" At a party - to which the new Archbishop, Michael Ramsey, was invited - to consider all the responses, all were in agreement: it should be published. And it was Ruth Robinson who suggested the title "Honest To God".

There was one other 'publicity factor', which undoubtedly affected the controversy over the book. The publication date was 19 March 1963. The Bishop had written a summary of his book for The Observer. The headline: "Our Image of God Must Go" was added by The Observer. John Robinson had thought it negative and arrogant but under pressure of time and with nothing better to propose, he allowed it. And it was the headline as much as the book itself to which, for instance, Archbishop Michael Ramsey took exception.

Queues at Waterloo

What did the Diocese make of it? Well, there were queues for it on Waterloo Station! Many read John Robinson's article in the Sunday Mirror three weeks after the publication of 'Honest To God : Why I Wrote It'.

John and Ruth Robinson together held a series of conferences at Wychcroft to follow up 'Honest To God'. John used the public controversy pastorally. He addressed, for instance, a hundred sixth formers - after school hours - at St Dunstan's College, Catford and agreed to a second such meeting. There were dozens of events crammed into the diary - mostly in his Woolwich area of the Diocese.

The Bishop was at his best when dealing with incumbents of the Diocese who disagreed with him, and had taken the trouble to say so in writing.

On 22 October 1963 he had published a second book: 'The Honest To God Debate'. It contained fifty of the letters he had received.

By then it was becoming clear that the debate was part of a larger scene. The Archbishop of Canterbury published a small booklet 'Image Old and New', which showed a much greater understanding of the Bishop's approach. The Archbishop later admitted to his "initial error in reaction".

Max Warren...

One of the people who supported the Bishop most strongly was the evangelical General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, Canon Max Warren, who lived in the Diocese, not far from the Robinsons. What he wrote in 'The Bridge' (even then the magazine of the Diocese of Southwark!) - and therefore what appeared in most of the parish magazines of the Diocese - is worth reproducing today:

"Do you know someone who thinks quite hard, finds life extremely difficult to understand, but who can make no sense whatsoever of the Christian religion? - the nice man next door who catches the same bus as you do each morning, the fellow at the office you sometimes have lunch with, the chap at the works, a pal you meet at the pub - and of course, the feminine equivalent of all these?

With the best will in the world these folk just do not understand what the Christian means when he talks about God. Jesus is something of a mystery man, very wonderful, but he lived a long time ago. The Holy Spirit - that just does not register. The Bible - Sunday School stuff. Religion - all right for those who like it, but it doesn't seem to fit into Telstar, automation or even 'Emergency Ward 10', though perhaps... We all know people like this. And most of us feel a bit hopeless about doing anything about them from a Christian point of view, except being good neighbours, though that is an indispensable first step.

But the Bishop of Woolwich's new book will perhaps help some of us to meet some of these people. First, let it be said, this is an honest book. Dr Robinson, as we have learned to expect, looks fearlessly at the real problems which the thoughtful man has about all religion, and about the Christian religion in particular. He also looks quite fearlessly at our Christian vocabulary, and he asks whether that vocabulary is good enough. It may be all right as a sort of religious shorthand for use among those who accept the Christian Faith. But can it be used to commend Jesus Christ to those who don't know our shorthand? That is an honest question. It calls for an honest answer by the reader. Dr Robinson burkes none of the difficulties.

Then, let it be said, this is a gentle book. That may seem a curious adjective to use about one of the hardest hitting books the reader is likely to have met. Yet Dr Robinson remains all the time very gentle, very sensitive, not only to those whom he is trying to reach but also to those Christians who will find his approach very disconcerting and puzzling, and who will not be able to follow him. For all that it very powerful writing, this is not a dogmatic book. All through it the reader will recognize that Dr Robinson is asking himself questions. He is an explorer. Finally, let this be added, the book is fairly tough going. If you take it to bed with you it will either send you off to sleep in five minutes or keep you awake all night. It is that kind of book. But honest to goodness, it is worth reading."

Douglas Rhymes....

There are two other people who can best tell us about the Diocese and 'Honest To God' - forty years ago: Douglas Rhymes - Vicar of All Saints, Eltham 1954-62; Canon Residentiary and Director of Lay Training 1962-69; Vicar of Camberwell 1968-76; and Rector of Woldingham 1976-84. I was privileged to preach at his Memorial Service in 1996.

"When I read the writings of John Robinson", he wrote, "I found that not only did he stimulate openness of thinking in almost every sphere of life, but by his own honesty in searching for a spirituality to meet the life of the present day he encouraged others, like myself to contribute their own part to the revolution in Christian thinking which began in the 1960s. I would never have written 'No New Morality' or 'Prayer in the Secular City' without the inspiration of 'Honest To God'.

"John set up groups of clergy and lay people who met regularly to ask questions and think through problems, and in all those groups there was complete freedom to be as open and as questioning of received traditions and thought as you wished. But each of us had to do our own thorough thinking..."

...Gerald Hudsom

The other person who can help us realise what it was like Forty Years Ago is Canon Gerald Hudsom, who ended his ministry in Southwark with nine years as the Principal of the Southwark Ordination Course, before spending four years at St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, in the City. He is 82 now and lives in retirement at Whitstable.

He wrote: "I saw 'Honest To God' in proof, and realised how helpful it could be to such people as my group of students from the Froebel Institute in the parish, all of whom were properly agnostic about what they assumed was on offer in Christian believing. They found his book of immense value, and he agreed to come and meet them. He came to the College in June, and I chaired a meeting for him in the hall with the entire college staff and students present.

He had spent Holy Week with us that year, preaching on Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Day. Those who thought him over cerebral, an intellectual out of touch with the common herd can never have heard him preach, especially when he preached the Cross and Resurrection..."

...let's leave the last word to John Robinson himself

The John Robinson of 1963 did not suddenly change into someone else when he left Southwark in 1969 and returned to Cambridge.

Perhaps the best way to take our leave of him, so to speak, is to quote from what he said in his last sermon -which he preached in Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, shortly before he died in 1983.

He said:

"The Christian takes his stand not on optimism but on hope. This is based not on rosy prognosis (from the human point of view mine is bleak) but as St Paul says, on suffering.

"For this, he says, trains us to endure and endurance brings proof that we have stood the tests and this proof is the ground of hope - in the God who can bring resurrection out and through the other side of death."

Introduction

 
I Published It