Charles Gore

1853-1932. Anglican bishop. Educated at Oxford where he proved to be a brilliant scholar, he was ordained in 1875 and was elected a fellow of Trinity College. He was vice-principal of Cuddesdon Theological College from 1880, and three years later became the first principal of Pusey House. During those years in the Oxford area he exercised a strong influence on the religious life of the university, mainly through personal relationships. A lifelong Anglo-Catholic, he nevertheless brought a more conciliatory and liberal spirit to the Oxford Movement.* He was active on behalf of the Christian Social Union and was the founder in 1892 of the Community of the Resurrection. He upset some of his friends by inferring from Philippians 2:7 that Christ's humanity involved certain limitations.

Gore became canon of Westminster (1894) and a royal chaplain (1898); bishop of Worcester (1902); and, when the new diocese of Birmingham was formed largely through his efforts, he became its first bishop in 1905. In the latter place he formed excellent relations with civil authorities, non-Anglicans, and evangelicals (this despite his unyielding views on the episcopal system). He supported also the Workers' Educational Association. In 1911 he became bishop of Oxford, but found it more resistant to his masterful personality. It may be that some there had not forgotten his views expressed in the symposium Lux Mundi (a volume he edited also), which created a sensation and caused the High Church movement increasingly to take account of modern developments in scholarship. In 1919 he resigned and settled in London. Gore's many works include The Sermon on the Mount (1896), The Body of Christ (1901), The Ministry of the Christian Church (new ed., 1919), The Holy Spirit and the Church (1924), and Christ and Society (1928). He was the most versatile, and probably the most influential, churchman of his generation.