11 - After the BBC: The City Temple

Summary

By leaving the BBC in 1967 Elsie Chamberlain had made a stand for principle. She had proved herself to be a resourceful and capable woman who would resist any attempt to force her compliance, especially with a policy which made her uneasy. Elsie may not have been an intellectual but she trusted her judgment and her instincts and, if her feelings told her that something was wrong, she took them seriously and would rarely override them. Her resignation from the BBC gained her much admiration, then and later, but, although brave, hers proved to be a lone stand. Yet broadcasting, allied to her constant willingness to speak up and down the country, had enabled her ‘to symbolise for many the place that women were coming to have in the public ministry of the churches’. Indeed working in the BBC, in an environment where being a woman was far less of an apparent disadvantage than in the churches, had served to give her talents and her vocation even more liberty than she had enjoyed hitherto. But that season of her life, however fruitful it had been, was over.

She was left with her principles intact, a national reputation and an impressive list of achievements but, although not poor, nor was she wealthy and she had no job.