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Charles Plater and the Practice of Retreat in the Church of England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2015

Canon John Tyers
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Extract

While still a novice, the English Jesuit Charles Plater (1875–1921), through his energy, brilliance, enthusiasm and attractive personality was influential in the foundation of the Catholic Social Guild and other social projects. In particular, he motivated the establishment of retreat houses for working men within the Catholic Church in England, work which he described in his book Retreats for the People. This volume attracted the attention of many within the Church of England, encouraging a number of initiatives which, among other things, led to a significant growth in the numbers of Anglicans who made a retreat and to the establishment of diocesan retreat houses.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , October 2009 , pp. 541 - 552
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 2009

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References

Notes

1 C. C. Martindale, art. ‘Charles Dominic Plater’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnd.com/articles/35/35538-article.html?back = , accessed 16/02/2009.

2 Plater, C. D., Retreats for the People (London, B. Herder, 1912)Google Scholar.

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4 On the first evening after supper the retreatants shared in playing cards and billiards, smoking pipes and drinking beer. Then all conversation ceased, apart from recreational periods, and they embarked on an intensive three day programme. Within a pattern of worship and devotional exercises, they engaged in four meditations a day, based upon the first week of the Exercises, all with the aim of showing how the love of God ‘raises man above himself, ennobles his life, and gives him eternal happiness’. Plater, C. D., ‘A Great Social Experiment’ (Hibbert Journal, Vol. 7, pp. 49–63), p. 57Google Scholar.

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11 W. H. J. Platts, “The Yews”, The Retreat House Beaconsfield; 1911–1927’, in A Memoir of the Rev. W. B. Trevelyan (London, SPCK, 1934, pp. 57–69).

12 Men’s Magazine (London, Church of England Men’s Society), July 1913, p. 10, April 1914, p. 25; April 1915, p. 24.

13 Report of the Committee appointed by the Lord Bishop of Rochester (Rochester, Diocese of Rochester, 1914), p. 2.

14 Rochester, p. 6; Men’s Magazine, July 1913, pp. 9, 10.

15 Men’s Magazine, April 1914, pp. 24, 25; April 1915, p. 24.

16 Rochester, pp. 3, 5.

17 Vision, Oct. 1934, p. 4.

18 Lampard, R., Leavening the Nation, The Birth of the Association for Promoting Retreats and the Development of the Anglican Retreat Movement, 1913–1931 (unpublished dissertation, University of Oxford, History, Bachelor of Arts 1993, in the archives of APR), p. 6.Google Scholar

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21 D. M. Thompson, ‘War, the Nation and the Kingdom of God; the origins of the National Mission of Repentance and Hope, 1915–1916’, ed. Sheils, W. J., The Church and War (Oxford, Basil Blackwell for the Ecclesiastical History Society, 1983, pp. 339–350), p. 340Google Scholar.

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27 Vision, October 1933, p. 2.

28 Iremonger, F. A., William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, His Life and Letters (London, OUP, 1948), p. 207 Google Scholar; See Thompson, ‘Origins’ for an account of the origins of the Mission.

29 Bell, G. K. A., Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, Vol. 2 (London, OUP, 1935), p. 771.Google Scholar

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34 Evangelistic Work, p. 20.

35 Vision, Aug. 1925, p. 5.

36 Avery, M., Pleshey, the Village and Retreat House (Bishop’s Stortford, Ellis and Phillips, 1981), p. 35.Google Scholar

37 Vision, Aug. 1920, p. 11; Feb. 1921, p. 20; Aug. 1921, p. 9.

38 Vision, Feb. 1923, p. 3.

39 List and figures compiled from successive issues of Vision and from Alan Simpson’s article ‘Retreats in the Church of England’, ed. Schofield, R., Retreats, their Value, Methods and Organisation (London, SPCK, 1927, pp. 17–29), p. 28Google Scholar.

40 Leaflet, The Society of Retreat Conductors and its Work, published in the 1930’s; Church Times, Oct. 1924; The Vision, Nov. 1924, pp. 12–14; SRC archives scrapbook; SRC Chapter Minutes, June 4th 1926, all in the Society’s archives.

41 This assessment of the SRC is based on my unpublished research into the Society’s archives.

42 Vision, Aug. 1922, pp. 5–9.

43 Vision, May 1925, pp. 10–12.

44 Lampard, , Leavening the Nation, p. 20.Google Scholar

45 Plater, C. C. and Martindale, C. C., Retreats for Soldiers in Wartime and Afterwards (London, Harding and More, 1919)Google Scholar.

46 e.g. W. R. Inge, ‘Christian Mysticism,’ in Liberal Evangelicalism Pamphlets 1–27 (London, Hodder and Stoughton, c. 1924).

47 Hastings, A., A History of English Christianity, 1920–2000 (London, SCM, 4th Edition, 2001), p. 195.Google Scholar

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49 Simpson, A. R., The Principles and Practice of Retreat (London, Mowbray, 1927), p. 21.Google Scholar

50 Church Times, Feb. 13th 2009, p. 17.

51 Vision, July 1954, p. ix.