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A Bishop for Essex: Bernard Ward and the Diocese of Brentwood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Stewart Foster O.S.M.
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Extract

Major changes in ecclesiastical government are seldom effected without disagreement or tension. The immediate background to the creation of the Diocese of Brentwood in 1917 bears ample testimony to this truth. Three areas of difficulty were especially evident in the decade before the separation of Essex from the Archdiocese of Westminster: the longstanding dispute between the dioceses of Westminster and Southwark; a clash of personalities between Archbishop Bourne and Bishop Amigo; and a protracted argument over the administration of St. John’s Seminary, Wonersh, the management of Southwark’s trust funds and the availability of funds for any new ecclesiastical territory.

Type
Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 1993 , pp. 556 - 571
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 For a summary of the dispute see Clifton, M.: Amigo: Friend of the Poor (Leominster, 1987) pp. 37–50.Google Scholar

2 Doubleday was Missionary Rector of Woolwich. His parishioners petitioned Amigo protesting against Doubleday’s departure, with the result that the new Rector of Wonersh remained nominal Rector of Woolwich until 1909.

3 Henri Alexis Lepicier (1863–1936): a Frenchman who entered the Servite Order in London (1878), where he was ordained in 1885. He worked in England (1890–92) before appointment to the Chair of Dogmatic Theology at Propaganda. Prior General of the Servites (1913–20), he was titular Archbishop of Tarsus (1924). He held numerous appointments on behalf of the Holy See and was created cardinal (1927). A theologian and specialist in Mariology, Lepicier was a prolific author.

4 See Clifton op. cit., pp. 43f.

5 The Archdiocese of Cardiff was created in 1916.

6 Foster, S.: The Catholic Church in Stock from Penal Times to the Present Day (Stock/Great Wakering, 1991) pp. 72–73.Google Scholar

7 BDA, Ward Papers, de Lai to Ward, 20 February 1917.

8 Three of Ward’s sisters entered Religious life, his brother Wilfrid was an accomplished essayist and biographer, and another brother, Granville, became a major benefactor of Douai Abbey.

9 Oldmeadow, E.: Francis Cardinal Bourne (London, 1940) vol. 1, p. 73.Google Scholar

10 ‘The Life Work of Bishop Ward’ in Brentwood Diocesan Magazine, 2, June 1920, p. 44.

11 J. G. Vance, ‘ “Men of Little Showing”: (6) The Very Rev. Burton, Canon’ in The Clergy Review vol. 2, no. 5, Nov. 1931, p. 410.Google Scholar

12 Ibidem p. 411.

13 Ward, M.: The Wilfrid Wards and the Transition II: Insurrection versus Resurrection (London, 1937), p. 115.Google Scholar

14 Ibidem.

15 Ibidem.

16 Archbishop Edward, Myers writing in The Clergy Review vol. 2, no. 1, Jan. 1931, pp. 25–35.Google Scholar

17 Ibidem.

18 Vance, art. cit., p. 413.

19 Ibidem pp. 411–12.

20 Myers, art. cit.

21 Vance, art. cit., p. 415.

22 Ibidem pp. 414–15.

23 Ibidem p. 418.

24 M. Ward, op. cit., p. 115.

25 Ibidem p. 116.

26 Canon Burton succeeded Ward as President in 1916; both Granville and Wilfrid Ward died in 1916. In September 1916 Bernard Ward received an annuity of four hundred pounds from the estate of Granville, which greatly recommended him to Bourne for appointment to the new diocese in Essex.

27 The Anglican Diocese of Chelmsford was established in 1914.

28 The Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre settled at New Hall, near Chelmsford, in 1799. They often supported two resident priests, one a chaplain to the community, the second to care for the local Catholic population.

29 BDA, Ward Papers, Bourne to Ward, 24 February 1917.

30 BDA, Ward Papers, Ward to Bourne, 1 March 1917.

31 BDA, Ward Papers, Ward to Bourne, 3 March 1917.

32 BDA, Ward Papers, Ward to Bourne, 8 March 1917.

33 BDA, Ward Papers, Ward to Bourne, 14 March 1917.

34 SDA, Episcopal Correspondence (Brentwood), Ward to Amigo, 14 March 1917.

35 SDA, Episcopal Correspondence (Brentwood), Ward to Amigo, 21 March 1917.

36 Oldmeadow, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 128.

37 Dockery, J. B.: They That Build: The Life of Mother Clare of Brentwood (London, 1963) p. 106.Google Scholar

38 BDA, Ward Papers, Ward to Bourne, 12 April 1917.

39 Quoted in McCaul, P.: St. Helen’s Parish, Brentwood, 1837–1937 (Brentwood, 1987), p. 59.Google Scholar

40 BDA, Ward Papers, Bishop Ward’s Enthronement Address, 7 November 1917.

41 Oldmeadow, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 169.

42 BDA, Ward Papers, Cardinal Bourne’s Allocution at the Enthronement of Bishop Ward, 7 November 1917, p. 9.

43 Dockery, op. cit., p. 148.