“The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” So said William Temple, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942 until his death on this day in 1944, 65 years ago. Born in 1881, Temple attended Rugby School and Balliol College Oxford, then became a lecturer, the headmaster of Repton School, a clergyman, the Bishop of Manchester, and then the Archbishop of York.
Temple’s term as Archbishop of Canterbury occurred during the Second World War. Christians disagree as to whether it is ever right to engage in war; Temple’s attitude was influenced by the horrendous persecution of the Jews, and like many leading Christians he believed that war against the Nazis was justified. In 1942 together with Rabbi Joseph Hertz he founded the Council of Christians and Jews to counter anti-Jewish bigotry.
Temple visited Normandy in mid-1944 during Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of western Europe which turned the tide of the War, but he died before the war ended the following year. Temple is remembered for his definition of worship: “Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to His purpose. And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.”