The Lord Habgood | |
|---|---|
| Archbishop of York | |
.jpg) Habgood in 1981 | |
| Province | Province of York |
| Diocese | Diocese of York |
| Installed | 18 November 1983 |
| Term ended | 1995 |
| Predecessor | Stuart Blanch |
| Successor | David Hope |
| Other post | Bishop of Durham (1973–1983) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1954 |
| Consecration | 1973 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Stapylton Habgood (1927-06-23)23 June 1927 Wolverton, England |
| Died | 6 March 2019(2019-03-06) (aged 91) York, England |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Member of theHouse of Lords | |
| Life peerage 7 September 1995 – 3 October 2011 | |
| Member of theHouse of Lords | |
| In office 4 July 1973 – 7 September 1995 | |
John Stapylton Habgood, Baron Habgood,PC (23 June 1927 – 6 March 2019)[1] was a BritishAnglican bishop, academic, andlife peer. He wasBishop of Durham from 1973 to 1983, andArchbishop of York from 18 November 1983 to 1995. In 1995, he was made a life peer and so continued to serve in theHouse of Lords after stepping down as archbishop. He took a leave of absence in later life, and in 2011 was one of the first peers to explicitly retire from the Lords.
Habgood was born inWolverton, Buckinghamshire, on 23 June 1927, the son of Dr Arthur Henry Habgood and his wife Vera.[2][3] He was educated atEton,King's College, Cambridge andRipon College Cuddesdon. AUniversityDemonstrator inPharmacology from 1950, he became afellow ofKing's College, Cambridge in 1952.[4] Also in 1952, he was awarded aDoctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree for his thesis titled "Hyperalgesia: an electro-physiological approach".[5]
In 1961 Habgood married Rosalie Mary Anne Boston (died 2016); he had two daughters and two sons, includingFrancis Habgood, formerly Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police.[3]
Habgood hadAlzheimer's disease in his later years, and died at a care home inYork on 6 March 2019, at the age of 91.[2]
Habgood wasordained in theChurch of England as adeacon in 1954 and as apriest in 1955.[6] From 1954 to 1956, he was acurate atSt Mary Abbots Church, Kensington, London.[7] From 1956 to 1962 he was Vice-Principal ofWestcott House theological college in Cambridge. From 1962 to 1967 he wasRector ofSt John's Church, Jedburgh. In 1967 he became Principal ofQueen's College, Edgbaston, a theological college, until his appointment to the episcopate.[3]
He was consecrated a bishop and appointed asBishop of Durham in 1973.[8] He was passed over byMargaret Thatcher for appointment asBishop of London in 1981.[9]
Habgood was elevated toArchbishop of York on 18 November 1983.[10] The other name put forward for the Prime Minister's consideration was that of former England cricketer,David Sheppard, by then Bishop of Liverpool. Sheppard's socialist views – he later sat in the Lords as a Labour Peer – did not commend him to Thatcher.[11] As an archbishop, Habgood was made aPrivy Counsellor in 1983.[12]
As Archbishop of York, Habgood was seen as a leader in keeping more conservative Anglicans within the church during growing divisions over the issue of women's ordination to the priesthood.[13] He supported theordination of women to the priesthood, arguing thatGod is neither male nor female.[14] He also supported accommodating those who did not, and so introducedprovincial episcopal visitors to provide pastoral care and oversight to laity, clergy, and parishes who could not accept women priests.[14] Habgood retired as Archbishop of York in August 1995.
WhenRobert Runcie announced his retirement asArchbishop of Canterbury in 1990, Habgood was regarded as one of the favourites to succeed him. The religious journalistClifford Longley described him as "the outstanding churchman of his generation", although noting that Habgood had described himself as too old.[15] As preparations for the selection of the new archbishop began, Habgood gave a television interview stating that he was interested in being considered as "if I believed that this is what the church really wanted and if I believed that this is what God really wanted I would be under a strong obligation to say yes." At the same time it was reported that Habgood was not popular among those close to the Prime Minister,Margaret Thatcher, who would make the actual recommendation to the Queen.[16] Habgood had also attracted criticism inside and outside the Church for his behaviour during the1987 Crockford's Clerical Directory preface controversy.
At the beginning of May a report in theSunday Correspondent stated that four candidates were under active consideration: Habgood,David Sheppard (Bishop of Liverpool),Colin James (Bishop of Winchester) andJohn Waine (Bishop of Chelmsford).[17] Habgood declined to take up the automatic place he could have had on the Crown Appointments Commission, which would select the two names to be given to the Prime Minister.[18] He was endorsed in a leader inThe Times on 10 July 1990.[19] On 25 July it was announced that the next Archbishop of Canterbury would beGeorge Carey, theBishop of Bath and Wells. Habgood described him as "a good choice", adding that "there is a little human bit in anybody that likes the top job, but that is a very small part in my feelings. In my heart of hearts I didn't really want the job. If it had come five years ago I might have thought differently but you slow up and it is an enormously tiring job."[20]
From his appointment asBishop of Durham in 1973 to his retirement asArchbishop of York in 1995, Habgood sat in theHouse of Lords as aLord Spiritual. This was due to the senior rankings of the two bishoprics in the Church of England, which each granted an automatic seat in the Lords. He voted againstSection 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which bannedlocal authorities from "promoting homosexuality" and state schools from teaching the "acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship": it was later repealed in 2000 in Scotland and in 2003 in the rest of the UK.[21]
Habgood was created alife peer asBaron Habgood, of Calverton in the County ofBuckinghamshire on 8 September 1995,[22] allowing him to continue to sit in the House of Lords as aLord Temporal. He sat as acrossbencher, rather than join a political party.[14] Later in his life he ceased attending the Lords and took leave of absence; on 3 October 2011 he became one of the first two peers to formally and permanently retire from membership under a newly instituted procedure[23] that was created before permanent retirement achieved full legal recognition under theHouse of Lords Reform Act 2014.
Habgood was a member and past president of The Science and Religion Forum.[24] He wrote in this area, e.g., his bookTruths in Tension: New Perspectives on Religion and Science (1965). Another example of his work in this area is "Faith, Science and the Future: the Conference Sermon", which was given at theWorld Council of Churches' conference onFaith, Science and the Future held on theMIT campus (12–24 July 1979).[25] In 2000, he delivered theGifford Lectures onThe Concept of Nature at theUniversity of Aberdeen.[26] An early 21st-century example is his review ofRonald L. Numbers's bookThe Creationists, which Habgood titled "The creation of Creationism: Today's brand of Protestant extremism should worry theologians as well as scientists".[27]
"I am impressed too by the point of view of the present Archbishop of York (John Habgood, Science and Religion, [London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1964]), that to understand the Bible we must try to enter into the belief patterns of the period".[28]
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| Preceded by | Principal ofQueen's College, Birmingham 1967–1973 | Succeeded by |
| Church of England titles | ||
| Preceded by | Bishop of Durham 1973–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Archbishop of York 1983–1995 | Succeeded by |
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| People | |
