BISHOP OF LONDON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25736, 6 January 1945, Page 5

BISHOP OF LONDON

NOMINATED AS PRIMATE SCHOLAR WITH WIDE OUTLOOK (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4. It is announced from No. 10 Downing street that the King has been pleased to nominate the Bishop of London, the Right Rev. Geoffrey F. Fisher, for election by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury as Primate of All England and Metropolitan in place of the late Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr Fisher, who has been nominated by the King as Archbishop of Canterbury, is a great churchman, a brilliant scholar, tall and rugged, with dark hair, twinkling eyes, a keen sense of humour, and a wide outlook, states the Press Association. He is essentially a family man, with a wife and six sons, whom he described as his assets when he arrived in Chester as bishop in 1932. His words proved true, and their home became the centre for the life of the young people of the diocese. Chester was his first ecclesiastical appointment. He had previously for 21 years been a schoolmaster. Chester soon realised that the new bishop was a practical man with wide sympathies. He once acted as an organ-grinder in the streets while nurses collected for a local infirmary. He also organised a football team in which he and his six sons and those of another bishop and a parson played against the cathedral choir boys. , , During his five years as Bishop of London he made a multitude of friends among all classes of the community. His practical sympathy with air raid victims appealed to the hearts of thousands, and his preaching, always practical, as well as scholarly, attracted large congregations. Dr Fisher has often been called a non-political bishop. He preached cooperation in family life, education, community and social life, holding that it “ increases the effectiveness of our witness to Christian principles and their influence upon the public mind.” Dr Fisher also follows :he tradition of his late predecessor. Dr Temple, in his efforts towards interdenominational co-operation and has freovently expressed strong views on the need for social reforms. He rebuked a number of clerics who protested when the Salvation Army were permitted to hold a commemoration service for General William Booth in St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is not the first +ime that Dr Fisher has succeeded Dr Temple, for at the age of 27 he followed him as headmaster of Fapton. which post Dr Fishah«ld for 18 years until he went tr Chester.