The Right Reverend

Geoffrey Rowell
Bishop in Europe
Bishop Rowell in 2009)
Rowell in Vienna, Austria, in 2009
DioceseDiocese in Europe
In office2001–2013
PredecessorJohn Hind
SuccessorRobert Innes
Other post(s)Bishop of Basingstoke (1994–2001)
Orders
OrdinationDeacon 1968
Priest 1969
Consecration2 February 1994
by George Carey
Personal details
Born(1943-02-13)13 February 1943
Alton, Hampshire, England
Died11 June 2017(2017-06-11) (aged 74)
DenominationAnglican
Alma materCorpus Christi College, Cambridge

Douglas Geoffrey Rowell (/ˈraʊəl/; 13 February 1943 – 11 June 2017) was an Anglican bishop and historian.[1] He served as Bishop of Basingstoke and then as the third Bishop in Europe until his retirement on 8 November 2013.[2] Following his retirement he ministered as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Chichester (from 2013) and in the Diocese of Portsmouth (from 2015). He died in the early morning of Trinity Sunday, 11 June 2017.[3]

Early life and education

Rowell was born on 13 February 1943 in Alton, Hampshire, England. He was the eldest son of Cecil Victor Rowell (1908–1997), an engineer, and KateRowell (née Hunter; 1905–1995), a teacher of sick children. Having passed the eleven-plus, he was educated at Eggar's Grammar School, the state grammar school in Alton. He was then awarded a Hampshire County Council scholarship and finished his schooling at Winchester College, then an all-boys independent boarding school.[4]

Rowell was educated at Winchester College and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts (1964), Master of Arts (1968), and Doctor of Philosophy (1968) from Cambridge University and was incorporated MA and DPhil at Oxford University. In 1997 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity (DD) from Oxford.[5]

Career

Rowell never worked in parochial ministry. After ordination he worked as a lecturer in the University of Oxford and assistant chaplain of New College (1968–1972) and then chaplain of Keble College (1972–1994), until his ordination to the episcopate as Bishop of Basingstoke.[6]

From 1999, Rowell was an episcopal patron of Project Canterbury, an online archive of Anglican texts.

Rowell was consecrated as a bishop by George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 2 February 1994 at St Paul's Cathedral,[7] becoming Bishop of Basingstoke, a suffragan bishopric in the Diocese of Winchester.

Rowell was commissioned as Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe (often called "Bishop in Europe") on 18 October 2001 at St Margaret's, Westminster, and enthroned at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar, on 1 November 2001.

Views

At the November 2012 meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England, Rowell was one of the three members of the House of Bishops who voted against the ordination of women as bishops.[8]

Rowell was part of the traditionalist Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England.[9]

Turkish controversies

In 2004, Rowell disagreed publicly with parishioners in Turkey over his plans to lease a historic and recently renovated church building for use as a nightclub. The plan was defeated after popular complaints.[10]

In January 2007, Rowell suspended the chaplain of Istanbul, Ian Sherwood, and the entire chaplaincy council.[11] By 2008 the disagreement between Rowell and the Anglican chaplaincies in Turkey had intensified, as the bishop insisted on ordaining a Turkish convert from Islam despite complaints from local Anglican clergy and laity that the ordination would place them in serious physical danger. When the bishop arrived to carry out the ordination he found himself locked out of all six Anglican churches and was forced to administer the ordination in a borrowed Calvinist chapel. The secretary of the Istanbul chaplaincy council described Rowell as a "rogue bishop",[10] whilst the senior chaplain in Turkey accused Rowell of causing suffering to ordinary people because the bishop's life had been largely "in the shelter of Oxford University".[10]

Outline of career

Styles

Writings

Rowell was extensively published in the field of Anglo-Catholic church history. He was the founding president of the Anglo Catholic History Society. He authored or co-authored the following:

  • Rowell, Geoffrey; Stevenson, Kenneth; Williams, Rowan (2003). Love's Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-150087-9.
  • — (1991). The Vision Glorious: Themes and Personalities of the Catholic Revival in Anglicanism. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-826332-6.
  • —; Chilcott-Monk, Julien (2003). Come, Lord Jesus!: Daily Readings for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. Morehouse. ISBN 978-0-8192-1964-0.
  • — (1992). The English religious tradition and the genius of Anglicanism. Ikon. ISBN 978-1-871805-02-4.

Rowell co-authored and edited these anthologies:

  • — (1990). Confession and Absolution (Essays on the sacrament of penance). London: SPCK. ISBN 0-281-04442-2.
  • — (1993). The Oil of Gladness - Anointing in the Christian tradition (Essays on the sacrament of unction). London: SPCK. ISBN 0-8146-2245-3.

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Rt Rev Geoffrey Rowell "Anglican bishop to Europe who wore purple wellies and told the Pope he prayed for him as his parishioner" The Times 27 June 2017 p57
  2. ↑ "BISHOP ANNOUNCES HIS RETIREMENT". Diocese in Europe. 22 March 2013. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Innes, Robert (11 June 2017). "TRIBUTES TO BISHOP GEOFFREY ROWELL R.I.P." europe.anglican.org. The Diocese in Europe. Archived from the original on 16 June 2017. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  4. ↑ Chapman, Mark D. "Rowell, (Douglas) Geoffrey (1943–2017)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000380342. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ↑ Press Release — Suffragan See of Basingstoke (National Archives)
  6. ↑ "Rowell, Rt Rev. Dr (Douglas) Geoffrey". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ↑ "Briefly". Church Times. No. 6834. 4 February 1994. p. 2. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 21 February 2016 – via UK Press Online archives.
  8. ↑ Bingham, John (26 November 2012). "Half of women bishops opponents in Synod were women". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  9. ↑ Paflin, Glyn (16 June 2017). "Bishop and theologian Dr Geoffrey Rowell dies, aged 74". Church Times. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  10. 1 2 3 Smith, Helena (14 January 2008). "Bishop locked out of churches over Turkish priest". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 June 2017. In 2004, he backed controversial Foreign Office plans to lease a historic chapel in the grounds of the British Consulate – attacked by suicide bombers months earlier – to a Turkish hotelier intent on handing it over to belly dancers.
  11. ↑ "Bishop chastises Istanbul parishioners in growing row". Today's Zaman. 24 January 2007. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
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