The Red Dean

I have now completed the biography of the Red Dean, otherwise Hewlett Johnson, noticed at reference 1. A biography published with the support of and a foreword by one of his daughters.

Born into a Northern manufacturing family, after Oxford he did a stint in the family firm as an engineer, before discovering his talent for the church.

As a young man, deeply shocked by the slums of Manchester, where he was posted for a while. A shock which no doubt was part of his shift to the left.

A gifted public speaker - in the days when people queued up to hear such - and was fond of show. He was able to help fill Madison Square Garden for a peace rally in 1946. He liked dressing up in more or less obsolete clerical garb - the sort of thing that Trollope wrote about in his Barchester novels. He liked the ceremonies of the Anglican Church, particularly the one's in which he had an important, not so say, leading role. He liked being made a fuss of on his travels around the Soviet Union - travels which were paid for by the Soviet Union. And rather to the annoyance of his Archbishop, he liked to wear the jewelled pectoral cross given him by an important Russian ecclesiastic, despite pectoral crosses being the prerogative of bishops in the Anglican Church.

Although relatively rich himself - his first wife had brought in plenty of money - his concern for the poor was genuine enough. As was his concern, his personal mission that greater humanity - a more Christian spirit even - should prevail in both church and public affairs. So far, so good; a champagne socialist of the better sort.

But he clung to his belief in Stalin's System Soviet through thick and thin, despite the mounting evidence of massacres and atrocities. And he hung onto his job at Canterbury far too long, only giving up when he was nearly ninety. Far too old for the considerable responsibilities of Dean. And I dare say that he had been a difficult colleague, despite his considerable personal charm and courtesy, for years before that. I dare say also that the Chapter now would find some way to remove a dean who took such a public and controversial stand. A dean is, after all, only a sort of senior civil servant to the bishop's (or in this case, archbishop's) sort of minister. Right or wrong, 'Yes Minister' rules.

I was rather struck by the extent of the bombing of Canterbury. A small incident in the wider war, but it did strike me that somehow Europe as a whole had failed when we took to bombing each others' medieval cities. Somehow, it seems worse than the far worse destruction visited on the villages, towns and cities that got in the way of the Western Front a generation previously. At least they were on the front.

I learned that, despite the shooting culture that had prevailed in the Soviet Union for a long time, with him as one of the chief shooters, Malenkov on his downfall in 1961 was allowed to retire to the directorship of a hydroelectric plant. He subsequently converted back to his native Russian Orthodoxy and died a holy death in 1988. A visit by Malenkov during his days of power being the occasion of one of the Dean's spats with his Archbishop.

Quite a few references to one of his bosses, Cosmo Lang, the subject of reference 2, so I shall have to turn him up again.

But first task is to decide what to do with this book. On the shelf with it or find some suitable home for it elsewhere? Give it to one of our local churches on the grounds that it might thereby find a third good home? Give it to Oxfam on the grounds that that requires less effort?

PS: the 'Alterius Orbis Papa' of reference 2 has become completely obscure in the intervening five years, but reference 3 comes to the rescue. A title for the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred by the Pope at the time of the Normans. To quote: 'Pope Urban received him with all possible respect, and publicly spoke of him as "Alterius Obis Papa", a phrase much quoted by Anglicans, as though it implied the recognition in the Archbishop of Canterbury of a jurisdiction independent of Rome'.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-work-for-sundays.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2013/12/birthday-book.html.

Reference 3: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05431b.htm.

Reference 4: The Red Dean: The public and private faces of Hewlett Johnson - John Butler - 2011.