Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln

Edward King was born in 1829, son of a clergyman. He was educated at home by his father and a private tutor, and when he was 19, he went up to Oxford and entered Oriel College, where the Oxford Movement was in full swing. Academically he was average at best. In 1854 he was ordained and made curate of Wheatley, a village near Oxford. There he began to be known as a very effective pastor and councillor. In 1862 he was appointed Principal of Cuddeston, a recently founded Theological college(Seminary) near Oxford. He served there for ten years, and under his leadership the college became a worshipping community, where individual and communal spiritual life flourished. On the academic side, students at Cuddeston read about problems of pastoral work, not in contemporary manuals, but in the writings of Ambrose, Basil and Gregory the Great. They read sermons of Chrysostom, Augustine, and Bernard. But King insisted that preaching could never be effective worthwhile unless it was rooted in a life of prayer and of one's love for one's parishioners. A priest must pray regularly for every member of his parish, individually and by name. He must call on every member once every two months, and must get to know them well enough to understand their problems and know where they stood in need of prayer. He said:
"Christ lives in his saints. We know his life in them. St.Paul prayed to know the POWER of the resurrection, though he knew, though he knew the fact."

If you are to preach, you must make up you minds that you are sent, and sent by God.
Without the gift of love, you will never be a Preacher.

Nothing anonymous will ever persuade- the faith and conduct of the preacher give life and power to his message. Thus preaching is different from mere feeling. You may teach mathematics or geography without being fully convinced. But in delivering the Gospel message, if it is to be a living life-giving message, there must be in the preacher a sense of message and the desire to deliver it.

However, he did not fall or permit his students to fall, into the trap of supposing that a Christian ought to strive to have no interests other than religious ones. He said:

"It is not necessary to be always thinking directly of God. Indeed, it is not possible. Sometimes of course, we ought to, and can do this, but at other times we must give out minds to what we are doing, even if it is playing and amusement. We may of course, commit the chief periods of our time and of our occupation to God by a short prayer, as we do before and after all meals, and before reading the Bible. So also before any study, and after any study, and such a word of prayer to bless our games that they may be innocent and refreshing to us, and those with whom we play. In this way we can carry out the words I have always set God always to me and adopt the motto Laborare est orare(To work is to play). A brief prayer is also possible during work and play, but in the main you should be satisfied with commending your work or play to God, and then yourself into it heartily".

King transformed the college, and the lives of those attending it, not so much by the content of his speeches as by his own life and personality. He seemed to make those around him aware of the presence and love of God. One of his students wrote afterwards of King's influence as follows:
"It was light he carried with him-light shrone through him-light that flowed from him. The room was lit into which he entered. It was as if we had fallen under a streak of sunlight, that flickered, and danced, and laughed, and turned all to colour and gold. The whole place was alive with him. His look, his voice, his gaiety, his beauty, his charm, his holiness, filled it and possessed it. There was an air about it, a tone in it, a quality, a delicacy, a depth, which were his creation... All was human, natural, and free".

In 1885, he was appointed Bishop of Lincoln, succeeding Christopher Wordsworth(Nephew of the Poet William Wordsworth). He noted with satisfaction that it was the original home of John Wesley, whom he greatly admired. As a Bishop, he was extremely effective. One writer called him "the most loved man in Lincolnshire". The private letters of his contemporaries contain many testimonies to his personal holiness and his loving concern for others. He sought out those whom the church had failed to reach, and spoke with them about the Good News of God's love declared in Jesus Christ. Whenever possible, he the work of a prison Chaplain, speaking with everyone from pickpockets to murderers.

Different parties within the church had come to regard various ceremonial usages as a mark where the user stood theologically, and in 1887 Bishop King was denounced as celebrating the Liturgy with practises not permitted by the directives in the Book of Common Prayer and elsewhere governing Anglican worship. Specifically, the charges were:
1. Having Lighted candles on the Altar;
2. Facing "eastward" during most prayers;
3. Mixing a little water with the wine in the chalice;
4. Using the Agnus Dei as hymn just before the receiving of Holy Communion;
5. Making the sigh of the cross when blessing the congregation;
6. Making a ceremony of cleaning the Communion vessels after the service.
At this time they were seen by some as signs of inclination to the views of the Pope. King was tried by a church court presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The decision of the court forbade some of these practises, but permitted others while specifying that they had no theological significance. Thus lighted candles were to be permitted on the altar, but only when needed for purposes of illumination.The Times wrote of the judgement:
"The Ritualists are to have their way in the chief practises impugned-the other party are diligently assured that there is no such significance as has hitherto been supposed in such practises. The Ritualists... are given the shells they have been fighting for, and the Evangelicals are consoled with the gravest assurances that there were no kernels inside them".