John Stapylton Habgood, Baron Habgood, (23 June 1927 – 6 March 2019) was a British

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Euro ...

bishop, academic, and

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

. He was

Bishop of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Church of England, Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Pau ...

from 1973 to 1983, and Archbishop of York from 18 November 1983 to 1995. In 1995, he was made a life peer and so continued to serve in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

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.

Early life and career

Habgood was born on 23 June 1927, the son of Dr Arthur Henry Habgood and his wife Vera. He was educated at Eton,

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

and Ripon College Cuddesdon. A

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

Demonstrator in

Pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

from 1950, he became a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher educatio ...

in 1952. In 1961 Habgood married Rosalie Mary Anne Boston (died 2016); he had two daughters and two sons, including

Francis Habgood Sir Francis John Stapylton Habgood (born 19 November 1964) is a retired senior British police officer. He was the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police. He was appointed in April 2015. He is also a visiting fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford ...

, formerly Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police.

Early ministry

Habgood was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church record ...

as a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

in 1954 and as a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

in 1955. From 1954 to 1956, he was a

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

at St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington, London. From 1956 to 1962 he was Vice-Principal of Westcott House theological college in Cambridge. From 1962 to 1967 he was

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of St John's Church, Jedburgh. In 1967 he became Principal of Queen's College, Edgbaston, a theological college, until his appointment to the episcopate. He was consecrated a bishop and appointed as

in 1973. He was passed over by Margaret Thatcher for appointment as

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

in 1981.

Archbishop of York

Habgood was elevated to Archbishop of York on 18 November 1983. 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. As an archbishop, Habgood was made a Privy Counsellor in 1983. 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. He supported the

ordination of women The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordina ...

to the priesthood, arguing that God is neither male nor female. He also supported accommodating those who did not, and so introduced provincial episcopal visitors to provide pastoral care and oversight to laity, clergy, and parishes who could not accept women priests. Habgood retired as Archbishop of York in August 1995.

Canterbury

When

Robert Runcie Robert Alexander Kennedy Runcie, Baron Runcie, (2 October 1921 – 11 July 2000) was an English Anglican bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1980 to 1991, having previously been Bishop of St Albans. He travelled the world widely t ...

announced his retirement as

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is J ...

in 1990, Habgood was regarded as one of the favourites to succeed him. The religious journalist Clifford Longley described him as "the outstanding churchman of his generation", although noting that Habgood had described himself as too old. 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. Habgood had also attracted criticism inside and outside the Church for his behaviour during the 1987 Crockford's Clerical Directory preface controversy. At the beginning of May a report in the '' Sunday Correspondent'' stated that four candidates were under active consideration: Habgood, David Sheppard ( Bishop of Liverpool), Colin James (

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except dur ...

) and John Waine ( Bishop of Chelmsford). 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. He was endorsed in a leader in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its s ...

'' on 10 July 1990. On 25 July it was announced that the next Archbishop of Canterbury would be

George Carey George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton (born 13 November 1935) is a retired Anglican bishop who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, having previously been the Bishop of Bath and Wells. During his time as archbishop the Ch ...

, the

Bishop of Bath and Wells The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of Do ...

. 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."

House of Lords

From his appointment as

in 1973 to his retirement as Archbishop of York in 1995, Habgood sat in the

as a Lord 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 against

Section 28 Section 28 or Clause 28While going through Parliament, the amendment was constantly relabelled with a variety of clause numbers as other amendments were added to or deleted from the Bill, but by the final version of the Bill, which received ...

of the Local Government Act 1988 which banned

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

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. Habgood was created a

as Baron Habgood, of Calverton in the County of

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east ...

on 8 September 1995, allowing him to continue to sit in the House of Lords as a

Lord Temporal The Lords Temporal are secular members of the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament. These can be either life peers or hereditary peers, although the hereditary right to sit in the House of Lords was abolished for all but ni ...

. He sat as a

crossbencher A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

, rather than join a political party. 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 that was created before permanent retirement achieved full legal recognition under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014.

Religion and science

Habgood was a member and past president of The Science and Religion Forum. He wrote in this area, e.g., his book ''Truths 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 the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most jur ...

' conference on ''Faith, Science and the Future'' held on the MIT campus (12–24 July 1979). An early 21st-century example is his review of Ronald L. Numbers's book ''The Creationists'', which Habgood titled "The creation of Creationism: Today's brand of Protestant extremism should worry theologians as well as scientists".

Books

*''Religion and Science'' (1964; 1965 U.S. publication retitled to ''Truths in Tension: New Perspectives on Religion and Science'') : A

Cavendish Professor of Physics The Cavendish Professorship is one of the senior faculty positions in physics at the University of Cambridge. It was founded on 9 February 1871 alongside the famous Cavendish Laboratory, which was completed three years later. William Cavendish, 7t ...

and

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make ou ...

, Nevill Mott, has cited this book:

"I am impressed too by the point of view of the present Archbishop of York (John Habgood, Science and Religion, ondon: Hodder and Stoughton, 1964, that to understand the Bible we must try to enter into the belief patterns of the period".

*''A Working Faith'' (1980) *''Church and Nation in a Secular Age'' (1983) *''Confessions of a Conservative Liberal'' (1988) *''Making Sense'' (1993) *''Faith and Uncertainty'' (1997) *''Being a Person'' (1998) *''Varieties of Unbelief'' (2000) *''The Concept of Nature'' (2002)

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Britis ...

web site accessed 17:08 GMT Friday 13 July 2011

Arms

References

External links

Biography – John Habgood
on the Gifford Lectures site. 2000–2001 lectures are online.
John Habgood – God debates
at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

website
Contributions in the House of Lords"The Untidiness of Integration: John Stapylton Habgood"
Kevin Seybold, Volume 57 Number 2. June 2005. '' PSCF'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Habgood, John Stapylton 1927 births 2019 deaths Bishops of Durham Archbishops of York Crossbench life peers Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom 20th-century Anglican archbishops Ordained peers People educated at Eton College Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of King's College, Cambridge Alumni of Ripon College Cuddesdon Staff of Westcott House, Cambridge Principals of Queen's College, Birmingham