Eric George Jay (1 March 1907 – 7 February 1989) was a British

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

priest, academic and author. Jay was educated at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

and the

College of the Resurrection A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary education, tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding academic degree, degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further educatio ...

; and

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

in 1931. After a

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () 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 who are ass ...

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

he was a lecturer at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

. He was a Chaplain in the

RAFVR The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) was established in 1936 to support the preparedness of the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) in the event of another war. The Air Ministry intended it to form a supplement to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force ( ...

from 1940 until 1946 and

priest in charge A priest in charge or priest-in-charge (previously also curate-in-charge) in the Church of England is a priest in charge of a parish who is not its incumbent; they will normally work on a short-term contract and have less freedom to act within the ...

St Clement Danes St Clement Danes is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London. It is now situated near the 19th-century Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand in Aldwych. Although the first church on the site was reputedly founded in the 9th cent ...

from 1945 until 1947. Dean of Nassau from 1948 to 1951. He was Senior Chaplain to the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

from 1951 to 1958; Principal of the

Montreal Diocesan Theological College Montreal Diocesan Theological College (known as Montreal Dio) is a theological seminary of the Anglican Church of Canada. It offers the Master of Divinity, Diploma in Ministry, to candidates for ordination and other students, from Anglican, United ...

from 1958 to 1964; and Dean of the Faculty of

Divinity Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a single ...

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

from 1964 to 1970. In 1937, Jay married Margaret Webb, and they had two daughters. In 1957, aged eighteen, their elder daughter gave birth to a daughter who at Jay’s insistence was adopted. Becoming Sheila Caffell, she was later one of those who died in the

White House Farm murders The White House Farm murders took place near the village of Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex, England, during the night of 6–7 August 1985. Nevill and June Bamber were shot and killed inside their farmhouse at White House Farm along with their adopte ...

Selected publications

Works by Jay include:

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

catalogue, accessed Friday 30 October 2015 *''The Existence of God'' (1946) *''Origen’s Treatise on Prayer'' (1954) *''New Testament Greek; an Introductory Grammar'' (1958) *''Son of Man, Son of God'' (1965) *''The Church: its changing image through twenty centuries'' (1977)

References

1907 births 1989 deaths Alumni of the University of Leeds Deans of Nassau Academics of King's College London Fellows of King's College London Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Alumni of the College of the Resurrection Academic staff of McGill University Royal Air Force chaplains World War II chaplains {{UK-Christian-clergy-stub