Ronald Ralph Williams (14 October 1906 – 3 February 1979) was a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

bishop. He was

Principal Principal may refer to: Title or rank * Principal (academia), the chief executive of a university ** Principal (education), the head of a school * Principal (civil service) or principal officer, the senior management level in the UK Civil Ser ...

St John's College, Durham St John's College is one of the Colleges of Durham University#Types of College, recognised colleges of Durham University. The college was established in 1909 as a Church of England theological college and became a full constituent college of th ...

from 1945 to 1953 and

Bishop of Leicester The Bishop of Leicester is the Ordinary of the Diocese of Leicester in the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England. Through reorganisation within the Church of England, the Diocese of Leicester was refounded in 1927, and St Martin's ...

from 1953 to 1979.

Early life and education

Williams was born on 14 October 1906 to the Revd Ralph Williams and Mary ( Sayers). He attended

The Judd School The Judd School (often known simply as Judd) is an 11–18 voluntary aided, grammar school and sixth form in Tonbridge, Kent, England. It was established in 1888 at Stafford House on East Street in Tonbridge, where it remained for eight years bef ...

, a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Mall ...

, Kent. He went on to study English and theology at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

and

Ridley Hall, Cambridge Ridley Hall is a theological college located on the corner of Sidgwick Avenue and Ridley Hall Road in Cambridge (United Kingdom), which trains men and women intending to take Holy Orders as deacon or priest of the Church of England, and members ...

. He obtained

second class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

in Part I of the English Tripos in 1926,

first class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

in Part I Theology Tripos, and a distinction in Part II of the Theology Tripos with which he graduated with

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) degree in 1928.

Ordained ministry

Williams was too young to be ordained immediately after leaving university in 1928, and so spent the following year as a tutor at

St Aidan's College, Birkenhead St Aidan’s College was a Church of England theological college in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, open from 1847 to 1970. History The college was founded in 1846 by Revd Dr Joseph Baylee, vicar of Birkenhead, with the approval of John Bird ...

. Having been ordained in the

, he served his

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 ...

Leyton Parish Church The Parish Church of St Mary with St Edward and St Luke, Leyton, also known as Leyton Parish Church and formerly, St Mary the Virgin, Leyton, is a Church of England parish church in Leyton, East London. Although records of the church go back to ab ...

from 1929 to 1931, and became

examining chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intelligenc ...

to the

Bishop of Chelmsford The Bishop of Chelmsford is the Ordinary (officer), Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chelmsford in the Province of Canterbury.''Crockford's Clerical Directory 2008/2009 (100th edition)'', Church House Publishing (). The current bisho ...

in 1931. He then returned to

, the theological college where he trained for ministry, serving as its chaplain from 1931 to 1934. He was Home Education Secretary for the

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...

(CMS) from 1934 to 1940. With the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he joined the Religions Division of the Ministry of Information in 1940, and went on to serve as its director from 1943 to 1945. In 1944, it was announced that he had been selected as the next

in succession to C. S. Wallis. St John's College is both a residential college of the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...

and an

evangelical Anglican Evangelical Anglicanism or Evangelical Episcopalianism is a tradition or church party within Anglicanism that shares affinity with broader evangelicalism. Evangelical Anglicans share with other evangelicals the attributes of "conversionism, a ...

theological college of the Church of England. He took up the appointment in 1945, and rebuilt the college physically and financially after the end of the War. He was also an

honorary canon Canon () is a Christian title usually used to refer to a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, in one of the houses within the precinct of ...

Durham Cathedral Durham Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Durham, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Durham and is the Mother Church#Cathedral, mother church of the diocese of Durham. It also contains the ...

from 1953 to 1954. In October 1953, it was announced that Williams would be the next

. He was installed as diocesan bishop during a service at Leicester Cathedral in January 1954. He also served as President (ie its figurehead) of

Queen's College, Birmingham Queen's College was a medical school in central Birmingham, England, and a predecessor college of the University of Birmingham. It was founded by surgeon William Sands Cox in 1825 as The Birmingham Medical School, a residential college for med ...

from 1957 to 1963. He entered the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

in 1959 as a

lord spiritual The Lords Spiritual are the bishops of the Church of England who sit in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom. Up to 26 of the 42 diocesan bishops and archbishops of the Church of England serve as Lords Spiritual (not including retired bish ...

. Although described as a liberal evangelical, he voted against an Anglican-Methodist reunion and was a staunch defender of the establishment of the Church of England. He abstained from voting on the

Sexual Offences Act 1967 The Sexual Offences Act 1967 (c. 60) is an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It legalised homosexual acts in England and Wales, on the condition that they were consensual, in private and between two men who had attained the age of 21. ...

: his twofold reasoning was that homosexuality should not be illegal but that it was still morally wrong, and so "the balance of my convictions can be expressed only by abstention". He retired in 1979, and was succeeded as Bishop of Leicester by

Richard Rutt Cecil Richard Rutt CBE (27 August 1925 – 27 July 2011) was an English Roman Catholic priest and a former Anglican bishop. Rutt spent almost 20 years of his life serving as an Anglican missionary in South Korea, a country for which he develo ...

Publications

* (1950) ''Authority in the Apostolic Age''. London: SCM Press. * (1952) ''The Perfect Law of Liberty: An Interpretation of

Psalm 119 Psalm 119 is the 119th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in the English of the King James Version: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord". The Book of Psalms is in the third section of the Hebrew Bible, the ...

''. London: A. R. Mowbray. * (1953) ''The Acts of the Apostles: Introduction and Commentary''. Torch Bible Commentaries. London: SCM Press. * (1965) ''The Letters of John and James''. The Cambridge Bible Commentary. London: Cambridge University Press. * (1966) ''What's Right with the Church of England''. London: Lutterworth Press. * (1971) ''I Believe, and Why''. London: A. R. Mowbray.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Ronald Ralph 1906 births 1979 deaths 20th-century Church of England bishops 20th-century evangelicals Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Bishops of Leicester British evangelicals Evangelical Anglican bishops Holders of a Lambeth degree People educated at The Judd School Principals of St John's College, Durham