Richard Harries, Baron Harries of Pentregarth

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The Rt Revd and Rt Hon.
The Lord Harries of Pentregarth

Speaking at the Friends meeting house, Oxford, in 2004
Born 2 June 1936
Other names Richard Douglas Harries
Title Bishop of Oxford
Term 1987–2006
Predecessor Patrick Campbell Rodger
Successor John Lawrence Pritchard
Religious belief Church of England
Spouse Josephine Bottomley
Children 1 son, 1 daughter

Richard Douglas Harries, Baron Harries of Pentregarth (born June 2, 1936) is a retired bishop of the Church of England, and was the 41st Bishop of Oxford from 1987 to 2006.

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[edit] Education

Richard Harries was educated at Wellington College and Sandhurst. After serving in the Army (1954-58) he went up to Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he read theology (BA 1961, MA 1965), before going on to the former Cuddesdon College (1961-63) to study for ordination.

[edit] Career

Richard Harries was ordained deacon in 1963, becoming Assistant Curate of Hampstead St John in the Diocese of London (1963-69). He was ordained priest the following year and later combined his ministry at St John's with the chaplaincy of the former Westfield College (now part of Queen Mary, University of London) (1967-69). He became a Tutor at Wells Theological College (1969-71) and was then Warden of the new Salisbury and Wells Theological College (1971-72). He returned to parish ministry as Vicar of Fulham All Saints (1972-81) and reverted to academia as Dean of King's College London (1981-87). He was appointed Bishop of Oxford in 1987, taking his seat in the House of Lords in 1993. He retired on June 2, 2006, his 70th birthday. In the previous week, on May 26, 2006, Downing Street announced that he was to be made a life peer, and he was gazetted as Baron Harries of Pentregarth, of Ceinewydd in the County of Dyfed on June 30, 2006. He sits as a cross-bencher.

[edit] Other activities

In 1986 Richard Harries took up a subsidiary appointment as Consultant to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on Inter-Faith Relations. As Bishop of Oxford he became a founder member of the Oxford Abrahamic Group, bringing together Christian, Muslim, and Jewish scholars. He chaired the Council of Christians and Jews from 1992 until 2001. In 1988 he was president of the Johnson Society, delivering a Presidential Address on Johnson – A Church of England Saint. He has been a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (including serving as Chair of the HFEA Ethics and Law Committee) and a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, as well as chairing the House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell Research. He was Chairman of the Church of England Board for Social Responsibility (1996–2001) and Chairman of the House of Bishops' Working Party on Issues in Human Sexuality and has served on the Board of Christian Aid. He was also a member of the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords (the Wakeham Commission). A regular contributor to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, including many appearances on Thought for the Day, he has published three books of radio talks.

Richard Harries was appointed a Fellow of King's College London (FKC) in 1983, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1996, and an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2004. In 1994 he became a Doctor of Divinity honoris causa of the University of London and in 2001 he was honoured with the degree of Doctor of the University (DUniv) by Oxford Brookes University. In 2002 he was Visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University College.

[edit] Legacy and reputation

As Bishop of Oxford, and now as Lord Harries of Pentregarth, Richard Harries has been known as a liberal reformer noted for his opposition to Section 28 and for his appointment of the gay canon Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading in 2003, from which Jeffrey John subsequently withdrew amid controversy over homosexual clergy. Some mistakenly believe that Jeffrey John was not appointed because of the threat to the financial stability of the Oxford Diocese by traditionalist churches' withdrawing their support if he were made Bishop. This was never a serious threat. Much more significant was the pressure by conservative provinces in Africa and South America on the Archbishop of Canterbury. They threatened an impaired communion with Canterbury if the consecration went ahead. Another factor was the threat of legal action against both the Archbishop and the Bishop of Oxford by senior conservative churchmen within the Oxford Diocese. This threat of legal action caused senior advisors to the Archbishop including his provincial registrar, John Rees, to persuade the Archbishop to ask Jeffrey John to withdraw his nomination by the Crown.

His passion for social justice informed his liberal views. At the start of his episcopacy, he sought a judicial review of the Church Commissioners' policy on investment, arguing that the Church should be free to invest its money in accordance with its ethical prinicples. Although his main challenge failed, he won an important concession for all charities, as the court ruled that if a significant number of a charities members were dissuaded from giving, or receiving from, that charity because of its investment polity, that policy should be changed. In 2002 Harries joined the biologist Richard Dawkins in denouncing the Emmanuel Schools Foundation for teaching creationism.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Further reading

  • Brierley, Michael (ed.) (2006). Public Life and the Place of the Church: Reflections to Honour the Bishop of Oxford. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5300-5. 
  • Peart-Binns, John S. (2007). Heart in My Head: A Biography of Richard Harries. London: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-8154-X.  Forthcoming.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Religious Posts
Preceded by
Patrick Campbell Rodger		 Bishop of Oxford
1987–2006		 Succeeded by
John Lawrence Pritchard
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