Leslie Weatherhead

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Leslie Dixon Weatherhead (1893-1976) was an English Christian theologian in the liberal Protestant tradition. Renowned as one of Britain's finest preachers in his day, Weatherhead achieved notoriety for his preaching ministry at City Temple in London and for his books, including The Will of God, The Christian Agnostic and Psychology, Religion, and Healing.

Weatherhead trained for the Methodist Ministry at Richmond Theological College, in south-west London. The first world war cut short his training, and he became Methodist Minister at Farnham, Surrey, in September 1915. After serving in India, Manchester, and Leeds, Weatherhead was called, as a Methodist Minister, to be Minister of the City Temple, a Congregational Church on Holborn Viaduct in London.

His book This is the Victory was first printed in 1940 (preface dated November 1940) and reprinted in March 1942. In the space of time between these two editions, the City Temple was "gutted by fire from incendiary bombs dropped from enemy aeroplanes". He was able to continue his ministry thanks to the nearby St Sepulchre church. After the war, Weatherhead raised the funds to rebuild the City Temple, largely from John D. Rockefeller. The City Temple stands to this day and is a congregation of the United Reformed Church.

Weatherhead served as President of the Methodist conference in 1953. The re-built City Temple was opened in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II in 1958. In 1960, Weatherhead retired to live at Bexhill-on-Sea. He died in 1976.

His son A. Kingsley Weatherhead wrote Leslie Weatherhead: A Personal Portrait.

Notable Weatherhead quotes include:

"The opposite of joy is not sorrow. It is disobedience."
"The trouble with some of us is that we have been inoculated with small doses of Christianity which keep us from catching the real thing."