Eric Kemp

The Rt Revd Eric Kemp MA(Oxon) DD HonDLitt
Bishop of Chichester
Diocese	Diocese of Chichester
Installed	1974
Term ended	2001 (retirement)
Predecessor	Roger Wilson
Successor	John Hind
Other posts	Bishop Emeritus of Chichester 2001–2009 Dean of Worcester 1969–1974
Orders
Ordination	1939 (deacon); 1940 (priest)
Consecration	1974
Personal details
Born	(1915-04-27)27 April 1915
Died	28 November 2009(2009-11-28) (aged 94)
Denomination	Church of England
Spouse	Patricia Kirk
Children	1 son; 4 daughters[1]
Alma mater	Exeter College, Oxford

Eric Waldram Kemp (27 April 1915 – 28 November 2009) was a Church of England bishop. He was the Bishop of Chichester from 1974–2001 and one of the leading Anglo-Catholics of his generation and one of the most influential figures in the Church of England in the last quarter of the twentieth century.^[2]

Education

Kemp was educated at Brigg Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford, graduating with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in 1936, Master of Arts in 1940, Bachelor of Divinity in 1944 and Doctor of Divinity in 1961. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1951 and received an honorary DLitt from the University of Sussex.

Ministry

Kemp trained for ordination at St Stephen's House, Oxford from 1936-39 where he later chaired the House Council. He was ordained deacon in 1939 and priest in 1940. He served as assistant curate of St Luke's Church in Newtown from 1939-41. He moved back to Oxford, where he remained for almost 31 years, first as Priest Librarian of Pusey House, Oxford (1941–46) and Chaplain of Christ Church, Oxford (1943–46) and then as Fellow, Tutor and Chaplain of Exeter College, Oxford from 1946-69. He was Dean of Worcester from 1969–74 and Bishop of Chichester from 1974-2001. He was consecrated bishop before the introduction of a mandatory retirement age and was able to continue in the post for as long as he chose. As a result, on his retirement he was one of the oldest and one of the longest-serving diocesan bishops in Church of England history. He had also held subsidiary appointments as Chaplain to the Queen (1967–69) and Canon and Prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral (1952–2001). In April 1998 he was appointed Chanoine d'Honneur (Canon of Honour) of Chartres Cathedral. Following his retirement he was made Bishop Emeritus of Chichester.

Family

Kemp's father-in-law, Kenneth E. Kirk, was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology in the University of Oxford and Bishop of Oxford. Kemp wrote a book about Kirk^[3] and in 2001 presented his letters and papers to Lambeth Palace Library. He and his wife Patricia had five children. One of his daughters, Alice Kemp, has been ordained a Church of England Priest in the Diocese of Bristol.^[4]

Significance

Kemp was one of the leading scholars of ecclesiastical law and a participant in conversations between the Church of England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain. He was a former member of the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved.^[5] In 1998 a volume of essays on English Canon Law was published in his honour.^[6]

He had special concern for homeless people and those suffering with HIV and Aids and was a supporter of the campaign to save the French Convalescent Home in Brighton. In 1994 he became President of the National Liberal Club.

He was one of only four bishops in the United Kingdom who declined to sign the Cambridge Accord, affirming the human rights of homosexuals.^[7]

He encouraged women to serve in the permanent diaconate in his diocese but was an opponent of the ordination of women to the priesthood and women priests were not licensed in the Diocese of Chichester during his episcopate. The first woman to be licensed in the diocese, following the appointment of Kemp's successor, John William Hind, was the Reverend Pat Sinton who was licensed as priest-in-charge of St Mary's Shipley in November 2001. In Kemp's time women were able to work within the diocese through the approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury.^[8] One of his daughters, Alice Kemp, is a Church of England priest in the Diocese of Bristol.^[4]

Publications

Author

• 1948: Canonization and Authority in the Western Church (London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press)
• 1956: Bishops and Presbyters at Alexandria (London: Faber)
• 1957: An Introduction to Canon Law in the Church of England (London: Hodder and Stoughton)
• 1959: The Life and Letters of Kenneth Escott Kirk, Bishop of Oxford, 1937-1954 (London: Hodder & Stoughton)
• 1961: Counsel and Consent: aspects of the government of the Church as exemplified in the history of the English provincial synods (London: SPCK)
• 1964: The Anglican-Methodist Conversations: a comment from within (London: Oxford University Press)
• 1979: Square Words in a Round World (London: Fount)
• 2006: Shy but not Retiring: the memoirs of the Right Reverend Eric Waldram Kemp; edited and prepared for publication by Jeremy Matthew Haselock (London: Continuum ISBN 0-8264-8073-X)

Contributions

• 1948: E. G. Wood, The Regal Power of the Church: or, The fundamentals of the canon law (with a preface and a supplementary bibliography by E. W. Kemp (London: Dacre Press)
• 1954: N. P. Williams (London: SPCK) (sermons by Williams, with a memoir by Kemp)
• 1954: Papal Decretals Relating to the Diocese of Lincoln in the Twelfth Century (ed. with an introduction on the sources by Walther Holtzmann, with translations of the texts and an introduction on the Canon Law and its administration in the twelfth century by Eric Waldram Kemp, Publications of the Lincoln Record Society vol. 47, Hereford: Lincoln Record Society)

Edited

• 1969: Man: Fallen and Free; Oxford essays on the condition of man (London: Hodder & Stoughton)

External links

• Bibliographic directory from Project Canterbury

References

Deans of Worcester Early modern Henry Holbeach John Barlow Philip Hawford Seth Holland John Pedder Thomas Wilson Francis Willis Richard Edes James Montague Arthur Lake Joseph Hall William Juxon Roger Maynwaring Christopher Potter Richard Holdsworth John Oliver Thomas Warmestry William Thomas George Hickes William Talbot Francis Hare James Stillingfleet Edmund Marten John Waugh Sir Richard Wrottesley William Digby Robert Foley St Andrew St John Late modern Arthur Onslow John Jenkinson James Hook George Murray John Peel Hon Grantham Yorke Lord Alwyne Compton John Gott Robert Forrest William Moore Ede Arthur Davies William Beck Bobby Milburn Eric Kemp Tom Baker Robert Jeffery Peter Marshall Peter Atkinson

Bishops of Chichester High Medieval Stigand of Selsey Godfrey Ralph de Luffa Seffrid Hilary John of Greenford Seffrid Simon of Wells Nicholas de Aquila Richard Poore Ranulf of Wareham Ralph Neville Robert Passelewe Richard de la Wich John Climping Stephen Bersted Gilbert of St Leonard Late Medieval John Langton Robert de Stratford William Lenn William Reade Thomas Rushhook Richard Mitford Robert Waldby Robert Reed Stephen Patrington Henry Ware John Kemp Thomas Polton John Rickingale Thomas Brunce Simon Sydenham Richard Praty Adam Moleyns Reginald Pecock John Arundel Edward Story Richard FitzJames Early modern Robert Sherborne Richard Sampson George Day John Scory George Day John Christopherson William Barlow Richard Curteys Thomas Bickley Anthony Watson Lancelot Andrewes Samuel Harsnett George Carleton Richard Montagu Brian Duppa Henry King Peter Gunning Ralph Brideoake Guy Carleton John Lake Simon Patrick Robert Grove John Williams Thomas Manningham Thomas Bowers Edward Waddington Francis Hare Matthias Mawson Sir William Ashburnham Late modern John Buckner Robert Carr Edward Maltby William Otter Philip Shuttleworth Ashurst Gilbert Richard Durnford Ernest Wilberforce Charles Ridgeway Winfrid Burrows George Bell Roger Wilson Eric Kemp John Hind Martin Warner

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