GEOFFREY FISHER,
(1887 - 1972),ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
Famous Freemason - The World
Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, GCVO, PC.
(5 May 1887 - 15 September 1972)
Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961.
Geoffrey Fisher was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire on 5 May 1887, the youngest of 10 children. His father Henry, a gentle scholarly anglican priest, could trace his ancestry back to priestly origins back to the 10th century and a monk named John Fisher, in the Anglo-Saxon Benedictine Abbey of Burton.
He grew up in Higham on the Hill, Leicestershire, and was brought up an Anglican, being the son, grandson, and great- grandson of rectors of Higham. He was educated at Marlborough school and went on to study Theology at Exeter College, Oxford. He had deviated from family tradition s when he went up to Oxford in 1906, instead of Cambridge, which his immediate ancestors had all preferred.
His parents encouraged Geoffrey to pursue his inclination toward an academic life, so he was well prepared when he took the post of assistant master at his old school, Marlborough, in 1911.
It was when he was an assistant master at Marlborough College that he decided to be become a priest. He was ordained in 1913 at Wells Theological College in Salisbury. At this time, the English public schools had close ties with the Church of England, and this was especially true of Marlborough which had been founded for the education of sons of the Clergy. It was also quite a common occurrence for schoolmasters to be in Holy Orders,.
In 1914 Geoffrey Fisher was appointed Headmaster of Repton School, (at 27 years old!) succeeding William Temple, whom he later also succeeded as Archbishop of Canterbury.
He married Rosamond Forman, daughter of the cricketer Arthur Forman, who was a master at Repton. It was during his headmastership that Geoffrey Fisher was initiated into the Old Reptonian Lodge No. 3725 at Freemasons’ Hall, London on 11 January 1916. He was passed in October and made a Master Mason on 9 January 1917. This was the start to a long and continued successful Masonic career.
In 1932 Fisher was appointed Bishop of Chester, and in 1939 he became Bishop of London.
In 1942 William Temple was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Temple was a strong Christian Socialist, and both the Church and the general public foresaw great changes in the post-war period. However, Temple died in 1944. Geoffrey Fisher was appointed as it is rumoured that Temple had apparently regarded Fisher as his obvious successor.
As Archbishop of Canterbury, Fisher put considerable effort into the task of revising and updating the Church of England's canon law. The canons of 1604 were at that time still in force, despite being largely out of date.
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John's World
Geoffrey Fisher on the front page of Time Magazine, Officiating at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and meeting Billy Graham
During his time as Archbishop he presided at the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and later at her coronation in 1953 as Queen Elizabeth II. The event was carried on television for the first time. The previous coronation, George VI in 1937, had been filmed for newsreels.
He is also remembered for his visit to Pope John XXIII in 1960, the first meeting between an Archbishop of Canterbury and a Pope since the English Reformation, and an ecumenical milestone.
Fisher was also a committed and active Freemason, as were many Church of England bishops of his day. Fisher served as Grand Chaplain in the United Grand Lodge of England.
He had a controversial view on the nuclear deterrent in 1958, at a time of heightened fear of a nuclear war and mutual destruction between the West and the Soviet Union, Fisher said that he was "convinced that it is never right to settle any policy simply out of fear of the consequences. “... For all I know it is within the providence of God that the human race should destroy itself in this manner." He was also quoted as saying, "The very worst the Bomb can do is to sweep a vast number of People from this world into the next into which they must all go anyway"
The press heavily criticised for this view, but a number of clergy, including Christopher Chavasse, Bishop of Rochester, defended him, saying, "In an evil world, war can be the lesser of the two evils."
Fisher retired in 1961. He was succeded by Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of York.
Geoffrey Fisher was made a life peer, with the title Baron Fisher of Lambeth, of Lambeth in the County of London (Lambeth being a reference to Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury). By this time, appointment to the House of Lords as a peer had become a convention for retiring Archbishops of Canterbury (since Randall Davidson in 1928). Geoffrey Fisher was the first to be created a "life peer" following the Life Peerages Act 1958.
In addition to his peerage, Fisher was honoured with the Royal Victorian Chain in 1949. and was made Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1953.
Fisher died on 15 September 1972 and was buried in a crypt in St Andrew's Church, Trent, Dorset, a place he had chosen himself. He had been an honorary assistant priest in Trent since his retirement. A side chapel at Canterbury Cathedral was subsequently dedicated to his memory, situated next to a similar memorial chapel to Archbishop Michael Ramsey.
Geoffrey Fisher’s “high rank and profile as a Churchman and simultaneous activities as a Freemason did not escape the notice of those who wished to decry Freemasonry. His dignity and pride in the Craft overcame all criticism.”
SOURCES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Fisher
MQ Magazine article: SOURCE: http://www.mqmagazine.co.uk/issue-18/p-07.php
He is also remembered for his visit to Pope John XXIII in 1960, the first meeting between an Archbishop of Canterbury and a Pope since the English Reformation, and an ecumenical milestone.
Fisher was also a committed and active Freemason, as were many Church of England bishops of his day. Fisher served as Grand Chaplain in the United Grand Lodge of England.
He had a controversial view on the nuclear deterrent in 1958, at a time of heightened fear of a nuclear war and mutual destruction between the West and the Soviet Union, Fisher said that he was "convinced that it is never right to settle any policy simply out of fear of the consequences. “... For all I know it is within the providence of God that the human race should destroy itself in this manner." He was also quoted as saying, "The very worst the Bomb can do is to sweep a vast number of People from this world into the next into which they must all go anyway"
The press heavily criticised for this view, but a number of clergy, including Christopher Chavasse, Bishop of Rochester, defended him, saying, "In an evil world, war can be the lesser of the two evils."
Fisher retired in 1961. He was succeded by Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of York.
Geoffrey Fisher was made a life peer, with the title Baron Fisher of Lambeth, of Lambeth in the County of London (Lambeth being a reference to Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury). By this time, appointment to the House of Lords as a peer had become a convention for retiring Archbishops of Canterbury (since Randall Davidson in 1928). Geoffrey Fisher was the first to be created a "life peer" following the Life Peerages Act 1958.
In addition to his peerage, Fisher was honoured with the Royal Victorian Chain in 1949. and was made Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1953.
Fisher died on 15 September 1972 and was buried in a crypt in St Andrew's Church, Trent, Dorset, a place he had chosen himself. He had been an honorary assistant priest in Trent since his retirement. A side chapel at Canterbury Cathedral was subsequently dedicated to his memory, situated next to a similar memorial chapel to Archbishop Michael Ramsey.
Geoffrey Fisher’s “high rank and profile as a Churchman and simultaneous activities as a Freemason did not escape the notice of those who wished to decry Freemasonry. His dignity and pride in the Craft overcame all criticism.”
SOURCES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Fisher
MQ Magazine article: SOURCE: http://www.mqmagazine.co.uk/issue-18/p-07.php
Geoffrey Fisher in his Archbishop of Canterbury regalia (Left and Right), and (Centre) a photo from his younger days with a quote