Charles Simeon (1759-1836)

Silhouettes of Simeon preaching

A few days in Ripon gave me the opportunity to begin reading in earnest. My first aim is to  get to know much better the man whose chair I shall inherit later in the year, Charles Simeon, the extraordinary evangelical preacher and leader who founded the Simeon Trust.


I've come under Simeon's influence in the course of my ministry in a number of different ways. My Christian faith came to life when I was a student at St Aldate's Church, Oxford - one of the 140 or so parishes to which the Trust has sole or shared responsibility for appointing an incumbent - and I first learned about him there. Years later, I was instituted to my first living, at South Cave and Ellerker with Broomfleet, on the day he is commemorated in the Church of England Calendar, 13th November, the anniversary of his death. On that occasion, the late Professor Arthur Pollard, who was Reader in the parishes, gave me a copy of a book about Simeon that he had co-edited in a series called 'Great Anglicans'. 


In 1997 I moved to Beverley Minster, but I was not presented by Simeon's Trustees, who are its patrons, because my predecessor had been appointed as a Diocesan Bishop (Peter Forster, Bishop of Chester), and so the right to appoint passed for that occasion to the Crown. But it was a Simeon's living, which the great man himself prized dearly. In an essay in the book given to me by Professor Pollard, the story is told  of how he was once asked by one Dikes of Hull to sell the advowson (the right of presentation) to the Duke of Northumberland, whose family had historic connections with the Minster. In his reply Simeon pointed out first that he was not free to sell it because he acted not for himself when purchasing it (when its sale by Beverley Corporation was compelled by the Corporation Act of 1835) but as the agent of those who had subscribed, and then added, 'And I am God's Agent also; and have bought the souls of that place for him - What account should I give to him at his judgment seat, if with my views of the worth of a Gospel Ministry, I should deprive them of it after having secured [it] for them. What are Dukes or Kings in comparison of fidelity to God?'


In 2003 I was invited by the then Chair of the Trust, Peter Williams, to become a Trustee - an immense privilege - and duly heard Simeon's Charge to his Trustees, which is read aloud whenever a new Trustee takes up the role. Since then I have represented the Trust in appointments to perhaps 20-30 parishes, mostly in Yorkshire when I was at Beverley, and in the North-West and West Midlands since coming to Manchester Diocese. Holy Trinity, Ripon, was the first to which I had returned for a second appointment. This year the Trustees have appointed me as Chair, in succession to the Venerable Gordon Ogilvie, who has led the Trust with great dedication and energy for several years.


For the sabbatical I am equipped with a copy of the recent (2011) biography of Simeon by Derek Prime (Charles Simeon - An ordinary pastor of extraordinary influence) and the much older (1892) biography by H G C Moule. The 1847 American edition of his memoirs is also available online (all 491 pages), and in a few days' time I shall be taking possession of a set of his Horae Homileticae - his collected sermon outlines on the whole Bible - which has recently been donated to the Trust. 


I hope to contribute a few insights from Simeon's life and works to this blog, but next comes something he might not have thought too much of...my visit to Rome!

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us....

Hebrews 12:1