Kenneth Kirk
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Kenneth Kirk | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Oxford | |
| Church | Church of England |
| Diocese | Oxford |
| In office | 9 December 1937 – 8 June 1954 |
| Predecessor | Thomas Strong |
| Successor | Harry Carpenter |
| Other post(s) | Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, University of Oxford (1933–1938) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 21 December 1912 (deacon) 1913 (priest) |
| Consecration | c. 1937 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kenneth Escott Kirk 21 February 1886 |
| Died | 8 June 1954 (aged 68) |
| Denomination | Anglicanism |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Oxford |
Kenneth Escott Kirk (1886–1954), also known as K. E. Kirk, was an English
Anglican bishop. He was the Bishop of Oxford in the Church of England from 1937 to 1954. He was also an influential moral theologian, serving for five years as Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology
at Oxford.
Early life and education
Kirk was born in
Anglican priest and was ordained a deacon on 21 December 1912 and moved to a church near Sheffield to begin a curacy, intending to go back to Keble College to finish his graduate study. When World War I broke out, however, that proved impossible. Instead, he spent 1915–1919 with the British Army as a chaplain in France and Flanders
.
Kirk was able to return to
moral theology
in the Church of England and is considered one of the leading moral theologians of the 20th century.
Bishop of Oxford
Kirk was consecrated a bishop on
, however, in devising a compromise solution, and in May, 1950 a resolution was passed in the English Convocation allowing for limited intercommunion. Kirk died on 8 June 1954, before the resolution was passed in July, 1955, formally inaugurating the communion of the two churches.The title of his last published work, Beauty and Bands, is that of a sermon he gave at the episcopal consecration of Glyn Simon in Brecon Cathedral.
Personal life
In 1921 Kirk married Beatrice Caynton Yonge Radcliffe; they had three daughters and two sons. Their elder son was Sir
Eric Waldram Kemp, Chaplain of Exeter College, Oxford and later Bishop of Chichester
, and author of The Life and Letters of Kenneth Escott Kirk, Bishop of Oxford, 1937–1954 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1959).
Major works
- A Study of Silent Minds (1918)
- Some Principles of Moral Theology (1920)
- Ignorance, Faith and Conformity (1925)
- Conscience and Its Problems (1927)
- The Vision of God (The Bampton Lectures of 1928) (1931)
- The Threshold of Ethics (1933)
- Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (1937)
- The Story of the Woodard Schools (1937)
Other works
- The Church in the Furnace (contributor) (1917)
- Essays Catholic and Critical (contributor) (1926)
- Essays on the Trinity and the Incarnation (contributor) (1928)
- Marriage and Divorce (1933)
- The Fourth River (1935)
- The Study of Theology (editor and contributor) (1939)
- The Apostolic Ministry (editor and contributor) (1946)
- The Church Dedications of the Oxford Diocese (1946)
- Beauty and Bands (collection of articles and sermons) (1955)
References
- ^ "Obituary in KES Magazine, SUMMER, 1954". Oldedwardians.org.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
- ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 17 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
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