Alfred Edwin Morris (8 May 1894 – 19 October 1971) was the

Bishop of Monmouth The Bishop of Monmouth is the diocesan bishop of the Church in Wales Diocese of Monmouth. The episcopal see covers the historic county of Monmouthshire with the bishop's seat located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Woolos in Newport, whi ...

and

Archbishop of Wales The post of Archbishop of Wales was created in 1920 when the Church in Wales was separated from the Church of England and disestablished. The four historic Welsh dioceses had previously formed part of the Province of Canterbury, and so came unde ...

in the middle of the 20th century. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

service with the

RAMC The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

he was educated at St David's College Lampeter and then

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...

Ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

in 1924 he became

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and

Theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at St David's College,

Lampeter Lampeter (; cy, Llanbedr Pont Steffan (formal); ''Llambed'' (colloquial)) is a town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales, at the confluence of the Afon Dulas with the River Teifi. It is the third largest urban area in Ceredigion, ...

, holding the post until his elevation to the

episcopate A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

. A noted author and Sub-Prelate of the

Order of St John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

, he retired in 1967 and died four years later. His papers are held at the Roderic Bowen Library. A staunch defender of the Church in Wales, Morris attracted controversy when he said that "The Church in Wales is the Catholic Church in this land" and referred to Roman Catholic and Nonconformist clergy as being "strictly speaking, intruders" whose rights to function in Wales could not be acknowledged. He also campaigned against the retention of the word "Protestant" in the Coronation Oath, entering into detailed correspondence with the then Archbishop of Canterbury,

Geoffrey Fisher Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, (5 May 1887 – 15 September 1972) was an English Anglican priest, and 99th Archbishop of Canterbury, serving from 1945 to 1961. From a long line of parish priests, Fisher was educated at Marlb ...

, on the issue. He was unsuccessful, and Fisher even questioned whether such matters were really the business of a prelate who was "not a bishop of the Church of England". Nonetheless, Fisher (who had by then retired) and Morris were later among those senior clergy who objected to the proposed Anglican-Methodist reunion which was being mooted during the late 1960s and early 1970s. They remained on friendly terms, with Fisher even saying that the new flurries of correspondence between them was "quite like old times". For all his claims of a Tractarian position however, Morris did not, it appears, always endear himself to those clergy who took a more Anglo-Catholic stance. He prohibited extra-eucharistic devotions to the Sacrament (such as Benediction) in his diocese and insisted that permission be sought before the Sacrament was reserved in a tabernacle or aumbry for use in giving Holy Communion to the sick. Although the basis for his faith and doctrine was undoubtedly the

1662 Book of Common Prayer The 1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'' is an authorised liturgical book of the Church of England and other Anglican bodies around the world. In continuous print and regular use for over 360 years, the 1662 prayer book is the basis for numerous ot ...

, he oversaw as Archbishop of Wales the preparation of a new Order for the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist for use in the Church in Wales. When, in 1966 this replaced the 1662 rite he commended it unreservedly, saying that the new rite brought "priest and people more effectively than does the Prayer Book service". The John Piper east window and mural at St Woolos' (Gwynllyw) Cathedral in Newport, Wales, were commissioned and installed during his episcopate.

Works

* The problem of life and death (1950) * The Christian use of alcoholic beverages (1960) * The Lambeth Quadrilateral and reunion (1969)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Alfred Edwin 1894 births 1971 deaths People from Ceredigion Alumni of St John's College, Oxford British Army personnel of World War I Academics of the University of Wales, Lampeter Bishops of Monmouth Archbishops of Wales 20th-century bishops of the Church in Wales 20th-century Anglican archbishops Sub-Prelates of the Venerable Order of Saint John Royal Army Medical Corps officers 20th-century Anglican theologians 19th-century Anglican theologians