Richard Godfrey Parsons (1882–1948) was an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

bishop who served in three dioceses during the first half of the 20th century, and a renowned liberal scholar. Parsonshe was born into a Lancashire family on 12 November 1882 and educated at Durham School and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

. Ordained priest in 1907 he was a curate at

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

before four years as

Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

at University College, Oxford. and Principal of Wells Theological College from 1911-16. He served for one year as a Temporary Chaplain to the Forces. Married with two children, he expressed a preference to remain 'at home' and he was posted to '2 General Hospital, London'. He was described as 'Roundfaced'. (Ideally suited to pastoral work, he became Bishop of Middleton, a

suffragan bishop A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

appointment, in 1927. During this period he was one of several clerics who made a major contribution to the revision of the '' Book of Common Prayer''. A man with much sympathy to the poor he enjoyed his time at the

Diocese of Southwark The Diocese of Southwark is one of the 42 dioceses of the Church of England, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. It was created on 1 May 1905 from part of the ancient Dio ...

(1932–41) before translation to

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

; he legally took the See of Hereford at the

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

of his election on 12 November 1941 at

St Margaret's, Westminster The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England. It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster ...

. A devoted family man, he married Dorothy Streeter in 1912. His son died in the

siege of Tobruk The siege of Tobruk lasted for 241 days in 1941, after Axis forces advanced through Cyrenaica from El Agheila in Operation Sonnenblume against Allied forces in Libya, during the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) of the Second World War. ...

and he died himself on 26 December 1948.

References

1882 births People educated at Durham School Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of University College, Oxford Bishops of Middleton Bishops of Hereford 20th-century Church of England bishops 1948 deaths {{ChurchofEngland-bishop-stub