The Paradox of the Cowley Fathers

I’ve just finished reading Serenhedd James’ The Cowley Fathers which, as the subtitle announces, is “a history of the English Congregation of the Society of St. John the Evangelist.” I found it scholarly and for the most part very readable, even fun in spots.

The Society of St. John the Evangelist was an Anglo-Catholic monastic institution founded in Oxford in 1866 by Richard Meux Benson.  It dissolved with two active resident members in 2012.  For most of its life, it was based in the Oxford suburb of Cowley on the grounds now used by St. Stephen’s House, hence the affectionate moniker the Cowley Fathers.

Two paradoxes of its history struck me as I read James’ book, one positive, one not so positive.  First, the positive and downright Biblical paradox.  During its entire history, the Society of St. John the Evangelist had barely over a hundred members who remained in vows, “professions,” until death.  Yet in spite of its modest size it had a profound international impact, including in India, in South Africa, and in urban communities in the United States.  At home in England, it was a leader in the Anglo-Catholic Congresses and in providing retreats and spiritual direction to many, including C. S. Lewis.  More still can be said about their ministry.  The Cowley Fathers embodied the truth that God can work by many or by few.

The unpleasant paradox is one shared by much of the church during the 1960’s and later, that the Society watered down and cast off more and more of its heritage for a modern porridge, even including eventual majority support for women’s ordination and for the formation of Affirming Catholicism.  The motivation was to become more modern, relevant, and attractive, but the result turned out to be more repellant than attractive.  

While reading James’ narrative, it is not easy to discern just how this sad direction came about. But it is clear that Vatican II’s influence on the Church of England certainly influenced the Society as well.  Internally, much of the responsibility of the descent belongs to David Campbell, “the architect of most of the Society’s reforms of the 1960’s,” in James’ perhaps overly kind words, and then Superior General from 1976-1991.  He led the Society into terminal decline, acknowledging “we do not know whether or not there will be many chapters to follow” yet all the while expressing a positive spin on the decline that is pitiful and tragicomical in hindsight. 

Granted, Anglican monasticism as a whole declined in the post-war years; that decline was under way before the 60’s.  But one would think Campbell and the rest of the Society would have grasped that an attractive strength was its robustly catholic Anglican distinctiveness.  To exchange that for worldliness was foolish at best and surely accelerated the sad decline of the Society.  (Note that is my conclusion, not James’.)

Yes, the history of the Society of St. John the Evangelist has lessons for the church today, does it not?  If only those lessons were learned.