Dr. Geoffrey Francis Fisher is a deeply pious Christian. He is also a gentleman of rational disposition, settled habits and scholarly inclinations. This blending, perhaps more frequently found in the British Isles than elsewhere, has made him just about the ideal man for his job: 99th Archbishop of Canterbury,* Primate of All England and the active spiritual head of the Anglican communion.
This week Dr. Fisher is in the U.S., passing a vacation as guest of the Right Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Those who have met him find him a relaxed, modest man, the proud father of six sons, the possessor of a brisk British wit,† and the personification of his church.
Central Churchmanship. Geoffrey Fisher's father was a country vicar in Warwickshire; so was his father before him. Geoffrey grew up in the calm Christianity of the family parsonage, and never forgot it. After a brilliant record at Exeter College, Oxford (where he was a crack lightweight oarsman), he turned to the church. He was ordained in 1911. Three years later, at 27, he was appointed headmaster of Repton School.
In 1932, Dr. Fisher became Bishop of Chester, and later, Bishop of London. After the death of Archbishop William Temple in 1944, Winston Churchill appointed him to the see of Canterbury. His appointment was not overpopular. One London paper ticked him off as "an old-school-tie bishop."
The new archbishop took office at a period of crisis. Wartime bombings had wrecked or damaged hundreds of Britain's churches. Service as chaplains or enlistments in the armed forces had called away many priests and candidates for the clergy. The church also had a grave internal problem. Archbishop Temple had been a militant Low Churchman who accentuated the Protestantism of the Anglican Communion. His predecessor, Archbishop Lang, had been an equally strong Anglo-Catholic. As a result of the strains of these sharply contrasting administrations, the historic balance between the two factions was wavering.
Dr. Fisher stepped in to restore the balance. Temple, one of the great churchmen of modern Christianity, had driven the church toward social reform by the force of his personality. The new archbishop merged his personality into the unifying force of his office. "I am a central churchman" was his favorite reply to leading questioners, and no one ever found out much more about his personal churchmanship.
Truth & Tension. In 6½ years of office, the archbishop has done more repairing than innovating, has advised more than he has ordered. This is to his taste and suits the present limitations of his office. The Archbishop of Canterbury, although the ranking official of Protestant Christianity since the 17th century, is, by Fisher's own description, "a constitutional governor." In Britain, he has direct authority only over his own diocese. Although he presides over the Church Assembly and deals with the government on ecclesiastical issues, he cannot of himself commit the church to any major decision.