Richard Chartres

Richard John Carew Chartres KCVO FSA (born 11 July 1947) is the current Bishop of London, a position he has held since 1995. Before this appointment, he was Bishop of Stepney (1992–1995) and Gresham Professor of Divinity (1987–1992).

Life

Early life

Anglicanism portal

He was born in Ware, Hertfordshire to an English mother and an Irish Huguenot father.^[3]His great-uncle was John Chartres "...called [the] 'Mystery Man of the Treaty'. He was a member of Sinn Fein and a Protestant civil servant. He was also undoubtedly a gun runner for Michael Collins."^[4] He was educated at Hertford Grammar School (now Richard Hale School) and Trinity College, Cambridge (MA), where he read history before studying theology at Cuddesdon and Lincoln theological colleges.

Priest

Chartres was ordained as a priest in 1974. During this time he was chaplain to Robert Runcie, then Bishop of St Albans and later Archbishop of Canterbury; he received a Lambeth Bachelor of Divinity degree. He holds honorary doctorates from St Mary's College, Brunel University, City University London, and London Metropolitan University.

Gresham professor

From 1987 to 1992, he was Professor of Divinity at Gresham College in London. Based on a three-part lecture series given in May 1992, he published A Brief History of Gresham College 1597–1997.^[5] During the first lecture of the original lecture series he referred to the college as a "magical island like Atlantis" disappearing and re-emerging from the sea. This was a reference both to the Invisible College and Francis Bacon's New Atlantis.

Other Gresham lectures by Chartres covered prayer (Autumn 1991), the Shroud of Turin (November 1988) and the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (December 1989) when he spoke about about the Gresham Jerusalem Project.

Bishop

On 15 May 1992, he was nominated^[6] Bishop of Stepney. He was consecrated as bishop on 22 May 1992.^[2]

In November 1995, he was confirmed as the Bishop of London.^[7] He also became Prelate of the Order of the British Empire^[8] and Dean of the Chapels Royal. He is an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple, a Liveryman of the Merchant Taylors' Company and Honorary Freeman of the Weavers' Company. Richard Chartres is a Privy Counsellor. In 1997 he was appointed a Chaplain of the Venerable Order of Saint John.^[9]

In 1997, he was one of the executors of the will of Diana, Princess of Wales and delivered an address at her memorial service in 2007. He confirmed Prince William. On 12 September 2009 he presided at the marriage of Lord Frederick Windsor to actress Sophie Winkleman at the Chapel Royal in Hampton Court Palace.

He is a patron of Prospex, a charity that works with young people in North London, and a patron and a Fellow of the Burgon Society for the study of academical dress. He is also a Patron of the Georgian Group.

Chartres is responsible for the Church of England's relations with the Orthodox churches, representing the Church of England at the funeral of Russian Orthodox Church's Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and at the enthronement of his successor, Patriarch Kirill, in Moscow.

He is the Founder and Chairman of the Trustees of the St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace. He is also a Trustee of Co-exist, sitting on the advisory council of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. He is a patron of the Westminster Theological Centre and of St Paul's Theological Centre. In October 2005, Chartres joined Marianne Suhr at St Giles in the Fields, London, to launch a new maintenance project for the capital's historic churches.^[10]

Chartres was created a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours.^[11] In 1999 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

In January 2006 he was criticised by the media for his decision to spend Easter on a cruise ship giving lectures on theology rather than attend the services in St Paul's Cathedral. Chartres was on a two-month sabbatical, his first in 33 years.^[12] He preached the sermon at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on 29 April 2011.

Green issues

Since its launch in 2006, Chartres has led the Church of England's Shrinking the Footprint campaign, aimed at cutting 80% of the church's carbon emissions by 2050.^[13] In this launch and subsequently, Chartres criticised pollution of the planet by people going on holidays in aeroplanes. Michael O'Leary, boss of the low-cost airline Ryanair, responded that "the Bishop of London has got empty churches - presumably if no one went on holidays perhaps they might turn up and listen to his sermons. God bless the Bishop!"^[14] Also, after criticism that his taking flights for "diocese work" as well as retaining a chauffeur-driven car were against the ideals of this campaign, he has himself pledged not to fly for a year.^[15]

In October 2008, the Independent on Sunday named Chartres as number 75 of the top 100 environmentalists in Britain in their "Green List".^[16]

Personal life

In 1982, Chartres married Caroline, then a freelance writer and now commissioning editor for a publishing house, by whom he has four children, Alexander, Sophie, Louis and Clio.

Styles

• Richard Chartres Esq (1965–1973)
• The Revd Richard Chartres (1973–1986)
• The Revd Prof Richard Chartres (1986–1992)
• The Rt Revd Richard Chartres (1992–1995)
• The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres (1995–2010)
• The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres KCVO (2010-present)

References

External links

• Bishop of London biography
• The Peerage: Richard Arthur Carew Chartres
• Interview with Richard at The World Economic Forum 2011 about Faith and Climate Change