Oliver Barclay

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Oliver Barclay 56 1GM FridayOctober 42013 | the times Register Oliver Barclay Well-connected evangelicalwhose work with collegeChristianUnions helped to shapethe religiouslandscape of postwar Britain Oliver Barclayleftagentle but distinc- movements, China beingthe largest. tive mark on religious lifeinBritain and The BritishIVF,with its modestbut evenbeyond.Forfivedecadeshewasan ambitious publishinghouse and abibli- influential, effectiveand well-connect- calresearch centre in Cambridge, acted ed activist in evangelical Christian as amodel forsistermovements around circles. Areflective mild-mannered the world. Barclayservedonits execu- man, known forhis shrewdjudgment, tive committeefrom1959, takingthe he cuthis teeth workingfor the Inter- chair from 1971 to 1979. He would typi- VarsityFellowship,which pioneered cally takehis mostpromisingstafffor a Christian Union groups in universities walk, to explore the idea of pioneering throughout the UK. work in other countries, which manyof Ascion of the bankingfamily,Bar- them went on to do.IFES now has a clayalso found time to writethoughtful presence in 157nations. and well-receivedbooks on topicsran- Barclaysteeredthe IVF through the gingfromevangelicalism in Britain to firstgreat phase of postwar expansion theethicsofpacificism.He wasafound- in Britishhigher education. In 1975 he ingeditor of the journal Scienceand advocated achange of name to the Uni- Christian Belief. Barclay, left,was at the centreofa versitiesand CollegesChristian Fel- The invitation to join the Inter- national uproar after the Cambridge lowship (UCCF), in recognition of the VarsityFellowship (IVF) came in 1945 student Christian Union invited Billy breadth of work in polytechnicsand afterBarclayhad finishedadoctorate Graham to speak in 1955.Canon collegesofeducation. In his retirement in zoologyand wasexploringateaching H.K.Lucewrote adisapproving letter he wasactiveinfoundingaresearch career in aChinese university. Instead, to The Times, above,prompting an council to oversee the theological re- he waspersuaded to join the small staff extended correspondence search armofthe fellowship,and in of the Inter-VarsityFellowship of Evan- 1989 he became foundingeditor with gelical Unions, basedinBloomsbury. Church of England. Consequently,in Brian Robins of the journal Scienceand The movement (now the Universities his Bedford Square office in the 1950s Christian Belief;this tracedits begin- and CollegesChristian Fellowship)had Barclayreceivedaregular stream of nings to an initiative Barclaytookinhis been founded in 1928 by university visitors, all wantingtohear the latest student years to bringtogether afew Christian groups who felt that the thinkingfromthe student Christian friends engagedinscientific research. StudentChristianMovementoftheday Unions. They included such heavy- Barclay’sbooks included Whose gave toolittle prioritytobiblical weight figuresasthe industrialistLaing; World? (writtenunder apseudonym A teachingand evangelism. More liberal Professor Sir Norman Anderson, an Is- N. Triton) and Evangelicalism in Britain churchmen and academic theologians, lamicistwho chairedthe General Syn- 1935-1995,inwhich the history of the fearfulofwhat they regarded as od House of Laity; G. T. Manley,Cam- movement wastracedfromaninsider’s “fundamentalism” viewed the IVF with bridge Senior Wrangler in the year unique vantage point. In the 1980s he suspicion, if not derision. when Bertrand Russell came sixth; and edited abookseriesentitled When Barclay’sletterofinvitation from D. J. Wiseman, DSO and Bar, Professor Christians Disagree,himself contribut- Douglas Johnson, the IVF general sec- of AssyriologyatUCL . ingtothe volume on Pacifism and War. retary, waswarmand expressive.Bef- Around the country, Barclay’sitiner- It revealedthat,now betterinformed ore askingBarclaytojoin, Johnson had ant team, known as TravellingSecre- than in his student years when he had consulted senior members of the IVF’s don, would be Graham’s chief assistant. and his mission insistedthat the gospel taries, worked amongstudents in the espousedthe pacifistconvictions of his council, includingabig donor,John Mainstream churchmen were he preachedwas “in accord with true Christian Unions, which were oftenthe Quaker forebears, he had movedonto Laing, of J. W. LaingConstruction. aghast. Canon H. K. Luce of Durham, scholarship illuminated by revelation”. largest voluntarysocietiesonthe cam- adoptthe “justwar” theory. Laing, Johnson said, showed “unre- protestedinalettertoThe Times.Uni- Canon Luce wasaccusedofsnobbery, pus. UnderBarclay’sleadership,they In 1949 he had marriedDorothy servedsupportand went offlikearock- versitiesexistfor the advancement of and of underestimatingthe intelligence supportedthe committeemembers, as Knott, aconsultant surgeon at the Roy- et!!!” (Johnson wasgiven to underlining learning, Canon Luce contended.In and judgment of undergraduates.Bar- olderfriends, helpingthem “think al Free Hospital. Shediedofcancer in and to multiple exclamation marks, his other fields, an approach which took no clay’sfriend John Stott wrotetoargue theologically” and plan strategically.In May 1964, leaving four children. Later style in marked contrasttothat of Bar- heedofmodernscholarship “would be that it waswrong to associate“funda- the process Barclay, once describedas that same year,Barclaysucceeded clay, who wasmoderatetoafault. laughedout of court”.Why should mentalism” with “extremesand extrav- “a paragon of the understatement”, Johnson as IVF General Secretary. The From 1953Barclaywas responsible religion be anydifferent? Luce’scon- agances” or to equateitwith obscurant- became one of the best-networked followingyear he marriedDaisy Hick- forgivingoverall direction to the fel- clusion wasunequivocal: “Isitnot time ism; in those senses, Billy Graham was leaders in evangelical circles. ey,afamily friend. Their next-door lowship’s work in the universities; to as- that our religious leaders madeitplain not afundamentalistatall. Oliver Rainsford Barclaywas bornin neighbours in Highgate, NorthLon- sisthim he recruited some of the most that while they respect, or even admire, As the correspondence overthe Billy 1919 in Kobe, Japan, son of JosephGur- don, were Denis and Edna Healey. able and energetic graduatesof his gen- Dr Graham’s sincerityand personal Graham visit showed,Barclayand the ney Barclayofthe Church Missionary Barclayissurvivedbyhis second wife eration. Almostimmediately he found power,they cannot regard fundamen- IVF were at the centre of adebatewith- Society(CMS) and great grandson of and by the four children from his first himself at the centre of anational up- talism as likely to issue in anythingbut in the postwar Britishchurchesabout the MP and brewer Thomas Fowell marriage. His youngest son, John, is roar,when the Cambridge Inter-Colle- disillusionment and disasterfor edu- the nature of Christian belief and the Buxton, amember of the Clapham Sect. Lightfoot Professor of DivinityatDur- giateChristian Union (CICCU) invited catedmen and women in this twenti- purpose of organisedreligion and theo- He waseducated at Gresham’s School ham University. the US evangelistBilly Graham to eth-centuryworld?” logical scholarship.Student Christians in Holt,Norfolk, andat TrinityCollege, speak at its triennial mission to the uni- Alively correspondence ensued, — some of them the religious leaders of Cambridge. OliverBarclay, scientist,student worker versityin1955. Barclay’slifelongfriend runninginThe Times forseveral weeks; the future — were undoubtedly in the By 1947the International Fellowship and evangelical historian, wasborn on from student days, John Stott,Rectorof it waslater collectedand republishedin vanguard of an evangelical revolution of Evangelical Students (IFES) had February22, 1919.Hedied on September All Souls Church, Langham Place Lon- booklet form.Supporters of Graham which would eventually reshape the been formed,with tennational student 12,2013, aged 94 Albert Hurt Foundry managerofThe Timeswho presided overthe last noisydaysofhot-metal before thepaper’s productionwentdigital In the far-offdaysof“hot metal” news- pastedontopage-sizedboards. These warduringwhich he servedwith the that plaguedFleet Street until the paper production, a newspaper’s foun- would be photographedand converted RoyalCorps of Signals at home and in mid-1980s. dryhadavitalrole,convertingthecom- intoaphotosensitive polymer plate Europe afterthe Normandy landings. Long before this Hurt had switched binedlabours of reporters, typesetters from which amould wascreated. Demobbedin1947asasergeant,here- to nights and movedovertothe man- and compositors intoaformwhich These tentative steps had still not turnedtohis London apprenticeship. agement side. He waspromoted to could be taken to the printingpresses. achieved the goal of directinput to the In 1952 he joined The Times in the FoundryManager in 1979. He took re- AlbertHurt — known to all as Bert — production process by journalists. Fin- FoundryDepartment,where at firsthe tirement fromThe Times in 1986, glad to wasanintegral partofthis process at ally the technologyofthe oldorder was helpedinthe process of makingthe enjoymore time with his family on car- The Times formore than 30 years. He dramatically succeededatThe Times flexible moulds from the formes of type avanningholidays, which he and his became FoundryManager at the paper and its fellow News International from which the printingplates would wifehad alwaysenjoyed, and tending in the late1970s. publications in 1986 by agreat leap into eventually be created.
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