Proclaimer Blog
The parting of friends – a sobering story
I've just started reading a now-out-of-print book that a good friend bought for me. It's called "The Parting of Friends" by David Newsome and it was published in 1966. My copy cost 63s and I'm young enough to say I don't even know what that means. It's the story of the dissolution of the evangelical heritage in the Wilberforce family. It's esepcially a study of how many of those influenced by the Oxford Movement and those who eventually became Roman Catholics came from a strong evangelical background. All three Wilberforce children who entered Anglican ministry (Robert, Samuel & Henry) studied at Oriel College Oxford and married into strong evangelical families. But all were influenced by the downgrade to a greater or lesser extent.
I confess it's a period of history I know precious little about – certainly when it comes to the church (politics is another matter again). But I'm warned by my friend to be saddened and sobered by the speed of the change. What a contemporary issue! It's a change I see all around us today. Churches (and evangelical dynasties) that were one generation ago thoroughly orthodox have quickly changed – how quickly! I suppose it's encouraging to see that this is not a new phenonemon. However, evangelicals do not always do a good job of raising evanglicals, I observe. Thank God for the exceptions!
More on this as I read through.
Addendum: not so out-of-print after all: there is a new edition available through Amazon published by Gracewing.