Charles Fuge Lowder - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Charles Fuge Lowder was a priest of the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

. He was the founder of the Society of the Holy Cross

Society of the Holy Cross

The Society of the Holy Cross is an international Anglo-Catholic society of priests with members in the Anglican Communion, the Continuing Anglican Movement and the Roman Catholic Church's Anglican Use...

, a society for Anglo-Catholic

Anglo-Catholicism

The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....

priests.

Early life

Charles Lowder was born at Bath, England, the eldest of two sons and four daughters of Charles Lowder, a banker, and his wife Susan Fuge. He studied at King's College School

King's College School

King's College School, commonly referred to as KCS, King's, or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school for day pupils in Wimbledon in south-west London. The school was founded as the junior department of King's College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand, before relocating to...

, London, before going to Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

in February 1840. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree, a second in classics

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

in 1843 and a Master of Arts degree in 1845. While at Oxford he attended the University Church of St Mary the Virgin

University Church of St Mary the Virgin

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin is the largest of Oxford's parish churches and the centre from which the University of Oxford grew...

where he heard John Henry Newman preach. Under Newman's influence Lowder was drawn into the Oxford Movement

Oxford Movement

The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...

and decided to enter the priesthood.

Early parish ministry

Lowder was ordained a deacon

Deacon

Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

on Michaelmas

Michaelmas

Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September...

1843 and became a curate at Walton near Glastonbury

Glastonbury

Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,784 in the 2001 census...

. He was ordained a priest in 1844 by Bishop Denison of Salisbury

Diocese of Salisbury

The Diocese of Salisbury is a Church of England diocese in the south of England. The diocese covers Dorset and most of Wiltshire and is a constituent diocese of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese is led by the Bishop of Salisbury and the diocesan synod...

and became chaplain of the Axbridge

Axbridge

Axbridge is a town in Somerset, England, situated in the Sedgemoor district on the River Axe, near the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. The town population according to the 2001 census was 2,024.-History:...

workhouse. From 1845 to 1851 he was curate of Tetbury

Tetbury

Tetbury is a town and civil parish within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in the 2001 census.In the Middle Ages,...

, Gloucestershire. However, Lowder wished to move to a parish with a more Catholic pattern of worship and in 1851 he became assistant curate to James Skinner at St Barnabas' Church, Pimlico

Pimlico

Pimlico is a small area of central London in the City of Westminster. Like Belgravia, to which it was built as a southern extension, Pimlico is known for its grand garden squares and impressive Regency architecture....

. St Barnabas', a chapel of ease

Chapel of ease

A chapel of ease is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently....

to St Paul's Knightsbridge was at the time at the vanguard of the Ritualist movement. The church lay at the heart of an area of slums, having been built to serve the poor.

There was, however, controversy regarding St Barnabas' use of Catholic ritual. A Mr Westerton, an opponent of the High Church

High church

The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...

worship at St Barnabas', stood for the post of churchwarden in an attempt to bring them to a stop and hired a man to parade up and down the street wearing a sandwich-board canvassing for votes. In what he later called "a moment of madness" Lowder gave money to the choirboys to buy rotten eggs and encouraged them to pelt the board carrier. As a result Lowder was called in front of a magistrate and fined. He was also reprimanded by his bishop and suspended from duty for six weeks.

Keeping a low profile, Lowder travelled to France and stayed at Yvetot

Yvetot

Yvetot is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-History:The name is of Scandinavian origin . The town is most likely of Scandinavian origin too. There is also a locality in Bromölla municipality in southern Sweden bearing the same name...

seminary. While there he read a life of St Vincent de Paul. The example of Vincent and the Lazarists

Lazarists

Congregation of the Mission is a vowed order of priests and brothers associated with the Vincentian Family, a loose federation of organizations who claim St. Vincent de Paul as their founder or Patron...

had a great influence on him and he was convinced of the need for a secular order of priests in the Church of England to provide mutual spiritual support to one another and to extend the Catholic faith, particularly among the poor.

Society of the Holy Cross

On 28 February 1855 in the chapel of the House of Charity in Soho

Soho

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

, Lowder and five other priests founded the Society of the Holy Cross

Society of the Holy Cross

(SSC) and Lowder became the first Master. The five other founder members were Charles Maurice Davies, David Nicols, Alfred Poole, Joseph Newton Smith and Henry Augustus Rawes (three of whom would later become Roman Catholics). Lowder took up the austerest form of the society's rule of life and so committed himself to celibacy. The society grew quickly drawing other Anglo-Catholic

Anglo-Catholicism

priests from some of the poorest slum areas in London. Before long the society was at the forefront of the Catholic revival

Anglo-Catholicism

. The society was particularly influential in the second phase of Anglo-Catholicism

Anglo-Catholicism

following Newman's reception into the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the great SSC heroes were at one time Lowder's curates, including Father Mackonochie

Alexander Heriot Mackonochie

Alexander Heriot Mackonochie SSC was a Church of England clergyman and mission priest known as "the martyr of St Alban's" on account of his prosecution and forced resignation for ritualist practices.-Early life:...

and Father Wainright (both of whom were later vicars of St Peter's, London Docks).

See also Society of the Holy Cross

Society of the Holy Cross

Wapping

In August 1856 Lowder was invited by the rector to become head of the mission at St George's-in-the-East

St George in the East

St George in the East is an Anglican Church and one of six Hawksmoor churches in London, England, built from 1714 to 1729, with funding from the 1711 Act of Parliament...

at the centre of the London Docks

London Docks

The London Docks were one of several sets of docks in the historic Port of London. They were constructed in Wapping downstream from the City of London between 1799 and 1815, at a cost exceeding £5½ million. Traditionally ships had docked at wharves on the River Thames, but by this time, more...

. The mission expanded quickly and later that year it opened an iron chapel (The Good Saviour) in Wapping

Wapping

Wapping is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets which forms part of the Docklands to the east of the City of London. It is situated between the north bank of the River Thames and the ancient thoroughfare simply called The Highway...

and in 1857 began holding services in the rented Danish chapel of St Saviour at Wellclose Square

Wellclose Square

Wellclose Square lies in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, between Cable Street to the north and The Highway to the south.The western edge, now called Ensign Street, was previously called Well Street. The southern edge was called Neptune street. On the north side is Graces Alley, home to...

. In 1857 the mission was joined by Elizabeth Neale (sister of John Mason Neale

John Mason Neale

John Mason Neale was an Anglican priest, scholar and hymn-writer.-Life:Neale was born in London, his parents being the Revd Cornelius Neale and Susanna Neale, daughter of John Mason Good...

) who founded the Community of the Holy Cross

Community of the Holy Cross

The Community of the Holy Cross is an Anglican religious order founded in 1857 by Elizabeth Neale , at the invitation of Fr. Charles Fuge Lowder, to work with the poor around . The Community later felt drawn to follow the Rule of St Benedict, and moved to their convent to Rempstone near...

to assist in the mission's work.

The presence of the sisters of the community allowed Lowder to extend the mission's work providing schools, a refuge for prostitutes, a hostel for homeless girls, night classes and parish clubs, an insurance scheme for dockers, coal for the poor and general poor relief.

The mission was, however, controversial due to its High Church

High church

practices. Lowder, for example, wore eucharistic vestments (and was probably the first Anglican priest in London to do so). Riots took place outside the mission, stones were thrown and services were interrupted. Most of the trouble, however, focused on Lowder and the mission priests at the parish church and the chapels saw less trouble. Though he was often accused of "Romanism" Lowder was strongly loyal to the Church of England and was deeply upset by a number of his friends and curates becoming Roman Catholics (at one point all his curates left overnight, leaving him alone at the mission).

St Peter's, London Docks

In 1860 Lowder acquired land for a church and began raising funds. St Peter's was consecrated on 30 June 1866 and Lowder became perpetual curate

Perpetual curate

A Perpetual Curate was a clergyman of the Church of England officiating as parish priest in a small or sparsely peopled parish or districtAs noted below the term perpetual was not to be understood literally but was used to indicate he was not a curate but the parish priest and of higher...

(and on the retirement of the previous rector in 1873, vicar

Vicar

In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...

). The day after the consecration cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

was discovered in the parish. The conscientious work of the mission priests and sisters during the ensuing epidemic earned Lowder the love of his parishioners. From then on he was known to them as "the Father of Wapping", "the Father" or "Father Lowder". Lowder thereby became the first Church of England priest to receive the title "Father".

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Lowder managed to avoid prosecution for ritualistic practices, largely on account of the respect for him among his parishioners and fellow clergy. An attempt in 1877-8 to prosecute him under the Public Worship Regulation Act was withdrawn by Archbishop Tait, who had helped draft the act, fearing that the prosecution would become a cause celebre. The failure of the prosecution was a major victory for the Anglo-Catholic movement and contributed to the acceptance of advanced Catholic ritual in the Church of England.

In later years overwork and a peptic ulcer

Peptic ulcer

A peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. It is defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm...

forced him to take time to rest outside of the parish. The last service Lowder attended at St Peter's was on 1 August 1880 for a 'High Celebration' to mark the fourth anniversary of the Church of England Working Men’s Society. After the service, at which Fr Richard Enraght

Richard William Enraght

Richard William Enraght SSC was an Irish-born Church of England priest of the late nineteenth century. He was influenced by the Oxford Movement and was included amongst the priests commonly called “Second Generation” Anglo-Catholics.Fr...

SSC had preached, the clergy and congregation assembled outside the church where J.B. Spalding, president of the St Peter’s C.E.W.M.S., presented Lowder with a silver badge of the society, ‘as a small proof of his many acts of kindness’.
A few weeks later Lowder died, probably of a perforated ulcer at Zell am See

Zell am See

Zell am See is the capital city of the Zell am See district in the Austrian state of Salzburg. The city has about 10,000 inhabitants.Zell am See is a tourist destination and a transportation hub for the region...

, Austria during a climbing holiday. A requiem mass was held at St Peter's and several hundred clergy and thousands of parishioners attended his burial at St Nicholas', Chislehurst

Chislehurst

Chislehurst is a suburban district in south-east London, England, and an electoral ward of the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...

Legacy

Lowder wrote two books, Ten Years in St George's Mission (London, 1867) and Twenty-one Years in St George's Mission (1877), detailing his work at the mission.

Today, Lowder's influence lives on through the Society of the Holy Cross

Society of the Holy Cross

, St Peter's Church, St Peter's School and more generally through the Catholic tradition in the Church of England which he worked so hard to restore.

Sources

St Peter's London Docks – Fr Charles Lowder SSC
Lida Ellsworth, ‘Lowder, Charles Fuge (1820–1880)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.

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