Homosexual law reform in the Sixties

I note the recent appearance of the latest miscellany from the Church of England Record Society, in which there is a useful selection of edited letters from the papers of the Archbishops of Canterbury, including some to and from Wolfenden and others. They are edited by Hugh McLeod, and cover the period from 1953 to 1967. See the Boydell and Brewer site for further details (a snip at £100).

I also noted last week an obituary in the Guardian of Anthony Grey, one of the principal campaigners for a change in the law.

The Tea Party Jacobins

I note this intriguing article by Mark Lilla in the New York Review of Books (May 27th). It is mostly about the US, but makes an intriguing point about the apparent fusion of the seemingly contradictory impulses of Sixties personal autonomy and Eighties economic liberalism. He argues that unlike many conservative movements, the new populism is not to do with rolling back the moral changes of the Sixties, and neither is it a traditional anti-capitalist movement: 'The new Jacobins have two classic American traits that have grown much more pronounced in recent decades: blanket distrust of institutions and an astonishing—and unwarranted—confidence in the self. They are apocalyptic pessimists about public life and childlike optimists swaddled in self-esteem when it comes to their own powers.'

There is intriguing food for thought as to how far this is parallelled in a European and a British context.

The role of the laity

Two things I note under this rather vague title: the first is from the Lambeth Palace Library annual review, which reports that the library has received the papers of George Goyder, described accurately as one of the architects of synodical government in the Church of England (see also an obituary in the Independent, 3rd Feb 1997). They remain to be catalogued, but will be a tremendous resource once they are.

The second is more by way of an appeal for information, on Ernest Shippam. In looking into national days of prayer in the sixties and seventies, I find a letter apparently from him to all the bishops. All I know so far is that he was one of the Chichester fish paste dynasty, and that he came to faith as a result of hearing Billy Graham at Haringey in the fifties. Any pointers would be gratefully received.