While at Nashotah House in Wisconsin recently, the Rev. Owen Chadwick, sometime Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University and Michael Ramsey's biographer, was interviewed by the Rev. Travis Du Priest, book editor of The Living Church, with assistance from the Rev. Charles Henery of the Nashotah House faculty. Dr. Chadwick spoke at the seminary's convocation.

TLC: Could you tell us just a bit about yourself - where you were born, where you studied, perhaps about your call to ordination in the Church of England ?

OC: My father was a lawyer in London so I was born in the outskirts of London. He had studied at Cambridge University so I went to study there, with the half-intention of becoming a lawyer. During my study, which was of Greek and Latin, I was much influenced in a Christian sense by my director of studies; and before I had finished the undergraduate years had decided that I was called to seek orders.

TLC: When did you begin to become interested in church history?

OC: Both at school and university my great love was history, especially the history of Greece and Rome and their heritage in Europe. So it was natural that when I accepted Christian faith this strong historical interest should turn to church history.

TLC: What was your first interest, that is, what particular area of church history did you first seriously research and write about?

OC: I was much interested in the Christian Roman Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries; and simultaneously in my personal life I began to understand and respect the pull of the monastic ideal. So my first researches were into the origins of Christian monasticism, especially John Cassian and the first efforts to lay down a theory of the life of the monk and nun.

TLC: You are here at Nashotah to participate in a celebration of the legacy of Michael Ramsey. Were you a friend of his? Did you know him personally?

OC: I first knew him fairly well because in the 1940s he was a leader in the ecumenical (Faith and Order) movement; and though young, I got involved - for example, I was on the committee which helped to draft the main document for the meeting of the World Council of Churches at Evanston in 1953, and we corresponded over this. Later we became close friends.

TLC: You are now a biographer of Michael Ramsey. What insights did you gain while researching and writing about his life?

OC: Of course, reading all his papers, official and unofficial, taught me a lot about contemporary church history which I did not know before. I don't know that I gained special "insights." I only know that never during my study of the archives did I find anything to lessen my respect and affection for the person.

TLC: What is the legacy, would you say, of Michael Ramsey?

OC: The sense of the prayerfulness of the church; a sense of the beauty of quiet; an affection for the ideas of Christian reunion, especially (perhaps) in relation to Roman Catholics and Methodists; for better and kinder relations between denominations; a desire that the Anglican Communion shall understand better the treasure in the worshiping tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

TLC: Some readers may wonder about the "K.B.E." behind your name. Is that "Knight of the British Empire"? Can you tell us a bit about this honor?

OC: The order was founded by King George V in the First World War to honor persons who had served the state well during that war; and although there is now no British Empire, the title was already in a manner historic and so has not been changed.

TLC: Readers will also be interested in your thoughts in general on the current health of the Church of England and/or of the American Episcopal Church. Do you care to comment?

OC: Both churches are bothered, first, about women priests, though I think we are (almost) through that bother; and, second, whether active homosexual persons can be ordained priest - my view is they should not be. But God is with his church and will guide both our communities toward what is right, so I see no reason to worry about "health." Both churches are full of vitality and praise. The real problem seems not really to rest in church order but in the care of young people.

TLC: Would you tell us the titles of some of your books so that interested readers can seek them out?

OC: The Victorian Church (SCM Press). The Reformation (Penguin). The Spirit of the Oxford Movement (Cambridge). Newman (Oxford). A History of Christianity (Weidenfeld/St. Martin's Press [illustrated]). Hensly Benson: A Study in Church and State in England (Canterbury Press). The Christian Church in the Cold War (Penguin). o