Monday, April 16, 2012

He lives, he wakes 'tis Death is dead, not he.

The Ven[1] Albert Basil Orme Wilberforce(Valentines Day 1914 – 1916), DD [Doctor of Divinity] was an Anglican priest and author[2] in the second half of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th.

Born in Winchester on Valentine’s day 1841 the younger son of Samuel Wilberforce(Soapy Sam)[3] and his wife Emily, he was educated at Eton and Exeter College, Oxford and ordained in 1866. He was Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford and then held curacies at Cuddesdon, Seaton and Southsea. He was Rector of St Mary’s, Southampton from 1871 to 1894 when he became a canon of Westminster. He was appointed Chaplain of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in 1896 and Archdeacon of Westminster in 1900.
He was Canon of Westminster from 1894-1916 and lies buried in the north cloister of the Abbey. He died in post on 13 May 1916. The inscription on his gravestone reads:
"Charlotte the beloved wife of the Venble. Basil Wilberforce D.D. Archdeacon of Westminster. Born July 29 1841. Died May 15 1909. Peace, peace, she is not dead she doth not sleep, she hath awakened from the dream of life. The Venble. Basil Wilberforce D.D. Archdeacon of Westminster Born Feb 14 1841. Died May 13 1916. He lives, he wakes 'tis Death is dead, not he".
The quotes are from Shelley's poem Adonis, slightly altered.

Left - 1883 and Right - 1905

Thomas Troward and Archdeacon Wilberforce were great friends. Troward would speak of Wilberforce as a great man, Wilberforce would reply - "No, Mr. Troward is"a great man." They had a very warm friendship for each other. Wilberforce was the grateful and adept student. In a letter to Callow dated June 14 1916 Genevieve Behrend wrote of receiving a letter from Troward informing her of the passing of Wilberforce.
“I have always thought of you both as my two pupils and now that he has been removed to a higher sphere, you are now my only one, in a sense of . . .”.

Troward believed in reincarnation while Wilberforce abhorred the idea. Wilberforce did realize the Presence of God as Love and Life.
Wilberforce proposed the theory of reuniting with loved ones. As Gaze pointed out this cures separation by more separation thus creating a series of perpetual series of deaths and seperations. You die to meet someone who dies to meet someone who dies to meet someone. It defeats the purpose of realizing we are not separate from God.
Through Wilberforce the teachings of Judge Thomas Troward found a voice in the historic Westminster Abbey of the Church of England. Wilberforce wanted the form of metaphysical thinking to be the keynote of the church itself, not merely a separate movement or cult.
[1] In the Anglican Communion "The Venerable" (abbreviated as "the Ven") is the style given to an archdeacon.
[2] Books:
Spiritual consciousness (1913)
There Is No Death[1916]
[3] http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2012/04/soapy-sam.html

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