Part 2 of our Q&A with David Wilbourne, Author of Just John

May 8, 2020

Here's part 2 of our Q&A with David Wilbourne, author of Just John: The Authorized Biography of John Habgood. Find out in this second part what we can learn from John's life and work, and whether there were any parallels between his life then and the world today. 

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3. You describe John Habgood as a man who ‘wasn’t led by science, but forged it’ – could you explain what you mean by that?

Our PM Boris Johnson, like John an old Etonian, defends all his responses to the Coronavirus as being necessarily led by science. John belonged to that heady post-war group who, whatever their scientific discipline, made the bracing discoveries which changed the world. Often they had to practise ‘kitchen science’, manufacturing their own complex apparatus out of this and that – one home-made rectifier used to pick up BBC Light Programme’s Whistle while you work as well as measuring nerve impulses! Yet all this Heath Robinson-ish equipment resulted in some mind-bending equations and universal laws. I think it gave him a cool-headed confidence that no problem was unsolvable, everything could be fixed – even the Church of England!

4. Do you see parallels between John’s time as Archbishop of York and the world today?

The Coronavirus pandemic takes me back to the AIDS pandemic which rolled out in 1986/87, when there was a terrifying UK Government advert with a grim apocalyptic message that if we didn’t abstain from sex, we were all doomed. John Habgood kept his cool urging us to keep calm and avoid any over-reaction which scapegoated minorities and blamed them for the epidemic. For instance, he was against banning the common cup at Communion for fear of catching AIDS, because he felt all life necessarily involved risks, and neurotically trying to eliminate those risks ran the risk of eliminating life itself!

I guess John would have baulked at Church of England priests and people being banned from visiting their ancient and hallowed churches, where the prayer of centuries is soaked into the stones. Canon Senior, my esteemed predecessor as Vicar of Helmsley in the North York Moors, used to talk of a spiritual steam engine driving his prayers in Rievaulx Abbey. In a keynote address for the Decade of Evangelism in 1994, John, quoting Professor David Martin, described churches ‘as the only institutions that deal in tears and concern themselves with the breaking points of human existence.’

5. What do you think we can learn from John’s life and work?

From time to time God gifts us with a Shakespeare or a Mozart or an Einstein, and John is in that league. The trick is to look out for the superb gift and treasure it. In many ways John was the last patrician. His time was a very different time from our own, and whatever time, I believe one is always met by grace, with that grace coming from surprising directions. I am greatly impressed by the deep spirituality and wisdom of many present-day bishops who have helped and encouraged me with John’s biography, including Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury; John Inge, bishop of Worcester; Graham Usher, bishop of Norwich; and Kenneth Kearon, former Secretary General of the Anglican Communion and now bishop of Limerick. They carry John’s torch and our church and world are very safe in their hands.

If you missed part 1 of our Q&A you can read it here >>