{Church Suicide}[10th December 1987]

[Redbook4:205][19871210:2315]{Church Suicide}[10th December 1987]

19871210.2315

(Thursday)

It was a strange (and sad) coincidence that earlier this week I was working in the garden when an unbidden thought came into my mind: Should I commit suicide? – No; because suicide is wrong for a Christian. As is the way of unbidden thoughts, it seemed, at the time, quite natural: only later did I question its appropriateness, since I was quite content at the time, and do not consider suicide a realistic option even when I am not.

As this week's postman does not deliver newspapers – having had an argument with the Newsagent – we did not hear until the evening news on the television what everybody else presumably knew that morning: that a senior clergyman of the Church of England – who had written an anonymous critique of the Church (and of the Archbishop of Canterbury's leadership in particular)* for Crockford's,** the official directory of clergy etc.*** – had committed suicide, probably some time on Monday.

Suicide by a senior clergyman is somehow shocking in a special way. Presumably, as an Anglo-Catholic, he might have subscribed to the traditional view that suicide is a sin.

*[[Redbook4:195-196][19871204:0100b]{The Wings of the Church}[4th December 1987]]

**[Crockford's Clerical Directory (1988, presumably).]

***? [Yes – “Crockford's Clerical Directory: The definitive guide to Anglican clergy and churches in the Church of England, the Church of Ireland, the Church in Wales and the Scottish Episcopal Church, with biographies of over 27,000 Anglican clergy dating back to 1968.” (– https://www.crockford.org.uk/)]

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