Reginald Heber: Bishop of Calcutta, Scholar and Evangelist

160 pp. Illustrated with Bishop Heber's sketches and other drawings. Heber's ecclesiastical and theological position placed him in the centre of the Anglican spectrum, if anything inclining to the evangelical side, yet he was strongly critical of the factional rivalry between the evangelical and high-church parties. Of greater lasting significance was Heber's work as a pioneer of Anglican hymnography. Hymn singing was still suspect at the beginning of the nineteenth century, particularly in high-church circles, but Heber compiled a collection of ninety-nine hymns, including fifty-seven written by himself: they were published posthumously in 1827 as Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year. In 1823 Heber was appointed bishop of Calcutta, a post for which he was by then well qualified. He had taken an active interest in overseas missions, becoming a member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), which was supported by the evangelical wing of the Church of England. Characteristically, however, he had made a proposal that the CMS should combine with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), associated with the high-church party. He had preached sermons on behalf of both the CMS and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, as well as the British and Foreign Bible Society, which was supported by dissenters as well as Anglicans. In 1819 he had written the missionary hymn 'From Greenland's Icy Mountains' for a service in aid of the SPG at Wrexham. His interest in west and south Asia had developed after the initial stimulus provided by his travels in Russia and through his reading of works of literature and history, which provided some of the material for articles which he contributed to the Quarterly Review. His wife subsequently commented that by 1823 'those regions had a romantic charm in his mind' (Heber, 2.95). Heber was the second bishop of Calcutta - a diocese which had been established in 1814 and which then included not only the whole of India but southern Africa and Australia too. The first bishop, Thomas Fanshawe Middleton, had found his role highly problematic and died a frustrated man in July 1822. Heber was offered the appointment by his friend Sir Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, president of the Board of Control for India. After some hesitation he accepted, in January 1823; he was consecrated on 1 June and arrived at Calcutta in October. As bishop Heber's task was eased by a change in the law which enabled him to make the first Anglican ordinations of Indians; and he expedited the establishment of Bishop's College at Sibpur, whose main purpose was to be the training of clergy. Much of his time, however, was taken up with travel, to minister to the scattered Anglican communities which had come into existence throughout India and Ceylon. His most notable journey, of a length and difficulty unprecedented for a Church of England bishop, was the one which he undertook across northern India - up the Gangetic plain, through the mountains of Kumaon and the deserts of Rajputana, and finally visiting Ceylon on his way back to Calcutta by sea. His journal was published as the Narrative of a journey through the upper provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824 - 1825, (with notes upon Ceylon); an account of a journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826; and letters written in India. It was edited by his widow and appeared in 1828 in two volumes. Its popularity was attested by the fact that five editions had been published by 1844, and its exceptional value as a description of India was recognized by contemporaries and by modern historians alike. Heber's interests encompassed the economy and administration, education and culture, and the predicament of Indian princes; he relished the architecture of palaces and the grandeur of the mountains. He shared the usual contemporary British distaste for Hinduism but not the prejudice against its adherents, whose moral character he was at pains to vindicate; in his judgements on British rule, he was sometimes critical while also giving credit where he felt it was due. Heber was notable for his friendliness towards representatives of other churches, especially the non-Roman episcopal churches of the East, including the Armenians and Syrians. He came to be highly regarded by the English dissenting missionaries and the Church of Scotland ministers. In fact his charm, good sense, and humanity ensured him widespread popularity: Archdeacon Barnes of Bombay, who accompanied him through western India, commented on his 'unreserved frankness, his anxious and serious wish to do all the good in his power, his truly amiable and kindly feelings, his talents and piety, and his extraordinary powers of conversation, accompanied with so much cheerfulness and vivacity' (Heber, 2.299). Such qualities enabled him to make a significant contribution to the consolidation of the Anglican church in India despite the brevity of his episcopate. In February 1826 Heber embarked upon a visitation of south India. A major problem which faced him there was that of the persistence of caste in the church, but before he could finally decide on how to deal with it he died suddenly, while taking a bath, at Trichinopoly on 3 April. He was buried there in St John's Church. - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography