Charles Gore - Bishop in Worcester, Birmingham and Oxford

Bishop in Worcester, Birmingham and Oxford

In 1902 he succeeded J. J. S. Perowne as Bishop of Worcester.

In 1905 he was installed as the first Bishop of Birmingham, a new see, which he had helped to create, by dividing his see of Worcester. The second parish church of Birmingham, St Philip, became the cathedral. While adhering to his views on the divine institution of episcopacy as essential to the Christian Church, Bishop Gore from the first cultivated friendly relations with the ministers of other Christian denominations, and advocated co-operation with them in all matters when agreement was possible.

In social questions he became a leader of the group of High Anglicans known loosely as Christian Socialists. In 1889 at Pusey House he had helped found the Christian Social Union. He worked actively against the sweating system, pleaded for European intervention in Macedonia, and in 1908 was a keen supporter of the Licensing Bill.

In 1911 he succeeded Francis Paget as Bishop of Oxford.

On 28 September 1917 he licensed 21 women as lay readers called the "Diocesan Band of Women Messengers". These were possibly the first female lay readers in the Church of England. The last one, Miss Bessie Bangay, died in 1987, aged 98.