Robert Runcie - Career

Career

Runcie studied for ordination at Westcott House, Cambridge, where he received a diploma, rather than a second bachelor's degree in theology. He was ordained in the Diocese of Newcastle in 1950 to serve as a curate in the parish of All Saints in the wealthy Newcastle upon Tyne suburb of Gosforth, then a rapidly growing suburban area. Rather than the conventional minimum three year curacy, after only two years Runcie was invited to return to Westcott House as Chaplain and, later, Vice-Principal. In 1956 he was elected Fellow and Dean of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he would meet his future wife, Rosalind, the daughter of the college bursar.

In 1960, he returned to the world of the theological college, becoming Principal of Cuddesdon, near Oxford, where he spent ten years and transformed what had been a rather monastic and traditionally Anglo-Catholic institution into a stronghold of the liberal catholic wing of the Church of England. In this period, his name became more and more strongly spoken of as a future bishop, and speculation was confirmed when he was appointed Bishop of St Albans in 1970.

Like Gosforth in the 1950s, the Diocese of St Albans was a booming suburban area, popular with families moving out of a depopulating London. As well as diocesan work, he worked with broadcasters as Chairman of the Central Religious Advisory Committee, and was appointed Chairman of the joint Anglican-Orthodox Commission.