Wednesday, February 4, 2026

It is the 4th of February 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

There is a special place in my heart for those of you, upon hearing that today’s show is about George Bell, who immediately think of that left fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays who won the AL MVP in 1987- 47 home runs! But before he was George Bell, there was another- a Bishop who loomed very large in the first half of the twentieth century- he was a giant, only to have his name and reputation undergo a significant controversy in the last decade that now seems to be clearing.

 

George Kennedy Allen Bell was born on the 4th of February in 1883 on Hayling Island in Hampshire, the very south of England, on the Channel. He was born to a Vicar, James, and his wife, Sarah Bell. He was off to Westminster school and then Oxford where he made a name for himself by the turn of the century.

 

He was ordained in 1907 to the Church of England, served as a curate in Leeds, returned to Oxford as a Fellow, and was then made the chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the very ominous year of 1914. As the machinations of World War I began, Bell attended an ecumenical meeting in Constance, Germany, with the World Alliance for International Friendship Through the Churches. He would work with the Swedish Lutheran Nathan Söderblom on prisoner exchanges and spent the war years in international charity work.

 

After the war, he was made the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, from which he would initiate the Canterbury Festival of the Arts with the likes of Dorothy Sayers. In 1935, Bell commissioned T.S. Eliot’s famous work “Murder in the Cathedral”.

 

From 1929 until his resignation in 1957, he served as the Bishop of Chichester. From this position, he would resume his international affairs when he witnessed the Nazi seizure of power at the Berlin Conference of 1933. He was one of the earliest vocal opponents of Hitler and the Nazi’s. He would garner support for the Confessing Church of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and work to shelter German Christian refugees, many of whom had been removed from their public offices for having Jewish roots.

 

Bell would also come to know Martin Niemoller- the famous Lutheran dissident who would be arrested by the Nazi’s. It was Bell who made Niemoller’s case famous enough in Britain and the rest of the world that Hitler had to relent from his plan to have the German pastor executed.

 

He was made one of the “Lord’s Spiritual” in the House of Commons, and it was from this position that he made an enemy of Winston Churchill. Bell was no pacifist- but he warned the “area bombing” of places like Dresden was immoral. When the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, suddenly died, it was assumed by many that Bell would step in. Needing the permission of the Prime Minister, Bell was unable to cinch the nomination.

 

His postwar ministry would be spent with the spiritual descendants of the World Alliance for International Friendship- the World Council of Churches. He served as the chairman of the WCC as well as the Bishop of Chichester until his resignation in 1957 and his death in 1958.

 

In 2013, his name made the news as it was revealed that there was a charge of child abuse stemming from 1995, almost 40 years after his death. The Church of England responded swiftly and publicly in favor of the defendant. In 2015, the church paid the defendant compensation despite what seemed like credible evidence to vindicate the deceased Bishop. By 2017, there was an independent review that found insufficient evidence against Bishop Bell. By 2021, the Archbishop Justin Welby retracted his onetime claim of a “significant cloud” hanging over the name of Bell and that there would be a statue of him erected at the Canterbury Cathedral. As of this date, it has not been completed.

 

His legacy, briefly tarnished by allegations and cleared, is still difficult- he was a man in church leadership amidst some of the most chaotic decades of the modern era. And amidst those, he sought ways to serve the most vulnerable and have the church take a stand in the public square against certain kinds of state violence. The Church of England now observes a commemoration of Bishop George Bell on the day he died, the 3rd of October. We remember today, the day he was born in 1883- Bishop Bell was 75 years old.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Luke 6:

17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

20 Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
 for yours is the kingdom of God.

21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
 for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
 for you will laugh.

22 Blessed are you when people hate you,
 when they exclude you and insult you
 and reject your name as evil,
 because of the Son of Man.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 4th of February 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows the real story of the 1987 MVP was Andre Dawson, who won the NL on the last place Cubs- he is a one-time Chicagoland resident, Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who thinks we equivocate on the word “valuable” just call it “best,” and we’re fine… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.