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direction work was conducted from
Ravenscroft, either in person or by correspondence. Even before arriving in Chiddingfold, Ward had established 'The Road', as he described it 'not a society, not an order, but a method of training in mystical prayer', which eventually comprised some hundreds of people; the first admitted, in March 1911, was his colleague in the Sunday School Institute, Deaconess Phyllis Dent. In 1918 Ward suffered a breakdown and repeatedly warned against overwork in clergy life. In 1920 an association of priests and others was formed under his supervision to promote spiritual direction and development within the
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himself. On the other hand, Norman
Goodacre recalled that, while waiting to make his confession to Ward, he would sometimes hear 'peals of laughter' from the priest and the previous penitent. Ward always stressed he was not a psychologist, but made use of some psychological techniques in his spiritual counselling: he always encouraged his penitents to examine their fears as well as their sins.
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of those who married others subsequent to divorcing, writing that in his own experience 'I had not found that God's love was marked by the removal of all penalties for my actions'. This is a good illustration that, however stern Ward might seem to others, it arose from austerity and sternness towards
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Much of Ward's work was peripatetic. He went on four annual tours round the country (three after 1926) visiting an average of fourteen different places, speaking to roughly two hundred individuals and hearing a thousand confessions. These tours took thirteen weeks a year; the rest of Ward's spiritual
147:, which he had helped establish. The membership of The Road was always predominately female, including a considerable number of ordained deaconesses, some of whom established their own Road groups in other countries. Some of his attitudes were more conservative, however: he was very opposed to
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Ward began to curtail his activities, and stopped his touring ministry in 1949 following a heart attack; he handed much of his work to the network of spiritual directors he had established, especially the
Reverend Norman Goodacre, then vicar of Coniston Cold in
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84:, for trying to stop the bellringers bringing beer into the belfry, and for rebuking wealthy parishioners for hoarding food. Early in 1915 he received a strong 'interior call' to give himself up to the work of
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decided to award him the honorary
Lambeth DD degree early in 1962, he was unfit to travel: the Archbishop came to Ravenscroft to confer the honour. Ward died in July that year and was remembered in a
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179:. Charlotte Ward died in 1953 and Reginald reduced his work still further. He was increasingly ill towards the end of his life, and when Archbishop
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in 1902 and had proposed to her within ten days. Ward was ordained deacon in 1904 and priest in 1905, and served his title at
Emmanuel Church,
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49:, where he studied history and graduated BA with second-class honours in 1903. He met his future wife, Charlotte Kissam, of
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33:, one of four children of Richard Ward, Vicar of St George's Church in the town, and Edith Drake. He was educated at
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Ward was a decided supporter of the ministry of women as it then existed in the
Anglican Church in the form of the
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Diocesan
Deaconess House; from 1925 to 1930 he was Chaplain of the Central House of the Order of Deaconesses at
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on 8 October. Fittingly, Deaconess Edith Banks, the owner of
Ravenscroft, then passed the house to
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108:. Ward's clientele was to include such Anglican leaders as
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Following the Way: Devotional
Studies in Mystical Religion
100:, which was to remain his home for the rest of his life.
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parish. Ward aroused unpopularity in the village for his
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Reginald
Somerset Ward 1881-1962: His Life and Letters'
128:, herself a notable spiritual director and writer.
202:In 2004 a sculpture of Ward by Charles Gurrey of
244:Maximilien Robespierre: A Study in Deterioration
65:. Between 1909 and 1913 he was Secretary of the
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135:movement. In 1923 he was made Warden of the
88:and eventually received permission from
159:Ward served as an Honorary Chaplain to
26:priest, author and spiritual director.
19:(28 January 1881 - 9 July 1962) was an
295:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
290:20th-century English Anglican priests
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240:(London: St Christopher Press, 1925)
195:, a deaconess who had served in the
72:Institute and then became Rector of
246:(London: Macmillan & Co., 1934)
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310:People from Newcastle-under-Lyme
250:A Guide for Spiritual Directors
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234:(Bungay: Richard Clay, 1922)
47:Pembroke College, Cambridge
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305:English religious writers
165:Archbishop of Canterbury
122:Archbishop of Canterbury
266:(Mowbray, London, 1963)
252:(London: Mowbray, 1957)
210:, alongside images of
53:, while on holiday in
17:Reginald Somerset Ward
197:Church of South India
163:during his tenure as
35:Newcastle High School
151:and approved of the
31:Newcastle-under-Lyme
262:Morgan, Edmund R.,
208:Guildford Cathedral
114:Dean of Westminster
86:spiritual direction
39:Marlborough College
43:Cheltenham College
300:Christian mystics
189:Westminster Abbey
106:Church of England
67:Church of England
29:Ward was born in
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216:Evelyn Underhill
172:Second World War
126:Evelyn Underhill
92:, the Bishop of
76:, a small rural
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74:Chiddingfold
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285:1962 deaths
280:1881 births
167:, 1942–44.
110:Eric Abbott
55:Switzerland
274:Categories
257:References
170:After the
141:Portsmouth
94:Winchester
59:Camberwell
51:New Jersey
177:Yorkshire
137:Guildford
133:Deaconess
98:Farncombe
63:Barnsbury
145:Hindhead
82:pacifism
24:Anglican
232:The Way
185:Requiem
149:divorce
21:English
218:, and
181:Ramsey
124:; and
78:Surrey
45:, and
226:Works
204:York
139:and
187:at
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