Primate and poet. Husband of CF Alexander. Short biography and "Pointers for Prayer".

 
William Alexander 1824-1911

William Alexander, the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman, was born in Londonderry on 13th April, 1824. He was educated at Tonbride Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford. He was rector of several parishes in the north of Ireland before being made bishop of Derry and Raphoe in 1867. He became Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All-Ireland in 1896.

Archbishop Alexander rendered notable service in the establishment of this cathedral, and was present at the laying of the foundation stone.

He was one of the most outstanding puplit orators of his time. Archbishop D’Arcy said he was “An orator to whom the description ‘Chrysostom’ might be worthily given. In language, in manner, in voice, and in a glorious persuasive utterance he surpassed all others that I have known”.

Despite his own talent and ministry, he is best known perhaps as the husband of Cecil Frances Alexander, the famous hymn-writer. However, he was an eloquent preacher, and the author of numerous theological works. He also established a reputation as a master of dignified verse having six collections published. These included sonnets suggested by the writing of St. Augustine, sonnets on prayer and on St. John’s vision at Patmos. His poems were collected in 1887 under the title of “St Augustine's Holiday, and other Poems”. He deals very beautifully with Irish scenery.

His reputation was such that he was selected to write the introduction to an edition of “The Temple” by the Anglican priest and poet George Herbert (1593-1633).

He was select preacher to the University of Oxford in 1870-71 and Bampton Lecturer in 1876. He was the author of Leading Ideas of the Gospels (Oxford sermons, London, 1872); The Witness of the Psalms to Christ and Christianity (1877); commentaries on Colossians, Thessalonians, Philemon, and the Johannine Epistles, in The Speaker’s Commentary (1881); The Great Question and Other Sermons (1885); Discourses on the Epistles of St. John (1889); Verbum Crucis (1892); Primary Convictions (1893) and The Divinity of our Lord (1886).

Archbishop Alexander knew grief in his personal life. His wife died the year before he was appointed to Armagh. He also had to exercise his ministry at one of the most difficult of periods in the history of the Church of Ireland, namely the years leading up to and following its disestablishment. The Archbishop resented this development. He regarded it as a threat not only to the Church of Ireland but to the Irish establishment.

To his great credit and like most of the bishops, clergy and people of the Church of Ireland, after disestablishment he responded to the challenge of their church’s vastly altered status and place in society. Through sacrificial giving by clergy and people and the good stewardship of scarce resources, the Church of Ireland maintained its witness. Today there would be very few who would wish the Church to be the established church of the state.

William Alexander is a supreme example of a leader who accepts the most major of disappointments and who through faithful perseverance leads and enables the Church to rediscover a renewed role in vastly different circumstances.

POINTERS FOR PRAYER

+ Pray that God will continue to inspire Christian poets and writers.

+ Pray that you can meet disappointments with a faithful courage which enables you to cope with altered circumstances. Think about times when God has enabled you to do so.

+ Thank God for leaders of the faith community when it is faced with major challenges.

Text copyright - The Dean of Belfast, 2005.