London Christian Anarchists

From Freedom's obituary of Gresham Kirkby:

Gresham Kirkby was in the Sixties chair of the London Christian Anarchists, and before that – in the Fifties, of the Socialist Christian League, was on the governing body of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship and, behind the scenes, was the inspiration when Ken Leech founded Jubilee (an anarchist Anglican socialist grouping to which the present bishop then belonged), in the early 70s.

I ain't heard of this group before and Google turns up nothing - any pointers on who they were, what they did, etc.?

Hi Rasputin, If you are a

Hi Rasputin,

If you are a Christian Anarchist like myself then you shouldn't be surprised by the slow / non-response to your question on this site. The group-think on religion is pretty strict.

Christian Anarchism in Britain is largely associated with Pinch of Salt (Keith Hebden) and Catholic Worker (two communities in London). Internationally, you could try Jesus Radicals. It is quite possible than someone in these circles would know of London Christian Anarchists. I'm sorry I can't help you more.

Simon

My views on religion are not

My views on religion are not group think ffs. And do you not spot the irony in followers of religion accusing others of groupthink? Come off it already.

Simon, it may just be that

Simon, it may just be that nobody knows the information being sought. The anarchists I’ve known who might be described as religious were generous in their appraisal of other people.

There's plenty about Gresham

There's plenty about Gresham Kirky on the interwebs. As far as I remember the London Christian Anarchists were of the Catholic Worker type and sponsored and fed into Committee of 100 activities and Laurens Otter may have been involved with them but maybe you should ask him , he's still alive and living in Shropshire. As someone said on Gresham Kirkby " He liked a pint or six". Funny , he was vicar at a church on Bow Common Lane just down from me and I never ever came across him, probably because he was never involved in any political activity apart from his sermons in church. But hell, I'm an atheist so have little time for this Procrustean bollox of trying to reconcile Christianity with anarchism. Being brought up as a Catholic inoculated me against that.

It might be that a question

It might be that a question asked six years ago isn't considered very pressing.
Also, no gods no masters.

Battlescarred wrote: this

Battlescarred

this Procrustean bollox of trying to reconcile Christianity with anarchism.

i've long been baffled at the premise of Catholic Worker. i knew someone involved once, and he was first class, and the work they do is good, and i took the newspaper for a while (also being raised catholic).

but hierarchy isn't just the way the roman church chooses to do things, as if it were one form of corporate organization among alternatives (like say the quaker meeting structure). hierarchy is an integral part of the theology. i don't see how CW squares this with anarchism. maybe by anarchism they mean mere 'no-state-ism' + 'the prelates are actually servants and we're all in this together with different gifts' sort of thing. i dunno.

sorry, i've been carrying that around for a while.

It might be that a question asked six years ago isn't considered very pressing.
Also, no gods no masters.

Nine even!