Religion: Monk Among Lords

A devout celibate, Walter Howard Frere, 67, Bishop of Truro, last week groomed himself to enter the British House of Lords when Parliament reconvenes this autumn. He is the first monk to sit in the House of Lords since the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). Habitually this Lord Bishop of Truro dresses shabbily, in an old black cassock, a leathern girdle. He is pale, thin, ascetic. Brother Churchmen consider him a saintly man, unquestionably the greatest liturgiologist in the Anglican Communion.

Strict monasticism is a comparatively new thing in the Church of England, and a newer one in its U. S. offshoot, the Protestant Episcopal Church. Bishop Frere belongs to the Community of the Resurrection (founded 1892). Bishop Frere joined the order at its founding, was its superior 1902-13, 1916-22. He has been Bishop of Truro since 1923. Of England’s 41 Anglican bishops only the Bishops of Durham, London and Winchester and 21 others (not counting the Archbishops of Canterbury and York) may sit in the House of Lords. Hence Bishop Frere has been obliged to wait for a vacancy to give him a seat.