The Pelican in the Wilderness

Ivan Clutterbuck has long been a familiar figure amongst Anglo-Catholics. His books have provided both much needed teaching and a source of inspiration for many. Here at last is his autobiography, which recalls both the triumphal days of the Anglo-Catholic movement earlier in the last century and the pain and turmoil of recent decades. It takes us from his earliest memories during the First World War, through family life in the parishes of South London and University days at Christ’s College, Cambridge in the 1930s, to long service as first an Army Chaplain and then (for eighteen years from 1947) as a Chaplain to the Royal Navy. This is a life both varied and adventurous. Ordained into the Diocese of Rochester, Ivan Clutterbuck has served in parish ministry in Cornwall, as Master of the Hospital of St John the Baptist without the Barrs in Lichfield, and has taught both at one of England’s most famous schools for girls and on the Naval Training Ship, HMS Ganges. As a Naval Chaplain his ministry took him around the world, including three years serving on Malta. In the Church of England, Ivan Clutterbuck is best known for his eight years service with the Church Union, at the time of the abortive scheme to unite the Anglican and the Methodist Churches. His particular interest has always been greater training of the laity to play their full role in the Church.Recent years have taken him overseas again, to help with the formation of the Traditional Anglican Churches in Canada and the USA, while at home he has continued his witness to the Church that he loves with Forward in Faith.Engagingly written, Ivan Clutterbuck’s story will resonate with a whole generation of Anglo-Catholic clergy and people, and inspire hope for the future alongside an inevitable sadness for what has gone.Ivan Clutterbuck has been a priest of the Church of England for nearly seventy years. He read Classics and Theology at Cambridge University. He has served as both an army and a naval chaplain, has taught in several public schools, and was Director of Religious Studies at Roedean School. From 1966 to 1974 he was Organising Secretary of the Church Union. He has also published with Gracewing Marginal Catholics, a history of the Anglo-Catholic Movement in the Church of England, The Church in Miniature, an analysis of faith and order in contemporary Anglicanism, and two commentaries on the Gospels, According to Luke and Another Look at St John.