Church Highlights Darwin’s ‘Forgotten’ Parish Work
Church Highlights Darwin’s ‘Forgotten’ Parish Work
A new page paying tribute to the ‘forgotten’ church work of Charles Darwin in his local parish of Downe, Kent, has been published on the Church of England’s website, to illustrate, once again, how science and the work of the Church can combine together. The page is part of a bigger section on the website celebrating the life and works of Darwin.
The page ‘Darwin at Downe’ is one of a number of pages on the website celebrating the naturalist’s significant scientific progress, marking the bicentenary of his birth, and anticipating the 150th anniversary of the publication of the ground-breaking text ‘On the Origin of Species’, in November.
It lists how Darwin supervised church and school finances, founded a Friendly Club and served as its treasurer for 30 years, ran the local Coal and Clothing Fund savings club for 21 years, and built up a close friendship with parish priest Revd. John Brodie Innes – who once wrote: “I never saw a word in his writings which was an attack on Religion. He follows his own course as a Naturalist and leaves Moses to take care of himself.”
The new page concludes that, whilst Darwin lost his own personal Christian faith, he did not become anti-church or anti-religious, and his valuable contributions to the world extended beyond his scientific writings into the local parish in which he lived and served for 40 years.
It quotes ‘A History of Darwin’s Parish’ (1933), by OJR Howarth and Eleanor K Howarth: “If his own thoughts led him away from the doctrines of the established church, he did not cease to second its social activities in Downe.”