Royden, A. Maude (1876–1956)

English preacher. Name variations: Agnes Maude Royden. Born in 1876; died on July 30, 1956; daughter of Sir Thomas Royden, 1st baronet of Frankby Hall; educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; received a Doctor of Divinity from Glasgow University, 1931; married George W.H. Shaw.

Was the first woman to become a pastor of the Church of England (late 1910s), although she was never officially ordained; became Britain's first female Doctor of Divinity (1931).

A. Maude Royden was born in 1876, the youngest daughter (among so many children that she once noted "We never got to know each other") of Sir Thomas Royden, 1st baronet of Frankby Hall in Birkenhead, England. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford. Royden then became a social worker and, starting in 1900, worked at Victoria Women's Settlement in Liverpool and in the rural parish of Luffenham for three years. She was active in the women's suffrage movement, and lectured on suffrage for six years. As a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, she served as editor of the organization's journal, Common Cause.

The First World War caused Royden to broaden her concern for the ethical and religious aspects of the women's movement to include any individual in need. Determining that the Church of England was the best vehicle for her humanitarian efforts, she became a licensed lay reader of the church. She proved so effective that the bishop of London granted her a special license to preach, making her the first female pastor in the Church of England. Although she was never officially ordained, Royden made the most of this opportunity by taking leadership roles in the churches she served. From 1917 to 1920, she was assistant preacher at City Temple in London.

In 1920, Royden and Dr. Percy Dearmer founded a nondenominational church called the Fellowship Services. During her 16-year association with this church, she became the first female Doctor of Divinity, with a degree awarded by Glasgow University in 1931, and also received an honorary LL.D. from Liverpool University in 1935. Royden hoped to elevate her parishioners with religious optimism in the midst of trying times, and worked to enact social change by organizing the "International Peace Army" with a professed aim of ending the Sino-Japanese War in the early 1930s. She continued her efforts to create a better world when World War II hit Europe, maintaining that the war "is forcing us from smug, middle-class, complacent Christianity into something dangerous and hard—the responsibility of loving our enemies."

Royden traveled widely, preaching in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, India, and China on such topics as "What Sort of a World Would You Want?" and "The World Crisis and Religion." She also wrote a number of inspirational books, among them The House and the Church (1922), The Church and Woman (1924), Here—and Hereafter (1933), and the most well known, A Threefold Cord (1947), in which she wrote about her marriage to Reverend George W.H. Shaw.

Royden has been described as "a small graying woman with a limp," but despite her unprepossessing appearance, she was a forceful and dynamic speaker. She could "stand before an audience and discuss commonplace topics without the scraping of a chair, the rustling of a paper, or any other sign of restlessness among her listeners." Although she was clearly a scholar, her listeners reported that they were most deeply impressed by "the force of her humanity." She died in 1956.

sources:

Block, Maxine, ed. Current Biography 1942. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1942.

Candee, Marjorie Dent, ed. Current Biography Yearbook 1956. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1956.

The Concise Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Kelly Winters , freelance writer, Bayville, New York