George Bell became Bishop of Chichester in 1929 and soon used this position to speak out against the growing Nazi threat. He was among the earliest British Christians to express deep concern about the Nazi persecution of Jews and the many ways that Nazism co-opted Christianity and drove the true faith underground. Bell allied with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church in Germany and in 1934 signed the Barmen Declaration, which proclaimed that Christianity and National Socialism were fundamentally incompatible. Yet, after Britain and Nazi Germany went to war, Bell’s conscience would not allow him to conform to popular opinion. He criticized Britain’s inability to distinguish the German civilians from the Nazi regime and publicly condemned the Allied practice of area bombing in Dresden and other German cities. This criticism was immensely unpopular in World War II Britain and Bell received disdain from the press, military leaders, and Prime Minister Winston Churchhill. It is likely that Bell would have become Archbishop of Canterbury had he not voiced this unpopular opinion. Today, Bell is remembered as a courageous voice during World War II, willing to speak unpopular convictions at the cost of his own reputation, for the sake of truth and the care of others.

O God, our heavenly Father, you raised up your faithful servant George Bell to be a Bishop and pastor in your Church and to feed your flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit, that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Art & bio by Ben Lansing