Partaking of God’s Eternity: Austin Marsden Farrer, 1904-1968
This year we are excited to be hosting a number of international speakers, including the Rev’d Canon Patrick Curran, who will provide the fourth paper: “Partaking of God’s Eternity: Austin Marsden Farrer, 1904-1968,” taking place at 7:00pm on Thurdsday, June 25th.
Father Curran has provided the conference with the following quotation to consider ahead of his talk (as well as the earlier post featuring Farrer’s sermon “Humbug”):
It is commonly said that if rational argument is so seldom the cause of conviction, philosophical apologists must largely be wasting their shot. The premise is true, but the conclusion does not follow. For though argument does not create conviction, the lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced; but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief; but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish. Why even Butler’s Analogy opened polished ears to the message of the Gospel. — Austin Farrer
The Revd Canon Patrick Curran, B.A. (Vind. 80), B.Th. (South. 85), was ordained priest in Exeter Cathedral in 1985 after training for the ministry of the Church of England at Chichester Theological College (1980-1983), where he was the senior student (1982/1983). In 1983/84, having first secured an ecumenical scholarship from the Lutheran Church of Bavaria, he studied theology at the University of Munich, attending lectures and seminars in both the Protestant and Catholic faculties. During his time in Munich, he worked on the first three ARCIC (Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission) documents and the Barmen Theological Declaration and the place of Natural Theology within it.
He served his title at St Michael and All Angels, Heavitree, Exeter (birthplace of Richard Hooker), followed by his appointment as Bishop’s Chaplain to Students in the Diocese of Bradford (1987-1993) and then as chaplain first of St Boniface, Bonn, and All Saints, Cologne, Germany, and subsequently as chaplain of Christ Church, Vienna, Austria (2000-2025), both in the Diocese in Europe. For thirteen years, he was also the Archdeacon of the Eastern Archdeaconry, a member of the Bishop’s Council, and the Bishop’s Senior Staff Meeting. For a time, he was both the senior archdeacon in the diocese and the Chair of the House of Clergy.
In Austria, he was a member of the Standing Committee of the National Ecumenical Council of Churches for twelve years and has been supportive of the Christian-Jewish Coordinating Council and the Austrian Bible Society throughout. He has been involved in fostering vocations, mentoring ordinands and overseeing curacies. During his time in Germany he was instrumental in setting up the Council Anglican and Episcopal Churches in Germany (CAECG). In Bonn he served as the Chair of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Bonn. From a ecclesial vantage point two things stand out as important moments during his ministry. The first is the Porvoo Common Statement (1992), by which the Nordic Churches of Europe and the Anglican Churches of the British Isles entered into full communion with each other, and second the Anglican Covenant (2011) by which Rowan Williams, as then Archbishop of Canterbury, sought to bring into being an instrument by which the independent national churches (provinces) of the Anglican Communion would commit themselves to having regard for one another. (Romans 12:10)
He lives in Vienna, Austria and is married with two daughters and two grandsons.
