Evelyn Underhill and Our Churchyard
This week the Church of England remembers Evelyn Underhill, who died on 15 June 1941. She was the first woman to lead spiritual retreats at Canterbury Cathedral, Fellow of King’s College London, author of superb books on theology and spirituality, spiritual director, and a novelist too.
In December the parish hosted a study day about Evelyn Underhill with talks by experts including Revd Professor Jane Shaw, Revd Dr Julie Gittoes, Revd Dr Earl Collins, and Prof Anne Loades. You can listen to them and learn more about Underhill here.
She is at rest in our churchyard beneath a beautiful rose bush and is often visited by people. The roses are glorious. Her headstone is….less glorious. Her name is barely mentioned, sandwiched between her husband and her father. The head stone doesn’t refer to her significance for Anglicanism, women, theology, or modern British history.
We can change that for the better and create a resting place that will reflect the importance of Underhill and her four decades of influential work. There’s a great project underway for the artist Lois Anderson to design a new ledger stone that would be added to the existing grave stone. We’re £5500 away from the target.
If you can donate, please do and mark your donation ‘Underhill’.
In an interview about her life and faith, the theologian Jane Williams wrote that Evelyn Underhill ‘had this wonderful turn of phrase: ‘“God is the really interesting thing about religion.” Which is true – however nice our services are, or how good the coffee is, if we are not introducing people to God then we are not really giving them anything that isn’t available elsewhere. God is really what we have to offer.’
A prayer by Evelyn Underhill:
God, who dwells invisible in the heavens and yet for the salvation of humanity does manifest Your power on earth, pour down upon this place the light of Your countenance: that all who come hither to seek Your face may truly find You. Amen.