Donald Coggan had previously been successively the Bishop of Bradford and the Archbishop of York.
75 Facts About Donald Coggan
2.
Donald Coggan was born on 9 October 1909 at 32 Croftdown Road, Highgate, Middlesex, the youngest child of Cornish Arthur Coggan, at one time national president of the Federation of Meat Traders and mayor of St Pancras, London, and his wife, Fanny Sarah Chubb.
3.
Cornish Arthur Coggan "seems to have taken little interest in his family".
4.
Therefore, Donald Coggan was taught by a neighbour for four years.
5.
At the age of 14, Donald Coggan was well enough to enter Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood.
6.
Donald Coggan entered St John's College in 1928 with an open exhibition, but he was so studious that it was later upgraded to a full scholarship.
7.
Donald Coggan was outstanding in oriental languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, and won a first in both parts of the Tripos examinations in 1930 and 1931.
8.
Donald Coggan won the Tyrwhitt Hebrew Scholarship, the Mason Hebrew Prize, and the Jeremie Septuagint Prize.
9.
Donald Coggan joined the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, serving as treasurer and vice-president.
10.
Donald Coggan became a member of the executive committee of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship.
11.
Donald Coggan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1931 and a Master of Arts degree in 1932.
12.
On graduating from Cambridge in 1931, Donald Coggan decided to postpone preparation for ordination for three years.
13.
In 1934, Donald Coggan went to Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, to prepare for ordination.
14.
Donald Coggan was the daughter of a London surgeon and a member of the administrative staff of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship.
15.
Donald Coggan remained "within the evangelical tradition" the rest of his life.
16.
Donald Coggan served as a curate in the evangelical St Mary's Church, Islington, from 1934 to 1937.
17.
From 1937 to 1944, Donald Coggan served as Professor of New Testament studies and Dean of Residence at Wycliffe College in Toronto.
18.
Donald Coggan returned to England in 1944 as principal of the London College of Divinity until he became a bishop in 1956.
19.
Donald Coggan was invited to be a vice-president of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship.
20.
When Donald Coggan became principal, the college buildings at Highbury had been bombed by the Germans, and there were only a few students in residence.
21.
Donald Coggan recruited a gifted staff and imposed a strict regime.
22.
When Donald Coggan returned to England, wartime constraints on travel meant that his wife and their two children had to remain in Toronto temporarily.
23.
Donald Coggan was "permanently on duty" during the college's reconstruction, and the family's living conditions were inadequate.
24.
Donald Coggan served as a member of the Board of Governors of Monkton Combe School for nearly fifty years, from 1945 to 1994.
25.
Donald Coggan was in great demand as a preacher and lecturer in all parts of the country.
26.
Therefore, when Donald Coggan became bishop "the life of the diocese was at a low ebb".
27.
Donald Coggan was given a Doctor of Divinity by the University of Leeds in 1958.
28.
Donald Coggan served as Select Preacher for Oxford University from 1960 to 1961, as Chairman of the Liturgical Commission from 1960 to 1964, and Chairman of the College of Preachers from 1960 to 1980.
29.
Donald Coggan began his new ministry with the zeal he had shown in Canada and as Principal of the London College of Divinity.
30.
Donald Coggan played a leading role in the Anglican Congress in Toronto in 1963.
31.
In 1967, Donald Coggan took a tour to Australia and New Zealand on behalf of the United Bible Societies.
32.
Donald Coggan "filled public halls and cathedrals with his lectures on the place of the Bible in modern society".
33.
Donald Coggan visited the British armed forces bases in Singapore and Borneo, meeting with senior officers, leading retreats, and teaching schools for service chaplains.
34.
At home, Donald Coggan was chairman of the Church of England's recently formed Liturgical Commission.
35.
Donald Coggan served as Pro-Chancellor of the University of York from 1962 to 1974, as Pro-Chancellor of Hull University from 1968 to 1974, as President of the Society for Old Testament Study from 1967, as a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom from 1961 until his retirement in 1980 by virtue of his office, as the Shaftesbury Lecturer in 1973, and as Prelate of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.
36.
Donald Coggan played a leading role in the Lambeth Conference of 1968.
37.
The then Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, once said that Donald Coggan was "like a man with a wheelbarrow; however much you pile on him, he goes on pushing".
38.
Donald Coggan was chairman of the Joint Committee responsible for the translation of the New English Bible.
39.
Donald Coggan was "in great demand as a preacher and lecturer in all parts of the country".
40.
Donald Coggan was awarded a Doctor of Divinity by Cambridge University in 1962 and a Doctor of Divinity by the University of Hull in 1963.
41.
Donald Coggan "founded, and energetically promoted, Feed the Minds, an ecumenical programme for providing Christian literature to the third world".
42.
Donald Coggan founded the English College of Preachers, based on a similar organization in the USA.
43.
David Blunt, Donald Coggan's lay chaplain, the son of his predecessor in the Diocese of Bradford, was a key person in all of Donald Coggan's activities.
44.
Donald Coggan "pressed repeatedly" for inter-communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
45.
In 1967, Donald Coggan was awarded a Doctor of Letters by the Westminster Choir College and a Doctor of Sacred Theology by the General Theological Seminary.
46.
In 1972, Donald Coggan demonstrated his abhorrence to racial intolerance by opening the Bishop's Palace in York to an Asian family that had been forced to leave Uganda.
47.
Donald Coggan opposed apartheid in South African and was a sponsor of a "No Arms for South Africa" campaign along.
48.
Donald Coggan made friends easily with business leaders and workers alike.
49.
Donald Coggan was perhaps less at ease with the landed gentry of the Yorkshire farms and wolds, but they warmed to him for his active support of the York Civic Trust.
50.
Donald Coggan's preaching would often take "a single Greek word and open up its meaning, leaving laity enlightened and encouraged and clergy thirsting for more study".
51.
In 1974, on the recommendation of the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, Donald Coggan was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II as the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury.
52.
Donald Coggan answered that "he would regard it as an honour to take care of his beloved church for five or whatever number of years".
53.
Donald Coggan was invested as the Archbishop of Canterbury in December 1974.
54.
Donald Coggan was enthroned on 24 January 1975 at Canterbury Cathedral.
55.
In York, Donald Coggan had undertaken "a formidable programme of activity", even for a man of his "energy and discipline".
56.
In contrast, Donald Coggan was not only a scholarly theologian, but, as a "company director" would, he kept "a tape recorder handy for prompt dictation".
57.
In 1975, Donald Coggan was made a fellow of King's College London in 1975.
58.
Donald Coggan argued that "economic regeneration had to be accompanied by moral regeneration".
59.
In broadcasting the "Call to the Nation", Donald Coggan was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to attempt to communicate en masse beyond the church.
60.
Donald Coggan formally proposed it at the Lambeth Conference in 1968.
61.
Donald Coggan founded the Lord Donald Coggan Memorial Fund which helped to supply Russian children with copies of the Bible.
62.
Donald Coggan "pressed repeatedly" for intercommunion with the Roman Catholic Church.
63.
In 1977, during a visit to Rome, Donald Coggan called for full intercommunion between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, taking his hosts completely by surprise.
64.
The visit to Rome took place during an ecumenical tour in which Donald Coggan went to see the Orthodox Patriarch in Istanbul and the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches in Geneva.
65.
Donald Coggan attended the enthronement in 1978 of Pope John Paul II, the first Archbishop of Canterbury to be present at such a ceremony since the Reformation.
66.
In 1976, Donald Coggan attended the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Trinidad from 23 March to 2 April as ex officio president.
67.
That meeting was only one of the destinations for Donald Coggan who "travelled more miles than any of his predecessors".
68.
In India, Donald Coggan visited the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, an old people's home, and the Indian Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi.
69.
Donald Coggan's "relaxed manner and personal interaction with many of the participants" contributed to its success.
70.
Donald Coggan was known for his warm welcome and once remarked that "the art of hospitality is to make guests feel at home when you wish they were".
71.
Donald Coggan invited bishops to bring their wives, who formed a "separate conference".
72.
Jean Donald Coggan was in charge of a committee making arrangements for a conference for bishops' wives.
73.
Donald Coggan retired on 25 January 1980 at the age of seventy.
74.
Donald Coggan died at the Old Parsonage Nursing Home, Main Road, Otterbourne, near Winchester, on 17 May 2000.
75.
Donald Coggan's ashes are interred in the cloister garden of Canterbury Cathedral.