Roderick White

 This is a call for all information about Rev Thomas Hancock (1832-1903) to be be collected and collated. I know a limited amount from 'Sermons and Society' Ed Welsby and 'The Victorian Christian Socialists' by Edward Norman, I have two references to him being a young friend of Stewart Headlam. I also have the text of a sermon preached on 27th February 1887 - ' The banner of Christ in the hands of the socialists '. That you can read on this blog. There is also the text of a sermon - ' The Church and the public house ' Article - ' What would Jesus do? The "Occupation" of St Paul's Cathedral, February 1887 ' Biography from 'Sermons and Society' - Ed by Welsby Biography – Welsby (1970) Thomas Hancock was ordained in 1863. He held a succession of curacies but, because of his political and social views, he was overlooked by the Church authorities for most of his life and lived from hand to mouth until 1883, when H. C. Shuttle

  Sermons and Society (Ed Welsby) Title: The Banner of Christ in the Hands of the Socialists 27 th February 1887 Text: “In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people: to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left … “ Isa. 11:10-11   The ‘masses of the common people’ will deliver the church from the patronage and control of the rich; the church is on the side of ‘mammon and caste’, of feudal and commercial interests; the Socialists are the true exponents of the life and teaching of Christ. For fifty years the national bishops and the patron-made clergy – pastors who have been chosen for ‘the masses’ by Mammon and Caste – have been at their wits’ end how to persuade the crowds of the disinherited and oppressed to become, or own themselves to be, members incorpora