Agnes Maude Royden 1876–1956 Campaigner for Women’s Suffrage and Ordination

Abstract

Maude Royden was something of a celebrity in the first half of the twentieth century, known in Britain and internationally, for her part in campaigns for women’s suffrage, but also for her pacifism, later repudiated. Her outspoken views on the role of women in the Church – and in the Anglican Church, her belief that women should be ordained as priests – came from a firm conviction that feminism was a part of Christianity and that the freedoms and rights of women were a fundamentally theological issue. An inheritor of traditions of women’s ‘civilising’ responsibility she took this up energetically in terms of women’s professionalism and voice. Thwarted by the indifference or resistance of the Anglican Church, she set up her own ‘religious centre’ in London and used her considerable connections and networks to encourage lively and more equitable forms of worship and to sponsor the discussion of Christianity as it impacted on a wide range of issues, with invited guests from all walks of life including political leaders, philosophers and campaigners.