Lilley, Alfred Leslie, 1860-1948

Alfred Leslie Lilley (1860-1948) was born in the small town of Clare in Co. Armagh, Ireland. In 1860, he proceeded from school in Armagh to Trinity College Dublin where he graduated in 1889. After two years as a curate in Glendermott he moved to London, firstly as curate in Chelsea then as vicar in St Mary's Paddington.

Appointed to a canonry in Hereford Cathedral in 1911, he was promoted to the archdeaconry of Ludlow in 1913, a post he held until his retirement in 1936. Selected preacher at both of the ancient universities, his sermons and theological studies commanded respect amongst his peers, just as his indefatigable attempts to alleviate the lot of the poor and suffering commended him to a much wider communion. His social interests brought him into contact with the emerging Labour Party who counted him a welcome sympathiser. His interests in the demands of the modern world on the traditional theological presentation of the Christian message drew him into the group of Anglican modernisers.

With so much in common with modernists in the Roman Catholic Church it is not surprising to find Lilley to be a close friend of Baron Friedrich von Hgel nor to find him a confidant of many of the leading European Catholic modernists. His support was particularly important to his fellow Irishman, the Jesuit George Tyrrell. A man of great forbearance, of deep spirituality, of human sympathy and practical charity, he represented for many that which was best in the Liberal Anglican religious tradition.