Edward P. Echlin R.I.P.

Edward P. Echlin R.I.P.

A few months ago Edward Echlin sent in a contribution to The Newman (Being a Christian Today). Sadly, it has turned out to be a final statement of his lifetime commitment to Christian ecology because he died on December 23rd only three weeks short of his 90th birthday.

Born in Michigan in the United States and brought up there he lived for much of his later life in the UK, first in Yorkshire and more recently in Bexhill where he became a key member of the Newman Association's Eastbourne & Bexhill Circle. He was at one time chairman of the Circle and until recently he was the Programmes Officer. He was married for 45 years to Barbara, who survives him.

Edward's long life included serious twists and turns. He became a Jesuit novice at Cincinnati in 1948 and remained in the Society of Jesus for 25 years. By the early 1970s he was a lecturer at theological colleges in England. He left the Jesuits in order, he said, "to continue my work as a Catholic theologian in the midst of God's pilgrim people." He married in 1974, after which he and Barbara both became heavily involved in Green Christian organisations and in organic gardening.

Their move to Bexhill on the South Coast brought him close to Hastings and a curious historical link to the Jesuits which Edward outlined in an article for the January 2012 issue of The Newman. Driven out of France at the beginning of the 20th century the French Jesuits established a theological centre in Hastings between 1902 and 1926. Perhaps the most famous of the students at Ore Place, Hastings, was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who later went on, through books such as The Phenomenon of Man, to become one of the greatest reconcilers of religion and science. Edward Echlin greatly admired Teilhard de Chardin, regarding him as "a cosmic mystic and a prophetic, poetic genius burning to express his intuitions about a living, thrusting universe."