A.M. 'Donald' Allchin

In yesterday's post on St Melangell of Wales I had occasion to quote from the English scholar, A.M. ‘Donald’ Allchin, thus reminding me that I’ve been meaning to post about him for some time. I did not until recently know much about Allchin at all, but he is one of those people whose name seems to have popped up in various contexts, and it was this, more than anything that he’s written specifically, that prompted this post. That is, I'm afraid I don't have much of substance to offer here, just an overview of my encounters with Allchin.

The first place I definitely recall hearing of him was in the festschrift for Bishop Kallistos (Ware), Abba: The Tradition of Orthodoxy in the West, ed. Fr John Behr, et al. (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary, 2003). First, in Fr Andrew Louth’s brief biography of Bishop Kallistos, we read the following anecdote:

A story told by A.M. (‘Donald’) Allchin, who was several years senior to Timothy at Westminster [a public school attached to the Abbey] and was to become one of his longest-standing friends, relates how, when Donald was supervising prep. one evening, Timothy’s hand shot up and he requested that, having finished his prep., he might be given permission to read. ‘What are you reading?’ asked the prefect. ‘Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason,’ came the reply. (pp. 13-4)

Second, there is the fascinating article that Allchin contributed to this volume: ‘“The Heir of Resurrection”: Creation, Cross and Resurrection in Early Welsh Poetry’ (pp. 317-33), to which I have already referred here. As a reference to the occasion he mentions in this article his friendship with Bishop Kallistos, and how, despite the fact that he has not joined the latter in becoming Orthodox, he has still been immensely influenced by Orthodoxy since even before university (pp. 317-8). Finally, towards the end of a fascinating study, Allchin writes:

It will not have escaped the notice of the Orthodox reader that many of the poems we have quoted date from after 1054 and one or two from after 1204. But the vision of Christian faith which they express is, I would maintain, the vision of first-millennium Christianity, the vision of a Christian world in which communion between East and West has not been broken . . . (p. 332)

Since first reading this enlightening piece, the only other work of Allchin’s I’ve had the opportunity to read is his brief but stirring introduction to Daily Readings with St Isaac of Syria, ed. A.M. Allchin, trans. Sebastian Brock (Springfield, IL: Templegate, 1989). I thought one particularly well-written passage was the following:

But is it possible that his work will be able to speak across the chasms which divide East from West, the seventh from the twentieth century? It will be for the reader to decide.

For myself I can only say that there are words here which once heard are never forgotten, words which speak with the clarity and vigour which we find in the Gospels themselves: ‘Like a handful of dust thrown into the sea are the sins of all mankind compared with the mercy and providence of God’ (63). ‘Blessed is he who has eaten of the bread of love, which is Jesus’ (25). (pp. 11-2)

Finally, while I did not find a great deal about Allchin on the internet, I did come across this quite helpful bio and bibliography here:

Born in London in 1930. Educated in London and Oxford. Spent many years in Oxford as a mixture of Student Pastor and a University Lecturer. For fourteen years 1973–87 he was Canon in Canterbury Cathedral:

'…I was converted to the existence of Wales in the early summer of 1961 or 1962. Until then, like almost all English people, I knew nothing about the place and nothing about its history, language and culture…' (Canon Allchin, 2007)

Since then, his writing has continued to be centred on the nature of the Christian tradition including his major study of the great Danish preacher poet, polymath, politician and hymn writer N.F.S. Grundtvig (see Saunders Lewis’ play Excelsior). More and more, as the years have gone by, Welsh material has become central to Canon Allchin’s work and there he has written at least four or five books devoted to Welsh topics and a variety of reviews and articles.

In 1994 Canon Allchin came to live in Bangor and became an Honorary Professor in the Theology and Religious Studies Department of the University there. He has written guides to two holy places, Ynys Enlli and Pennant Melangell, and is currently enlarging and revising them. Canon Allchin has written various reviews and articles about several Welsh poets in English including R.S. Thomas and Ruth Bidgood. He is currently planning an introduction to the work of the fourteenth-century Ynys Mon poet Gruffudd ap Maredydd ap Dafydd.

Selected Publications:

Christian Tradition as a Whole:

The Silent Rebellion: Anglican Religious Communities 1845-1900 (Graduate Thesis, SCM Press, 1958)
N.F.S. Grundtvig: an Introduction to his Life and Work (Darton Longman &
Todd, 1997)


Studies in Christian Unity, particularly Eastern Orthodoxy:

The World is a Wedding (Darton Longman & Todd, 1978)
The Kingdom of Love and Knowledge (Darton Longman & Todd, 1979)
The Dynamic of Tradition (Darton Longman & Todd, 1981)
The Joy of All Creation (Darton Longman & Todd First ed. 1984, Second, enlarged ed. 1993)
Participation in God (Darton Longman & Todd, 1988)


Introduction to the Welsh tradition:

Ann Griffiths (Writers of Wales Series) (University of Wales Press, 1976)
Praise Above All (University of Wales Press, 1991)
The Furnace and the Fountain (Revised version of Ann Griffiths) (University of Wales Press, 1992)
God’s Presence Makes the World (Darton Longman & Todd, 1997)
Resurrection’s Children (Canterbury Press, 1998)
The Gift of Theology: Ann Griffiths and Elizabeth of Dijon (Canterbury Press, 2005)


Contributed to:

Particular Welsh Poets:

Euros Bowen: Priest and Poet (co-writer) (Church in Wales Publications, 1993)
Gwenallt: Sensuous Glory (co-writer) (Canterbury Press, 2000)
Waldo Williams (co-writer) (forthcoming)