Who’s Who ‘F’

Forster Roger, Pioneer, Church Leader and Author 1933- .  Educated Cambridge University 1951-4, followed by National Service in the RAF becoming a pilot and flying officer 1955. From 1955-1969 he became an Itinerant Evangelist linked with Honor Oak Fellowship, led by Theodore Austin-Sparks. In 1974 Forster began with his wife Faith Ichthus Christian Fellowship in South London, a vibrant and significant independent “house church” movement in London and elsewhere. In 1987 he united with Graham Kendrick and Gerald Coates in The March for Jesus movement bringing Christianity to the streets through praise and proclamation. An author of several books including on The Kingdom of God, Prayer and God’s work in History.     

Forsyth P. T. Congregationalist Theologian and Pastor, (1848-1921) After pastorates in five towns he became Principal of Hackney College. Although liberal in theology at first, he came to a deep understanding of the need of redemption through the Cross. Writing during the First World War on the one hand he saw it as an awful expose of evil, but at the same time believed that God might work through the evil in redemption, by virtue of the power of the Cross.   He wrote the Justification of God in 1909, one of his most important works, in which he takes a Lutheran view of Justification by arguing that in suffering, and in his own suffering, God may make us righteous. In many ways his work anticipated the neo-orthodoxy of Karl Barth. “Unless there is within us what is above us we will quickly yield to what is around us”.   

Fox, George, Founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers) 1624-91, Born in Leicestershire. His father was a weaver.  In 1643 he gave up all family ties and travelled in search of enlightenment. In 1646 he found the inner light of Christ. He abandoned church and peace that truth is to be found in the inner voice of God speaking to the soul. Frequently gaoled he still founded Friends of the Truth and married the widow of the Vice Chancellor of Lancaster, Margaret Fell. Travelled extensively and in N America Ireland and the West Indes. He had deep spirituality, a magnetic personality, huge perseverance, selfless devotion and great organising ability. The Friends became a huge force in English history, in the movement for Abolition, manufacturing (Fry’s, Rowntree’s and Cadbury’s), social reform and care of the poor.

Fry, Elizabeth, Quaker Prison Reformer 1780-1845, born in Norwich the 3rd daughter of John Gurney, banker. She married Joseph Fry a London merchant and strict Quaker. She had a large family of eleven children. In 1811 She Became a Quaker minister from 1813 she devoted herself to the welfare of female prisoners in Newgate. She taught sewing, needlework, supplied clothes and taught from the Bible. She began reforms in the Prisons and gave evidence to a Committee of the House of Commons. She opened shelters for the homeless. Queen Victoria and Robert Peel supported her work. She travelled extensively on the continent promoting Prison Reform, especially in Prussia. She started libraries in naval hospitals. An Asylum was opened in memory of her in Mare Street Hackney for women ex-offenders