HISTORY
PREFACE
How did the Society begin? It is a remarkable history. The Society of Ordained Scientists did not entirely spring complete and sudden from Arthur Peacocke's fertile mind like Pallas Athene from the mind of Zeus. It grew and was nourished in the conversation of friends sharing the same concerns, the same sense that is was necessary for our identity as both ordained men and women and scientists to hold our two vocations together. We also felt that the Churches needed what we could offer and that our offering of ourselves to God in the Churches would best be achieved within fellowship of mutual support and prayer.And yet Arthur was the initiator, the catalyst (except that he did not remain unchanged by the reaction he activated), the source of the vision of a dispersed ecumenical Order in the Church and the person who communicated his vision effectively to so many others. I doubt if even Arthur himself could have foreseen how widely his idea would be welcomed, nor the encouraging growth of the Society over the years since the foundation.We cannot know what our Society's future role will be, but it does seem to be of increasing importance in helping the Christian churches relate to the scientific culture of the late 20th century.We are indebted to Arthur Peacocke, first Warden of the Society, and to Eric Jenkins, for their accounts of the earliest stages of the turning of a distinctive shared vision into a reality.
John Kerr
Warden, SOSc, 1994