Clarence Irving BENSON

BENSON, (CLARENCE) IRVING (b. Hull, England, 1 Dec 1897; d. Melbourne, Vic, 6 Dec 1980). Methodist church leader.

Towards the end of his life Irving Benson was described 'As a Christian missionary with a pulpit, a microphone and a typewriter—and an eloquent command of language', and as one who 'transcended the confines of his own religion to reach people of all religions and all classes' (Ormond: 22). He began life as the son of a skipper of a North Sea fishing trawler and his wife, a Sunday school teacher from a small Yorkshire village where much of the life revolved around the Methodist chapel.

Benson was appointed as a Methodist home missionary in the Western District of Victoria on arrival from England in 1916, having been trained 'by private tutors for the ministry'. He did attend Cliff College, a training institution of the British Methodist Church for six months of 1915-16. He was ordained in Wesley Church, Melbourne, in 1922, and appointed an evening preacher with the special task of evangelistic preaching in 1926. He served there till 1967.

Wesley Church enabled Benson to enter into many civic, business and political circles. He even appeared to he honorary chaplain to many community leaders. He also established good rapport with ordinary people. He was associated with a range of community organisations including the Oxford Group/Moral Rearmament, Toc H, the Miller Homes, the Library Association of Victoria, the Victorian State Library as a Trustee (subsequently chairman), and Free Library Service Board (chairman). He was also on the Councils of Queen's College and the Methodist Ladies College.

Irving Benson 'always believed he must preach for a verdict' and he provided an opportunity for a decision for Christ at the prayer meeting which followed every evening service at Wesley. Many were 'brought to Christ Himself through his faithful ministry' (Wood: 19). He 'never lost the evangelistic role which is at the heart of Methodism' (Wood: 18). In his response to the tribute and the resolution of the Methodist Conference of 1967 on his retirement, Irving Benson said ‘I am a Methodist born and bred and I have constantly preached the five cardinal points of Methodism: every man needs to be saved, every man can be saved every man can know that he is saved, every man must witness that he is saved and every man go on to the experience of perfect love' (Wesley Church: 5).

Because of his reputation as a preacher Irving Benson was invited to preach at various leading churches in the United Kingdom and North America and was invited to Drew University as a lecturer in 1944.

Benson took on the weekly broadcast Pleasant Sunday Afternoon. He transformed this platform into a national forum at which prime ministers, other leading citizens and international celebrities canvassed important social and community issues, so increasing the influence of the church in the community and on government policy. Benson contributed a widely-read weekly column 'Church and People' for one of Melbourne's leading newspapers, The Herald for over fifty years.

In 1943 Benson was elected president of the Methodist Conference of Victoria and Tasmania. Later he was associated with the Rev Alan Walker and others of evangelical conviction in the Methodist General Conference sponsored Mission To The Nation between 1954 and 1957.

In 1933, Benson was appointed Superintendent Minister of Wesley Church, Melbourne. As such he was responsible for the community welfare work of the Central Mission which he saw as an extension of the church's work in evangelism. Not only did this work encompass assistance with food, clothing and shelter in a time of severe economic depression before basic social security programs, but the provision of a residential care for groups such as young women, elderly men and women, unmarried mothers and boys lacking family care or who were potentially delinquent. He was associated with significant changes in the care provided in most of these, particularly in the transformation of congregate care for boys into a village of cottages. He was also, in the Methodist tradition, a strong advocate of temperance and vigorously opposed gambling.

A memorial in Wesley Church pays tribute to Benson as an 'eloquent and persuasive preacher, wise administrator of this Mission's Benevolences, distinguished author and journalist, courageous social reformer, champion of the aged and poor, spiritual counsellor. He pointed this city to Christ'.

ADB 13; Paul Ormonde, 'The man for all eras', Herald, 1 Dec 1979; Wesley Church Rev Sir Irving Benson Kt. C.B.E., D.D., Wesley Church, The Central Mission 1926-1967 (Melbourne, 1967); A Harold Wood, 'C. Irving Benson' in "Not lost but gone before”: memories of 100 Christian men and women, Mitcham, Vic.: Meerut Publications, 1987.

SELECT WRITINGS:

The Craft of Prayer and the Craft of Finding God: A little guide book for pilgrims of the quest that crowns life (Sydney 1932);

A Century of Victorian Methodism (Melbourne 1935);

The Eight Points of the Oxford Group (Melbourne 1936)

SHIRLEY HORNE