In his days as the Curate-in-Charge of St Andrew's Portslade, the Revd Richard Enraght was friends
with the
Revd Maxwell Mochluff Ben-Oliel, a
curate at St Michael & All Angels Church in Brighton, who was also a
controversial Anglo-Catholic priest, they were both
members of the local Ward of the
Confraternity of the
Blessed Sacrament.
Richard Enraght invited Maxwell to St Andrew’s Church Portslade, to preach at the two services on Harvest Festival Day in 1874.
 |
| Copyright © D. Sharp St Andrew's Portslade |
Revd Maxwell Ben-Oliel, served a long and eventful ministry, which took him to four continents, and finally ending his days in Walsingham Road, Hove, Sussex and where he died in 1907.
Maxwell is buried in St Leonard’s churchyard, a mile from St Andrew’s Portslade, where he preached in 1874.
*******
Revd Maxwell Mochluff Ben-Oliel
Originally named Mejluf, he was born into a wealthy Sephardic Jewish family in Tangier,
Morocco in 1832. His parents intended Mejluf to train as a Rabbi, he
was educated at the Rabbinical College in Tangier, where he spent
five years studying the Talmud, Maimonides and Rabbinical
literature.
His father, Samuel Ben-Oliel (1791-1873), was the physician, interpreter and
advisor to the Sultan of Morocco, His Majesty Abd al-Rahman bin Hisham (1789-1859)
Around 1850 Samuel moved his family to
Gibraltar, to take the position of the Sultan of Morocco's Consul General in the British
Colony to promote Moroccan trade.
In 1852 Mejluf was baptised in a Methodist (Wesleyan) Chapel
in Gibraltar and took the Christian name of Maxwell, his older
brother, Abraham Ben-Oliel had converted to the Christian
faith five years earlier in 1847.
Maxwell was a gifted polyglot from a young age, he was fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, Haketia, French, Spanish, English and many other languages. (The Hastings & St Leonards Observer newspaper in Sussex, reported on the 29th
November 1902, when Maxwell visited Hastings and St Leonards to preach in local churches, "the Rev. Maxwell
Ben-Oliel is a very cultured preacher and an accomplished linguist,
being master of no less than sixteen languages.")
In 1853, Maxwell moved from Gibraltar to Richmond in London to study at the Wesleyan Theological College. The course of study embraced Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Greek, Latin, logic and theology.
The 1856 British Workman periodical, reported that it was fortunate that the missionary Maxwell Ben-Oliel
was in Plymouth when three former slaves arrived in the port from
Cuba. The periodical went on to say, Maxwell was the only person in
Plymouth who spoke Spanish and could interpret for the freed slaves
and address their welfare needs while they were awaiting a ship to
take them to the Gambia.
(The three former slaves had bought
their freedom in 1856, through a lottery scheme and paid the British Consul in
Havana for safe passage to England. Slavery was not abolished in the Spanish Colony of Cuba until 1886.)
In 1857, like his older
brother Abraham, Maxwell served as a missionary for The British Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews in tours of the Holy Land, Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. His younger brother, Moses Ben-Oliel, served for many years as the Bible agent and a missionary for the British &
Foreign Bible Society at Oran in Algeria.
*******
In 1858 Maxwell Ben-Oliel was invited to be the preacher of Isleworth Congregational Church in Middlesex for a six month period. On Maxwell’s appointment he asked the Deacons if he could bring some new innovations into worship, such as chanting the Lord’s Prayer, as well as organising Bible and singing classes for young people in the village. In Ben-Oliel’s time at Isleworth the congregation doubled in size.
The Marylebone
Mercury reported on the 13th November 1858, that there
had been a change of heart by the Deacons and Trustees of the Church
and that they now objected to the way Ben-Oliel conducted worship and his choice of Biblical texts he used to preach from. As the
Deacons could not come to any agreement, they locked the Church doors
to the preacher and congregation. The vast majority of the
congregation who wanted to keep Ben-Oliel as their preacher, hired a
large room in Isleworth village and held their own Sunday services
away from the locked Congregational Church. (It is not recorded in
local newspapers if there was any reconciliation between the Deacons
of Isleworth Congregation Church and the majority of their former
congregation who had formed a temporary Independent Church with
Ben-Oliel as their preacher.)
*******
In 1860
Maxwell entered St Aidan's Theological College in Birkenhead,
Cheshire, to study for ordination into the priesthood of the Church
of England.
1860
Ordained Deacon by the Right Revd Samuel Waldegrave, the Bishop of
Carlisle.
1860 Deacon at St Bartholomew’s Barbon, Westmorland.
1862
Ordained Priest by the Right Revd Henry Philpott, the Bishop of
Worcester.
(In 1883, this is the same Bishop Philpott who dismissed the Revd Richard Enraght from Holy Trinity, Bordesley, and eviction of the Enraght family from the Bordesley Vicarage).
1862 Curate at St Mary’s, Edge Hill, Liverpool.
1862 Curate at St Mary’s Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
1863 Curate at St James the Less, Pentonville, London.
1864 Preacher at Brompton Episcopal Chapel, Montpelier Square, Kensington, London.
1864-1866 Domestic Chaplain to the Duchess Dowager of Northumberland.
(the Duchess was a
prominent British aristocrat and governess to the future Queen Victoria, when her brother-in-law, Algernon Percy, the 4th Duke of Northumberland died in 1865, the Revd Maxwell Ben-Oliel preached the funeral sermon, which was publish in a pamphlet
and sold to the general public, the Duchess Dowager Charlotte Florentia Northumberland died in 1866.)
In 1866 Ben-Oliel took a temporary curacy at St Matthew's in Croydon. Maxwell Ben-Oliel had a high reputation of being a Bible Scholar and preacher. His preaching attracted a large congregation who were keen on the idea of a new church with Ben-Oliel as the incumbent.
Ben-Oliel left St
Matthew's for a new church called St Paul’s which was set up in the
converted Havelock Hall. The church grew and flourished.
Maxwell Ben-Oliel's
brother in law, Robert Parnell, was a wealthy business man, he owned
a string of gentleman’s outfitter shops, a clothing factory, a major
land owner in Wales, High Sheriff of Carmarthen and Vice President of
University College of Aberystwyth.
Robert Parnell guaranteed Maxwell the
money for a new church building to be erected in Canning Road, Croydon. The new St Paul’s Church building was opened in September
1868 and Havelock Hall was sold.
The Archbishop of Canterbury
twice refused to license St Paul's and he, together with the vicar of
St James, set up a new District with an ‘iron Church’ in
competition to Maxwell's St Paul’s Church.
June 1872 was
a seismic moment in Ben-Oliel’s ministry, when he announced to his
very large evangelical congregation that all Services would now be
conducted in the ritualistic Anglo-Catholic Tradition. There were
protests from the congregation to the Bishop of London and the
Archbishop of Canterbury over the adoption of illegal ritualistic
practices which culminated in the congregation leaving en masse for
the nearby ‘iron Church’. St Paul’s struggled to stay open and
finally closed down in 1874 when it was sold by the Revd Maxwell
Ben-Oliel (who owned the freehold) to the Church of England for
£7,000.
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| Image from Academy Architecture & Architectural Review, Vol 18., (1900) Revd Maxwell Ben-Oliel's former St Paul's Church, which was renamed - St Mary Magdalene when the church building was sold by Ben-Oliel to the Church of England in 1874. (The church tower was not completed until the 1930s) |
On 5th August 1874 the church building was re-opened and dedicated according to Anglican rite. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s son, Rev Crawford Tait, performed the ceremony and the name of ‘St Mary Magdalene’ was transferred from the iron church to Ben-Oliel’s former ‘St Paul’s Church building’.
From 1874 until 1876, the Revd Maxwell Ben-Oliel, served as a curate at St Michael & All Angels, a leading Anglo-Catholic church in Brighton. In 1874 he was a guest at the official opening of St Bartholomew’s Church Brighton, the largest and tallest Anglo-Catholic church in England.
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| Copyright © D. Sharp St Michael & All Angels, Brighton, where the Revd Maxwell Ben-Oliel served as Curate from 1874 to 1876 |
In October 1874, Maxwell was invited to preach by the Revd Richard Enraght at the Harvest Festival in St Andrew’s Church, Portslade, the subject he chose, for which he was passionate about, 'The Disestablishment of the Church of England'. Revd Enraght and Revd Ben-Oliel, were both members of the local Ward of The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament.
In July 1876, Maxwell left Brighton and was appointed Curate of the new 'iron structured' Church of St Michael & All Angels in Chiswick, by the Right Revd John Jackson, the Bishop of London. (a permanent St Michael & All Angels Church was not built until 1879)
The following is an extract from the West London Observer for the
26th August 1876, reporting on the 'Dedication Festival of
St Michael & All Angels, Chiswick' :-
‘Placards, both large and
small, have been placed about in the neighbourhood of Chiswick during
the last week announcing the dedication of this church, and giving a
list of preachers and services during this and next week.
Amongst the former were Mr. Pelham Dale, of the City, and Mr. Tooth, of Hatcham, both of whom have lately been condemned in the Court of Arches for illegal practices. This alone was sufficient to indicate what the services were likely to be, and consequently, a fair congregation was drawn together at the eleven o’clock services. On the bell ceasing, a procession of choristers, &c., entered the church, and took their seats in the chancel. They were habited in purple and black cassocks and cottas, and followed by Mr. Ben-Oliel in cassock, surplice, white stole, and hood.’
The article went on to list all the illegal practices that the Revd Ben-Oliel included in the service, :- crossing himself, candles on the Altar, Communion Wafers, elevating the Elements, the singing of the “Agnus Dei” and the choir carrying a brass crucifix aloft.
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| Lemington Spa Courier 23 September 1876 |
It seems the Revd Maxwell Ben-Oliel escaped prosecution for his "illegal ritualistic practices" under the Public Worship Regulation Act.
 |
| The above article appeared in The
Rock, a hard line Protestant Church of England Newspaper in October 1876 |
In 1877,
the Revd Maxwell Ben Oliel along with the famous Anglo-Catholics :-
Revd A. H. Mackonochie, Revd T. Pelham Dale and Revd A. H. Stanton served as committee members for the Church League for the Separation of Church and State.
The Dickens' Directory of London by Charles Dickens Jnr, listed the organisation as being based at "25, Blackman Street, Southwark, its subscription was 1s and upwards per annum, and its aims:- The Disestablishment of the Church of England ".
By 1878 Maxwell Ben-Oliel had left St Michael's Chiswick, to set up his own church, he paid £4,310 for St Patrick and St Saviour's ‘iron church’ in Kenway Road, Earl’s Court and a further £1,000 on the fabric. Crockford's reported that Maxwell was the Minister of St Patrick and St Saviour's in South Kensington from 1878 until 1881.
Early in 1879 a correspondent of the Kensington News described the quaint iron church under Ben Oliel's cure, still soldiering on in hope of a brighter future, with its blue-painted walls, its harmonium and its 'asthmatic bell-pull'
In September 1879 St. Patrick's burnt down. Ben-Oliel quickly had a mission-room established, and issued an appeal for funds.
The Bishop of London,
John Jackson, expressed his sorrow that Ben-Oliel’s iron church had
burnt down but also issued the following statement of rebuke: 'I
have distinctly told him, as the two previous owners of the chapel,
that I have no intention of consecrating, or of consenting to the
assignment of a district to, any permanent church built on that site.
The neighbourhood is not a poor one.'
Following the Bishop of
London’s edict, Ben-Oliel decided to look for a new site, after
several failures in his quest to build a new church in the heart of
Earl’s Court, he left the area in 1881.
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| Advert from The Athenaeum 19 February 1881 |
From 1881 until 1889 he served as a curate at several churches around London and at St Michael and All Angels, Folkestone, Kent.
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| Folkestone Express 1 December 1886 |
The
Revd Maxwell Ben-Oliel, although a very experienced priest, never
achieved a status higher than a parish curate. He hardly endeared
himself to the Archbishop of Canterbury when his ministry took him in
a controversial Anglo-Catholic direction and making public
speeches on the 'Disestablishment of the Church of England' did not help in his progress within the Church. This is
probably why his ministry took him to the Episcopal Church in the
USA, the only part of the Anglican Communion that was disestablished
from the Crown.
*******
Around the end of 1889 Maxwell moved to the U.S.A., he
served as missionary for the Episcopal Church at West Berkeley in the Diocese of
California. Maxwell’s older brother, the Revd Abraham Ben-Oliel,
was serving as a Presbyterian minister in Chicago after spending many
years in the Holy Land and North Africa as a missionary.
Later
in 1891, Maxwell Ben-Oliel, who was described as a very
distinguished Biblical scholar and preacher by the California press, was sent by Bishop Nichols of California to St John’s Episcopal
Church, San Bernardino, for a month or so as cover when the previous
priest left. This cover as Rector in effect lasted just over two
years. Ben-Oliel conducted worship at St John's in both Spanish and English.
On arriving in the Parish in December 1891, he found the Church advertised for sale, with debts of nearly $6000 ($150,500 in today’s values). Through clever management and the sale of Church property, Revd Ben-Oliel put the Church on a sound financial footing, staving off the Sheriff’s sale of the building and even finding $500 to improve the Church’s interior.
 |
| 1890s church notice from The San Bernardino Daily Courier (U.S.A.) |
On Trinity Sunday in 1892, Bishop Nichols visited St John’s
to conduct a Service of Thanksgiving assisted by Revd Ben-Oliel and
Canon Fletcher. While serving as Rector of St John’s, Revd Ben-Oliel gave practical advice to the Diocese of California on the
subject of Diocesan and Parochial organisation.
In 1893
Revd Ben-Oliel wrote to the secretary of the Diocese of California
giving news of his ministry since he left St John’s in August 1892,
in which he indicates he seemed to be in high demand in the East.
‘I have preached, lectured and officiated in Boston,
New York, Philadelphia, Camden, Baltimore Jacksonville and many other
cities and parishes, delivered altogether 137 sermons, lectures and
addresses in 29 churches and other places. During Lent I preached
every Sunday evening in St John’s Cathedral, Jacksonville, Florida
and every Sunday morning in St Andrew’s Church in the same city. I
have reason to believe that God has blessed my work, I had large
congregations, sometimes the churches were full and overflowing.’
In an article in the Sun
Weekly (California) newspaper for 4th February 1900, it was stated
‘Revd Ben-Oliel’s services to St John’s Church at such a
critical time in its history, must be recognised as of great value’.
*******
On his
return to England, Maxwell was in high demand to preach in churches
in the London
area as well as at Rochester Cathedral on two occasions.
From 1895 until 1898 the Revd Maxwell Ben-Oliel served as assistant priest at the Streatham churches of St Leonards and All Saints.
The
following text is from a London Evening newspaper in March 1895, it
was also thought so worthy to be reprinted in provincial newspapers
in different corners of the United Kingdom, notably - Swansea Journal,
Leicester Mercury, Sheffield Independent and East Anglia Times :-
“The
Rev. Maxwell Ben-Oliel, one of the most remarkable clergymen in the
Diocese of London, is frequently heard in metropolitan pulpits. A
convert from Judaism to Christianity, he was ordained more than 30
years ago, and is now of venerable appearance. But he has lost none
of the vigour which has characterised him in controversy, and none of
the eloquence which (remarks a London evening newspaper) has secured
him much admiration but not a benefice. His sermons are so original
and clever that it is matter of constant wonder that he has been
allowed to remain for all this time among the curates or Sunday
lecturers. He is a very High Churchman, but not more advanced than
several Rectors with large stipends. Moreover, he is a profound
scholar and linguist. He has travelled greatly and read deeply.”
The the above newspaper article is written
in admiration of Maxwell talents and questions as to why he was never
fully recognised by the Church he served around the World ? (He
probably blotted his copybook with the ‘Church Establishment’ for
being a High Churchman and an advocate for the Disestablishment of the
Church of England).
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| Beckenham Journal 14 December 1895 |
In the 1890s Maxwell Ben-Oliel staged many lectures around London, which according to the local newspapers were very popular and well attended. Subjects he lectured on, ranged from ‘Science & The Bible’, ‘Christianity & Theosophy’, ‘Jerusalem & The Holy Land’ (illustrated by Lime-Light) and the ‘Oberammergau Passion Play’.
In
1896 he founded the Kilburn Mission to the Jews.
The
Year Book of Evangelical Mission to the Jews for 1906, lists this
Mission as having a staff of one ordained minister, seven volunteers
and an annual income of $2,500, its headquarters was listed at 38, Church
Road, Hove, Sussex.
In early 1899, Maxwell spent some months in Algiers for health reason, on his return to England he ran a Lent Course at St Augustine's Kilburn. Also in the same year at the Church of England’s Church Congress held at the Royal Albert Hall, Revd Ben-Oliel delivered a speech on the subject ‘The Social and Religious Conditions of Jews’.
In 1901, in London, the Revd Maxwell Ben-Oliel was elected president of the Hebrew Christian Alliance & Prayer Union, as president he advocated that converts should celebrate The Passover and The Day of Atonement as testimonies to their Jewish heritage.
In Sussex, The Hastings & St Leonards Observer reported on the 29th November 1902, "GREAT LINGUIST AT ST LEONARDS. The Rev. Maxwell Ben-Oliel who occupied the pulpit at Christ Church, St Leonards, on Sunday, is a very cultured preacher and an accomplished linguist, being master of no less than sixteen languages."
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| Copyright © D. Sharp 25, Walsingham Road, the former home of the Revd Maxwell M. Ben-Oliel |
Maxwell
died on 8th March 1907 aged 74, at St Paul’s Lodge,
25 Walsingham Road, Aldrington, Hove, the home of his son, John
Bernard Ben-Oliel, who's profession was listed as an actor. (John's stage name was later changed to 'Bernard Liell', he married the actress, Georgette Melanie Thierry at St Catherine's Church, Abercromby Square, Liverpool in 1902).
Revd Maxwell Mochluff Ben-Oliel, a much travelled priest, missionary, lecturer and author was laid to
rest in St Leonard’s Churchyard in New Church Road, Aldrington,
Hove. (now a part of the City of Brighton & Hove).
 |
| Copyright © D. Sharp 'Looking unto Jesus' (text from Hebrews 12:2 KJV) In Loving Memory of Maxwell M. Ben-Oliel, Priest Who Entered into Rest, March 8th 1907 Aged 74 years. (St Leonard's churchyard, Aldrington, Hove, Sussex.) |
*******
The following text is from a
1909 publication of the Jewish Converts Institution in London:-
Ben-Oliel, a well-known
family in Oran Algeria, has given to the Church three sons about the
middle of the nineteenth century, baptized by the Wesleyans in
Gibraltar.
Rev. Abraham Ben-Oliel, was for many years missionary in Rome, and then at Jaffa and Jerusalem. He was a true man of God, an ardent lover of his nation, whose spiritual welfare he endeavoured to promote by word and pen all through a long life. He died in America towards the close of last century.
Rev. Maxwell Mochluff Ben-Oliel, after finishing his theological course at the Church of England's St. Aidan's College, he was ordained in 1860, and was curate in several churches; also domestic chaplain to the Dowager Duchess of Northumberland, 1864-66; minister of St. Patrick and St. Saviour, South Kensington, 1878-81; missionary at West Berkeley, California, 1889-91; Rector of San Bernardino, California, 1891-93. Returning to England, he conducted a mission to the Jews at Kilburn, by writing and lectures. As a good preacher and thoroughly conversant with Jewish and Christian literature, he was gladly heard in the churches and cathedrals of England. His writings on the Jewish subject are numerous.
Moses Ben-Oliel, served for many years as a missionary and the Bible agent for the British & Foreign Bible Society at Oran in Algeria.
*******
("Revd Maxwell Ben-Oliel" research compiled from many newspaper articles and church publications by D. Sharp)