Description:Abridged Biography taken from The Handsworth Magazine. The full biography is available as a download.
Reverend Rodgers lived at 31 Hall Road in Handsworth.
Mr Rodgers is nothing if not unconventional. He appeals not to the mere feeling of his congregation, but makes great demands on their intellect and imagination. His following is drawn from the educated and refined classes and more particularly from those who find the ancient credenda with the old forms of worship and church government insufficient for their aspirations. The higher culture is not unknown at the New Jerusalem Church as the society founded by Emanuel Swedenborg is sometimes called.
Mr Rodgers was born at Wilne, a little hamlet in Derbyshire and was baptised and in course of time confirmed in the Church of England. He became what is now called a Theist and Agnostic and taught only those parts of the Bible which commended themselves to what he considered enlightened reason. Still he had not reached the goal of his desires. Wandering one day through the Church cemetery at Nottingham he came across a gravestone upon which was inscribed a quotation from Swedenborg relative to the growth and education of children in heaven. The novelty of the epitaph led him to hunt up some of the writings of Swedenborg and - eureka! - all of his theological difficulties melted away like snow beneath the genial rays of the sun. He became an earnest student of the great mystic and joined the New Church at Derby. Subsequently he was adopted as a theological student by the general conference of the Church and spent nearly three years in study in London. In 1866 he accepted the pastorate of the Summer Lane Society, Birmingham, of which the Church in Wretham Road is the outcome.
In politics a Liberal and keen on social reform, Mr Rodgers yet avoids rather than seeks publicity. His tastes are essentially literary. He has lectured at most of the suburban institutes, in some cases for many successive years and during several winters he lectured on Sunday evenings for the Sunday Lecture Society on two occasions in the Town Hall, after conducting service in his own church. Theologically he belongs to what is called the broad school of thought and while he bases his teaching on the doctrines of Swedenborg, he prides himself that he does not blindly follow the doctrines of any one without testing them by enlightened reason and the testimony of the word of God. He claims in all things the right of private judgement and adopts the opinion of no one merely on his claim to authority. Many of his lectures have been published in pamphlet and book form and widely circulated. Of these the more popular deal with the relations between religion and science. Mr Rodgers shows that these are by no means irreconcilables; that each has its work to do and that the object of each is truth. As a divine revelation he says the Word of God is intended to be interpreted spiritually. The New Church has never held the untenable belief that the sacred scriptures are literally infallible. We have always seen that in the letter there are appearances of truth, such as the sun standing still and the Divine anger. We have also held from the outset that the mosaic account of creation was not a statement of scientific truth, that the Deluge had no basis in historic fact and that the Tower of Babel was not a material structure. We are also quite ready to admit that taken literally there are many contradictions in the letter of the Bible; that the authorship and the various books as previously understood, cannot be defended; that dates are wrong; and that the morals inculcated cannot always be taught in their literal acceptation.
The commencement of Mr Rodgers ministry has been well described as marking an epoch in the history of the Summer Lane Society. He soon made up his mind that there were three cardinal defects about the building wherein his congregation assembled, it was incommodious, exceedingly ugly and inconveniently situated. Ere long a policy of removal was decided upon and in 1875 plans were approved for the erection of the Church and Schools in Wretham Road, which are we doubt not, familiar to the majority of our readers. Mrs Henry Wilkinson laid the foundation stone of the New Church on June 16th, 1875; on Nov. 19th, 1876, service was held in Summer Lane for the last time and on Nov. 22nd of that year Wretham Road New Church was formerly opened. A more beautiful building is not to be found in a wide circuit of Handsworth. It has a handsome stone front with tower and spire and is built of hard red stone, with Bath stone dressings in the decorated Gothic style. It will accommodate 600 persons and was erected at a cost of upwards of £6,000 of which £3,000 was immediately subscribed by the congregation. From time to time memorial windows and other valuable gifts have been presented by the members of the congregation.