Newsletter
Reverend Canon John Gelling
1992
The late Canon John Gelling was the 1992 winner of the prestigious Reih Bleeaney Vanannan. He received the award for his work on religious and social history.
John Gelling was a well-known local clergyman and scholar; not just of the Manx Church, but also of such diverse subjects as the life and works of Mozart, and the Hebrew texts of the Old Testament Prophets.
He was born in Crosby, in the Isle of Man, and was educated at King William’s College and Pembroke College, Oxford. He was ordained as a curate in Manchester, and after a period of time working within schools in the UK he returned back to the Island in 1964. At this time, he took up the post of Vicar of Rushen and moved to Ballaugh and Michael in 1977. He was a Rural Dean of Castletown, and was made a Canon of Maughold in 1980. After retiring in 1992 he still continued to take an active role in the Church.
Canon John Gelling’s dedicated research into Manx church history over many years produced a book of great breadth and scholarship entitled ‘A History of the Manx Church’. This volume has said to have been ‘of enormous benefit to scholars of many aspects of Manx life’ with a comprehensive index and biographies of all the main clergy throughout the period covered in the book.
