In 1905, with his brother, the Revd Charles Edward Douglas, he founded the Society of the Faith, which supported the Nikæan Club financially in its early years.
[1][2] The club owes its origin to the celebration in London to mark the sixteenth centenary of the First Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church held in Nicæa in 325.
[4][5] Notable members in the years after the Second World War included such figures as John Betjeman, Rose Macaulay, Osbert Lancaster and Dorothy L.
[7] The club suffered damage to its reputation in 1993, when its chairman Patrick Gilbert, head of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, received a suspended sentence for child abuse.
Canon Christopher Hill, also a member of the Nikæan Club accompanied Gilbert to court, and former Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, wrote a character witness letter.