 In May 1839, he was appointed spiritual director to the seminarians at Oscott College and in the same month preached at St. Chad's, Manchester on The Great Importance of a Reunion Between the Catholics and the Protestants of England and the Method of Effecting It.In January 1840, George visited John Henry Newman at Oriel College, Oxford to ask Newman to join him in prayer for "unity in truth".Newman sent Spencer away and refused even to see him, but later apologised for this in his Apologia;

"This feeling led me into the excess of being very rude to that zealous and most charitable man, Mr. Spencer, when he came to Oxford in January, 1840, to get Anglicans to set about praying for Unity.