| The Very Revd Robert Jeffery writes:
WHEN Kenneth Woollcombe retired from St Paul’s Cathedral in 1989, he and his wife moved to Upton Snodsbury in Worcestershire. Juliet, who was a deacon, took charge of four country parishes, while Kenneth provided the eucharistic back-up. At the interviews, an elderly churchwarden said to Kenneth: “I hope you have not come here expecting preferment.” He would have enjoyed that. A person of deep humanity, his special skills lay in his clarity as a teacher and preacher, and in a great gift for friendship.
The son of Canon Edward Woollcombe, Rector of Sutton in Surrey, he was born in 1924. He went to Haileybury in 1937, and gained an exhibition to St John’s College, Oxford. He joined the RNVR in 1943, and trained as an engineer. He went up to St John’s in 1946, and was considered an outstanding scholar.
His long-standing relationship with Kenneth Carey began when he went to train at Westcott House. This was followed by a two-year curacy at St James’s, Grimsby; and he married Gwenda Hodges. They had three daughters. In 1953, he succeeded Geoffrey Lampe as Chaplain and Fellow of St John’s. In 1960, he was appointed Professor of Dogmatic Theology at General Theological Seminary, New York.
The ill-health that dogged his life began when his travel to the United States was delayed by a period in hospital. Three years later, Carey (then Bishop of Edinburgh) invited him to be Principal of Edinburgh Theological College. He did this with great effect, and became an authority on theological education.
In 1971, he was appointed Bishop of Oxford. Kenneth was much more outgoing than his two very academic predecessors, and his arrival was welcomed by many. He set about his tasks with great vigour, and early on made significant appointments to his senior staff.
His personality attracted many, and he put people before organisation. Many vicars were surprised to find the Bishop knocking on their door, and many people were recipients of letters written in his rather spidery handwriting. When in hospital in the Radcliffe Infirmary, he won everyone over by going around serving tea to his fellow patients. He faced many new challenges, with the development of New Towns in Bracknell and Milton Keynes.
He resisted the report on the south-east dioceses, which recommended that Oxford should become three dioceses. He saw the need for radical pastoral reorganisation, and his episcopal visitation called for the retirement of all elderly clergy. Some lay people as well as clergy turned to him for personal pastoral support.
On the wider scene, he conducted a review of theological colleges which followed the de Bunsen report of 1968, Theological Colleges for Tomorrow. He was chairman of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. A delegate at the Nairobi Assembly of the World Council of Churches, he was subsequently a member of its Central Committee.
In 1976, his wife Gwenda died, and, after much agonising, he felt unable to continue in Oxford. Many of his fellow bishops pleaded with him to stay. In 1978, he became an assistant bishop in London. In 1980, he married Juliet Dearmer, and they had a daughter.
Three years later, the Crown made him an unusual offer. He could become either Bishop of Worcester or a Canon of St Paul’s. He opted for St Paul’s, where as Canon Precentor he did much to support the music and liturgy, and was a popular preacher.
The wider Church still used him, most significantly as chairman of the Churches’ Council for Covenanting. A committed ecumenist, he was ideal for the task, which was that of picking up the pieces after the failed Anglican-Methodist Scheme. The Council worked very hard to produce a new scheme. His reflections in the 1982 report The Failure of the English Covenant (written with the secretary of the Council, Philip Capper) make salutary reading. Kenneth, controversially, took part in the consecration of a Moravian bishop.
In Worcester, he helped as an assistant bishop, and conducted a review of Dudley, in preparation for a new episcopal area. In 1994, the Woollcombes moved to Pershore. Illness struck again when he broke his hip, and this was followed by throat cancer, and the onset of dementia. His death on 3 March, aged 84, came after a period of care by his wife and friends.
He could often be indiscreet, and very amusing. He wore his theological learning lightly. The holder of two honorary doctorates, he published very little, but had good things to say. He influenced Jürgen Moltmann’s theology by introducing him to the writings of Studdert-Kennedy. One layman in Oxford has commented: “He was too kind and trusting, and a lousy politician, both great virtues for an Anglican bishop.”
His second wife and four daughters survive him.
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