The Rt Revd Michael Manktelow writes:
THE Rt Revd Colin Docker, Bishop of Horsham, from 1975 to 1991,
in the diocese of Chichester, died suddenly at home on Monday 3
November, just one month shy of his 89th birthday. Only the
previous day, he and his wife, Thelma, had worshipped as usual in
Exeter Cathedral, where they had made their spiritual home in
retirement. He will be missed as a much loved friend and pastoral
bishop in Sussex, and in Devon, where they had lived for the past
23 years.
Colin was born in Birmingham in December 1925, and educated at
King Edward's School, and at the University of Birmingham. In 1946
he went to Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, to train for ordination. He was
ordained three years later in Wakefield Cathedral, to a title at
Normanton, moving on in 1952 to be Lecturer of Halifax Parish
Church. In 1954, he took on a more peripatetic ministry as Area
Secretary of CMS in the dioceses of Derby, Lincoln, and South-
well.
Five years later, however, Bishop Roger Wilson, who had been
translated from Wakefield to Chichester, reclaimed Colin for parish
ministry, by bringing him south to be Vicar of Midhurst, a busy
market town in West Sussex. To this was later added the rural
parish of Woolbeding, and the responsibility of being rural
dean.
So began a long and memorable pastoral ministry in the counties
of both East and West Sussex, as he and Thelma moved on to Seaford
in 1964, and then to St Mary's, Eastbourne, seven years later. In
both places he was also rural dean, but, as St Mary's was the
mother church of the town, he was also patron of several benefices
in the deanery.
He was installed as a canon of Chichester Cathedral in 1966, a
prebendal stall that he held for 25 years. He was a Proctor in
Convocation from 1970 to 1975. During this time, he also produced
the Docker report on the reorganisation of the diocese.
This could well have influenced Eric Kemp, who, only months
after becoming Bishop of Chichester in 1974, had to appoint a new
Bishop of Horsham, in succession to Simon Phipps, who had been
translated to Lincoln. It was no surprise that he chose Colin, who
was then consecrated by Archbishop Donald Coggan in Westminster
Abbey in 1975 (along with John Taylor, whom he had known from CMS
days). Sixteen years at Horsham, comprising all of West Sussex,
including remote downland parishes as well as Crawley new town,
with all its social problems, brought together and crowned all
Colin's previous ministry - pastoral, evangelistic, and
administrative.
Although Bishops Kemp and Docker came from different stables,
they worked well together, developing a very real friendship, as
did their respective wives. Thelma became diocesan President of the
Mothers' Union, while Colin took over Eric's ecumenical
responsibility with the Old Catholics in Europe.
Nationally, Colin served as Chairman of the Council for Social
Concern from 1987 to 2001, and also of CARA (Caring and Resource
for People with HIV/AIDS) in the mid-1990s. When Colin retired to
Bovey Tracey in 1991, he was appointed Assistant Bishop in the
diocese of Exeter, relishing, as he said, being "a bishop without
responsibility". His counsel and his preaching were greatly valued
in both cathedral and diocese, as were his and Thelma's
approachability and friendship.
Theirs was a great partnership throughout the 64 years of their
marriage; they had a friendship that went back to their school
days. Human, humble, hospitable, and humorous, they knew the clergy
and cared for their families. While extending our loving thoughts
now to Thelma along with their son and their daughter, we thank God
upon every remembrance of this pre-eminently pastoral bishop, a
good and faithful servant of his Lord.