Dr David Grumett writes:
CANON John Alfred Thurmer, formerly Lazenby Chaplain of the
University of Exeter, and Canon Chancellor of Exeter Cathedral,
died on the feast of the Conversion of St Paul, 25 January, aged
89.
On leaving King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford, as head
boy, he was called up for military service. This took him to Egypt
and Palestine as a Royal Engineers railway clerk, and he rose to
the rank of sergeant. Fortunate to be stationed for two years in
Jerusalem, he experienced that city's rich Christian culture,
including the Easter Vigil in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He
was in the King David Hotel when it was bombed.
The following year, he returned to Britain physically unscathed,
although he continued to be deeply affected by the death of his
elder brother Jim from war wounds. After reading Modern History at
Oriel College, Oxford, and two years at Lincoln Theological
College, John was ordained, and served his curacy at St Michael and
All Angels, Manor Park. His impressive intellectual capacities
already evident, he was then appointed Chaplain and Lecturer at
Salisbury Theological College, where he remained for nine
years.
In 1964, he came to Exeter, where he would spend the rest of his
life. In addition to his ministry as University Chaplain, he
lectured in history and theology. As well as sung eucharists in the
Mary Harris Chapel on Sundays and some saints' days, he led morning
services in halls of residence, using a dining table. The
communicants knelt around it on the carpet. Other initiatives
included an Advent carol service and periodic retreats.
Combining good humour with spiritual depth, he once strengthened
a student's resolve to abstain from alcohol for Lent without
realising that this included her 21st birthday. In expiation, he
gave her a bottle of Bollinger for Easter Sunday.
In 1973, shortly before retiring, Bishop Robert Mortimer
appointed John to the Cathedral. His tendency to view the present
from a historical perspective made John well-suited to this
ministry, and he understood that effective and lasting change was
usually incremental. He was well known for his pastoral sensitivity
and warm hospitality, to servers and many generations of choral
scholars, among others. He maintained a wide circle of friends.
Latterly, when the cathedral was going through one of its
periodic financial crises, he stopped lecturing, and employed
excellent skills as its Administrator. For the diocese, he directed
the recruitment of self-supporting clergy and post-ordination
training. His greatest contribution, however, was liturgical. He
was instrumental in instituting a sung eucharist in place of choral
evensong on saints' days, relocating the regular Sunday sung
eucharist from the quire to a central nave altar, refurnishing
several side chapels, and ensuring their regular use, and
implementing the provisions of the Alternative Service Book. These
developments were led with common sense and minimal fuss. Overall,
John was a great figure in the cathedral's life in the later 20th
century.
As a child, he had lived close to Dorothy L. Sayers in Witham,
Essex, and much later became active in the Society bearing her
name. He wrote two books on Sayers, A Detection of the
Trinity and Reluctant Evangelist. Sayers viewed human
activity as analogous with divine activity, and human creativity as
displaying something of the divine and leaving traces of God's work
and message in the world. John was adept at detecting these traces,
as in many contributions to the Cathedral Friends' annual report on
aspects of the building's development and adornment, on which he
was an authority.
He also produced the text for the Jarrold guide to Exeter, and a
doctrinal study, The Son in the Bible and the Church, in
which he laid out, among much else, the grounds for his implacable
opposition to women's ordination.
On his retirement in 1991, the University of Exeter awarded him
a Doctorate of Divinity. He became hon. assistant priest at Saint
Michael and All Angels, Mount Dinham, presiding at the eucharist,
officiating at vespers, preaching without notes, and helping chair
lectures until well into his eighties. John was much loved there
for his wisdom, learning, wit, welcome, and pastoral
friendship.
Professor Nicholas Orme adds: John, a pupil at Oxford
of Billy Pantin, was himself an outstanding scholar and teacher,
with the rare gift of analysing a topic in a way that revealed its
essential nature in simple terms: whether a period or person in
history, or a problemin theology. I learnt more fromhim about how
to understand and explain than from any of my university
tutors.
His powers of perception made him an excellent judge of
liturgical fitness, and a composer of sermons that were clear,
arresting, and short; they rarely lasted more than five
minutes.
He was so progressive in his views and belief in the
evolutionary nature of the Church of England that some were
surprised when, after his retirement, he espoused the causes of
Forward in Faith and the Prayer Book Society, to whose journal he
made many contributions. This did not prevent him from remaining a
sympathetic listener to other points of view. Besides his work on
Sayers, we are fortunate to possess a number of articles on Exeter
Cathedral.
His friends, students and congregations will not forget John's
memorable hospitality at the university, the cathedral and his
house in Exeter. After generous helpings of excellent food and
drink, the evening was likely (since he was a good mimic) to
include his imitations of well-known clerical figures such as the
astringent professorof theology and the gin-loving bishop. These
were good-humoured sallies from someone who was unfailingly
courteous and considerate to all.