A correspondent writes:
PENELOPE, Lady Nairne, an extraordinarily energetic woman, whose ideas were often in advance of her time, died on 23 December, aged 87. She was, among many other activities, a Church of England Reader and trainer, living and working in Oxfordshire since 1981, and was also the founder and president of Home-Start Oxford.

The Bishop of Dorchester, the Rt Revd Colin Fletcher, has described Penny as "a person of deep and thoughtful faith, committed to her Lord, passionate about the life of the church in all its diversity", and she was "a great enabler, encourager, and example".

She was the wife of Sir Patrick Nairne, who was Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford, from 1981 to 1988, and died in June 2013.

She was born in Nainital in India, where her father was a doctor in the Indian army, and she had one younger sister, Johanna. During her teenage years, the family lived in north Oxford. Ann Spokes Symonds, her neighbour in those days, remembers the delightful afternoons that they spent together at Dame's Delight, the swimming pool in the river Cherwell.

She won a scholarship to read English at Lady Margaret Hall, and, while she was there, she met Patrick Nairne, one of the cohort of men who had returned to their studies after fighting in the Second World War. They were married in 1948, and started their life together in a flat in Hammersmith. From 1953, they lived in a large ramshackle house in Surrey, and, by the time she was 34, Penny was mother to six children.

She juggled being a mother and wife with many other activities, such as Mothers' Union speaker, volunteer organiser for the WRVS, and running a secondhand-clothing exchange in her home. In 1978, she became licensed as a Reader in the Church of England, and joined the Parish Church team in Oxshott, Surrey. After she and Sir Patrick moved to Oxford in 1981, she became a staff member of St Michael's, New Marston, where she started and co-edited the parish magazine, set up a youth group, and was fully involved in all aspects of pastoral care.

When Sir Patrick was Master of St Catherine's, from 1981 to 1988, she was much involved in the daily life of the college, hosting student lunches and attending college functions, but she also developed an astonishing breadth of activities of her own. One of these was to become the first chair of Home-Start Oxford, having previously been a trustee of the Home-Start Consultancy. Home-Start trains volunteers to support families with young children, a purpose that was dear to her heart.

From 1983 to 1987, Penny chaired the Advisory Council of BBC Radio Oxford. From 1987 onwards, she started doing adult-education work for Oxford diocese, training lay people in leadership, pastoral care, and listening skills, and designing and leading courses in parishes. Also during the 1980s, she became interested in the Movement for Ordination of Women, chaired its Oxford diocesan branch, and from then on was a passionate campaigner for women priests and bishops.

For many years from 1984, she was on the council of Wycliffe Hall theological college, and contributed a great deal to its life. From 1993, she was a tutor for Westminster College in Pastoral Studies and Christian Ethics, and she also chaired of the Oxford diocesan FLAME (Family Life and Marriage Education) Group.

In 1988, the Nairnes moved to Chilson, near Charlbury, and she joined the ministry team of St Mary's, Charlbury, where she is said to have "enabled many people to engage with theological and biblical issues in a new way". Over the years she wrote hundreds of sermons, and was known for the quality of her preaching, as well as for the way she encouraged and supported others. Her book When I Needed a Neighbour: Enabling pastoral care in the local church (Marshall Pickering, 1998) is still the benchmark for many across the Church of England.

She is survived by her six children, by Johanna, and by 12 grandchildren.