Canon Michael Green writes:
THE death of Martin Cavender on 31 July, aged 68, has robbed us of one of the most loving, charming, and enthusiastic men I have ever met. I knew him in depth for only four years out of his full life, but it was long enough to know that this was a man of rare and winsome quality.
He began work as a solicitor in the 1970s, and helped to build Harris & Harris into the major law firm it is today. Always motivated by a passion for justice, Martin’s personable approach to the law led him to help a great many people, and in due course to become a friend and Diocesan Registrar to the then Bishop of Bath & Wells, Dr George Carey.
When Dr Carey became Archbishop of Canterbury, he was deeply concerned to give a more outward-looking and evangelistic slant to the Church of England, which was far too turned in on itself and its own affairs. So, together with the Archbishop of York, he set up a small task force, Springboard, in which Martin was the leading light. This was designed to embody some of England’s part in the worldwide Decade of Evangelism, from 1990 to 2000.
The Church of England is slow to move, and this outward thrust was not to everyone’s liking. Moreover, each diocesan bishop had jurisdiction in his own diocese, and the Archbishop could not tell him what to do. So our little team (which initially comprised Martin, Bishop Michael Marshall, my wife, Rosemary, and me) could operate only where we were invited.
It was entirely due to the charm and diplomacy of Martin, who saw himself as our “gofer” but was really our leader, that we were in due course invited throughout the country, where we had extended times with the clergy and the church councils, and did many outreach events up and down the land. Without Martin’s diplomatic skills, it could never have happened. Without his vitality and warmth, we would have wilted. But, although it did not transform the face of the Church of England as expected, Springboard influenced it to such an extent that mission, at home as much as abroad, is now seen as a top priority even in small village churches, and new forms of church are emerging fast.
After Springboard’s four years were over, Martin, together with Alison Morgan, Prebendary John Woolmer, and others, devised ReSource, a force for spiritual renewal widely appreciated across the country, and perhaps, above all, in Africa. After a request from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Martin and his wife Cesca had worked in Rwanda after the genocide, rebuilding the legal framework of the country. Now he returned to encourage and resource the expanding impact of the gospel in many parts of the continent.
Martin had not always been a Christian, though he lived by Christian ethics. He was helped to a living faith in Jesus Christ at his own dinner table, at the age of 38. Very soon Christ’s presence in his life produced a love and joy that were infectious. He became a gifted preacher, entirely devoid of pretentiousness and churchiness. Indeed, he was the first layman to preach at the consecration of a bishop at Westminster Abbey.
His enthusiasm and lack of prejudice meant that he was the heart and soul of whatever group he was in. He saw the best in everybody, and loved to discern beauty in people wherever he went. His essay revelling in the Christian life, “Our Strength and Our Song”, written while his body was racked with cancer, makes one of the most moving pieces I have ever read. He faced death as he had faced life, with courage, love, and laughter, delighting in family and friends, despite periods of intense pain.
Martin Cavender left a fragrance of love and joy wherever he went. He embodied the phrase “perfect love casts out fear,” and he was fearless because he was so focused on the source of perfect love, Jesus Christ himself. The man was a legend in his own lifetime.
There will be a celebration service for the life of Martin Cavender at Wells Cathedral on Saturday 31 October at 1 p.m.