DEATHS noted this year among the episcopate included those of the Bishop of Buckingham, Dr Alan Wilson; the Rt Revd Godfrey Ashby, formerly Bishop of St John’s, South Africa; the Rt Revd David Smith, formerly Bishop of Bradford; the Rt Revd Peter Firth, the last Bishop of Malmesbury and a former BBC producer; the Rt Revd Michael Adie, formerly Bishop of Guildford; the Rt Revd George Cassidy, formerly Bishop of Southwell & Nottingham; the hymn-writer the Rt Revd Timothy Dudley-Smith, formerly Bishop of Thetford; the Rt Revd Mark Santer, a the former ARCIC co-chair and Bishop of Kensington and of Birmingham.
MEMBERS of the clergy whose deaths were recorded included Canon Josephine Goodwin, Chaplain of Cheltenham Ladies College; the Revd Gary Philbrick, Chaplain of Winchester Cathedral, and Assistant Archdeacon of Winchester; Canon June Steventon, Rector of St Elphin’s, Warrington; Canon David Meakin, Team Rector in the Schorne Team Ministry, and Area Dean of Claydon; the Revd Steve Burch, and his wife, Kathy, of CPAS; the Revd Graham Morgan, NSM of St Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park, and a former Executive Director of Nursing and Quality of the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust.
The Revd Neil Cowell, NSM in the Farnworth Kearsley and Stoneclough Team Ministry; the Revd Susan Mills, NSM of the Roach Parishes; the Revd Adrian Butland, NSM of Alphington, Shillingford St George and Ide; the Revd Carol Avery, NSM of Stanground and Farcet, and of Fletton; the Revd Paul Coke, Hon. Assistant Curate of St Peter’s, Mansfield; the Revd Samuel Benjamin, Assistant Curate of All Hallows’, North Greenford.
The Ven. Garth Norman, a former Archdeacon of Bromley and Bexley; Canon Chris Beales, an exponent of partnership approach to Christian social action; the Very Revd Dr Alan Jones, former Dean of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; the Revd Colin Oxenforth, a former parish priest in Brixton and Liverpool; Canon Ivor Smith-Cameron, formerly of the West London Chaplaincy and Director of Mission in Southwark diocese; Prebendary Duncan Ross, who served in Stepney; the Ven. Christopher Hewetson, a former Archdeacon of Chester; Canon John de Sausmarez, a former Canon Treasurer of Canterbury Cathedral.
The Revd Geoffrey Squire SSC, founder of YouthLink; the Revd Hugh Dawes, liberal advocate of Christianity; the Ven. Brian Halfpenny, a former Chaplain-in-Chief to the RAF; the Very Revd Dr Stephen Smalley, a former Dean of Chester; Canon Philip Spence, cartoonist, and former Methodist minister and adviser to Anglia TV.
Canon John Crowe, advocate of Christian unity; Canon Struan Dunn, former Rural Dean of Gillingham; Canon Bill Ritson, former chaplain to the Bishop of St Albans, Robert Runcie, and a priest with wide influence in the diocese; the Revd Clive Smith, former healthcare and prison chaplain; the Revd Raymond Reynolds, former Church Army captain.
The Ven. John Lewis, a former Archdeacon of Cheltenham; the Very Revd Dr John Moses, a former Provost of Chelmsford and Dean of St Paul’s; the Ven. Robert Fitzharris, a former Archdeacon of Doncaster; the Ven. Kenneth Gibbons, a former Archdeacon of Lancaster; the Revd Michael Taylor, a former athlete; the Very Revd Robert Willis, a former Dean of Canterbury; the Revd Donald Reeves, former Rector of St James’s, Piccadilly; Canon Keith Woodhouse, of Durham diocese; the Revd Michael Halliwell, who worked for reconciliation; the Ven. Frank Bentley, a former Archdeacon of Worcester; the Ven. David Griffith, a former Archdeacon of Montgomery; Canon Richard Hanford, a former Lecturer of Chichester Theological College,and Precentor of Guildford Cathedral; Brother Harold SSF; and the “eccentric globetrotter” Brother Michael Bartlett OGS.
The deaths also occurred of the liberation theologian Fr Gustavo Gutiérrez OP; the Revd Marc Lenders, a pastor in the Netherlands Reformed Church; and Professor Tony Campolo, a Baptist minister and sociologist in the United States.
DEATHS among the laity in 2024 included those of the founder of the Kids Company, Camila Batmanghelidjh; a former chairman of Hymns Ancient & Modern, Patrick Coldstream; the architect and linocut artist Andrew Anderson; Patrick Cormack, Baron Cormack of Enville, a Conservative politician and churchman; Sir Michael Colman, Bt., former First Church Estates Commissioner; the politician Frank Field, Lord Field of Birkenhead; the chief executive of Premier Christian Media, Peter Kerridge; June Spencer who played Peggy Archer in The Archers, and was a noted supporter of funding research into Alzheimer’s; Dave Lucas, the founder of the Ordinary Office; Viscountess Brentford, former Third Church Estates Commissioner.
Musicians included Henry Sandon, also a world expert on ceramics; the hymn-writer Elizabeth Cosnett; the hymn-tune writer Peter Cutts; the composer, conductor, broadcaster, and educator Dr James Whitbourn; the singer and teacher Christopher Keyte; the Director of Music of Southwark Cathedral, Ian Keatley; the counter-tenor Nigel Perrin; the organ builder and restorer Dominic Gwynn; a former Organist of Sheffield Cathedral, Graham Matthews.