The Revd Alan Pierce writes:

I HAVE two distinct memories of meeting and working with the Very Revd Dr Stephen Smalley (Gazette, 12 July) in the 1990s. In my capacity as Head of Religious Studies at Canon Slade School, I invited him to deliver several lectures on various themes from St John’s Gospel, at Crawshaw Booth retreat centre. Stephen’s lectures were very well received by our Year 13 students, who were quick to recognise and appreciate the insights of an outstandingly gifted Johannine scholar.

My second memory is of a more personal nature. After I had retired from teaching in 2006, I visited Stephen at his home and discussed the possibility of doing a Lambeth research degree on the subject of “The role of women in the Fourth Gospel”. Stephen was charming, positive, and offered to act as the supervisor of my research. I found him to be, over the course of five years, a wonderful overseer, encouraging, positive, and constructive. I believe that I would not have succeeded as I did without his help.

It was a privilege to know him. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.