Canon John Nightingale writes:

RUTH TETLOW devoted her life to the service of others. She was a teacher in both the UK and Kenya, a tutor at the College of the Ascension, Selly Oak, an international development worker, and an activist and campaigner whose life bore witness to her commitment to social justice and human dignity.

In her own quiet, determined way, she played a seminal part in three of the most important movements of Christian action through her lifetime.

Her first contribution was to help to turn interfaith cooperation in Birmingham from aspiration to concrete reality. Over several decades, as a trustee of the Birmingham Council of Faiths and Grassroots Luton, and steadfast supporter of the Al-Mahdi Institute, she showed how differences between faiths could not only be tolerated but become a collaborative strength.

With that philosophy, she founded the pioneering Faith Guiding Course that runs to this day, in which trained guides present their places of worship, beliefs, and activities to visitors from other communities. Mixed-faith group classes enabled trainees to challenge and support one another constructively. These offered a model of collaboration which found expression in shared civic action, such as the use of faith buildings as Covid vaccination centres.

Her second great contribution was to the global Debt Justice movement. As secretary of the Jubilee Debt Birmingham group and a member of the national board, Ruth put into practice her deep conviction that female participation should be fully recognised and exercised. Heidi Chow, the current Director of Debt Justice, singles out the support that Ruth gave her, and the way in which she oversaw big changes as the movement transitioned to campaign on local British household debt, while maintaining its global focus.

Ruth combined deep compassion with intellectual rigour. Her Cambridge University degree in geography and her international experience gave her a critical edge. She challenged weak thinking, praised good work generously, and, in my experience, chaired meetings with fairness and skill. “Get to the point” was a phrase that encapsulated Ruth’s often useful impatience with process. These characteristics, together with her wide interfaith connections, shaped her final and most influential work.

In the lead-up to the 2015 UN Paris Climate Conference, Ruth helped to bring faith communities together to enact the late Professor John Hull’s aspiration that all faiths work with one another to tackle climate change. Out of this grew Footsteps: Faiths for a Low Carbon Future, launched in 2016 and bringing six faiths (Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh) in Birmingham into partnership with the Council and community groups. It was the first organisation of its kind in the UK. Ruth served as its first chair and, later, its president, stepping back reluctantly when illness intervened.

Ruth received the Hubert Walter Award from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2022 for her “outstanding contribution to interfaith relations in Birmingham over four decades”.

Many have worked on such causes. Ruth’s distinctive gift was her ability to notice opportunity, respond with imagination and persistence, and draw others with her. Her quiet encouragement of unassuming leaders from all backgrounds is widely remembered. Her commitment to community cohesion, justice, and the environment was symbolised by her arranging the planting of a Ginkgo tree in Birmingham’s City Centre Gardens to mark the 25th anniversary of the Debt Justice Movement.

Ruth was devoted to her adopted son, Duncan, who died in 2016, and to her husband, Richard, and their children, Daniel and Rachel, who survive her.

Ruth Nancy Margaret Tetlow (née Bywaters) died on 13 January, aged 79.