Canon Arthur Edwards writes:

THE Rt Revd Clifford Wright, who died in Newport on 14 February, aged 91, was Bishop of Monmouth for five years, from 1986 until his retirement at the age of 69 in 1991. He did not expect to become a bishop, but had intended to retire after nearly a decade of outstanding service as an archdeacon in the diocese.

Monmouth was Clifford's home diocese; he was born in Newport, and attended Newport High School for Boys. He graduated in Hebrew and Greek from University College, Cardiff, at the age of 19, trained for the ministry at St Stephen's House, Oxford, and was ordained in 1945.

After his two curacies in Monmouth diocese, at Bedwas and St John the Baptist, Newport, Clifford served as a curate-in-charge in Liverpool, before becoming a chaplain in the Royal Navy for 17 years. Retiring as a senior chaplain in 1968, he became Vicar of Blaenafon, where his considerable pastoral gifts, his easy manner and approachability, his great sense of humour, and the warmth of his hospitality enriched not only his own parishioners, but many of the clergy in the deanery of Pontypool, where he became Area Dean in 1973.

He and his wife, Joyce, lived happily at Blaenafon for the longest period they had spent together in one house since their marriage in 1945. Ever obedient to his bishop, Clifford accepted the appointments of first Rector of the new benefice of Ebbw Vale in 1974, becoming a Canon of St Woolos' Cathedral in the same year, and Archdeacon of Monmouth in 1977, succeeding to the senior archdeaconry of Newport soon afterwards.

Apart from the warmth of his personality, his pastoral care, and his wise humour, what distinguished Clifford Wright was his undoubted intelligence and common sense, which he applied at all times in the committees on which he served at diocesan and provincial levels. He gave long service to the Governing Body, the Representative Body, and the Liturgical Commission of the Church in Wales. He was a highly successful chairman of the Committee for the Maintenance of the Ministry, and many clergy had cause to thank him for the improvements that he brought to their parochial stipends and expenses.

Clifford was a very good administrator, down to earth and disarming. He could receive a sympathetic hearing by disclaiming any qualification to speak on a subject that he had mastered completely. He had a very good grasp of financial management, and this extendedto the financing of new Church schools in the diocese. Under his leadership, two new voluntary aided schools were built, the first in memory of his predecessor, Archbishop Derrick Childs, himself an educationist. The administrative structure of the Church in Wales had changed by the creation of the Board of Mission, and the diocesan structure had to be brought into line with the provincial pattern; the Bishop was not troubled by the task.

At a time when so much of the work of the Church seemed to be dictated by a response to proposals, and nearly half the clergy in the Church in Wales were recorded as believing that they spent too much time on administration, Bishop Clifford cut through the treacle of bureaucracy with a relaxed style of leadership that allowed parish priests to be confirmed in caring for their own parishes.

His mood in the diocese was always upbeat and optimistic, and he was very positive about the contribution that lay people could make in mission and evangelism. In the Decade of Evangelism, he did not want "a succession of evangelistic efforts", but "the patient influence in the communities of people who can explain their faith coherently and witness to its transforming effect in their lives", as he told his diocesan conference in 1989.

He encouraged some priests to spend time overseas, to help the diocese to have a better understanding of its place in the Anglican Communion. He also took pains to prepare to take the diocese with him to the Lambeth Conference of 1988, by informing himself of the mind of the diocese on the ordination of women to the priesthood. With a majority of the diocesan clergy at that time opposed to women priests, Clifford did not vote in favour.

In his long and happy retirement, Bishop Clifford was generous in the time that he gave to the diocese, and to the parish of St John the Baptist, Newport, where he worshipped, and whose history he wrote in retirement. His requiem eucharist there on 2 March, at which the present Bishop of Monmouth presided, was a fitting celebration of the life and ministry of this humble, faithful, and pastoral bishop.

He is survived by Joyce, their daughter, Janice, and son, David, and their families.