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Obituary: The Revd Derek Bastide

12 June 2020

A correspondent writes:

BORN on 6 January 1944, the only son of William and Margaret Bastide, the Revd Derek Bastide grew up on the Lancashire coast in Lytham St Annes. His surname can be traced to Louis Bastide, a Huguenot refugee, who escaped to England from France in about 1680.

The family moved south in 1960, when his father was appointed Headmaster of St Jude’s School, Southsea. He joined the sixth form of Portsmouth Grammar School, where a close family friend, Canon Andrew Willie, remembers him as one whose family home was always welcoming and who impressed all with his Christian commitment, kindness, and integrity. He went on to St John’s College, in the University of Durham, to read theology; it was there that he met Judith, who was studying English literature. Their wedding in 1967 was the start of a long and extremely happy marriage.

After teacher training at the University of Reading (tutored by the redoubtable Ronald Goldman), and later a Master’s degree in education from the University of Sussex, Derek taught RE at Erith Comprehensive School, and then held a senior post in a large multi-racial primary school near by. When he was appointed lecturer in education at Brighton Polytechnic (later to become the University of Brighton) in 1971, he could say with considerable authority that he was much more than an educational theorist. He had a close knowledge of life at the chalk face (there was still a good deal of chalk and talk in those days). Not for him the cynical adage “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach; and those who can’t teach . . . teach others to teach.” He remained an inspiring teacher all his life, as generations of former students have acknowledged.

A distinguished career in academe followed. This included the publication of five books, one of which, Teaching Religious Education 4-11, now in its second edition, has become the go-to handbook for primary RE co-ordinators.

And yet behind all this was the nagging realisation that he was also called to ordination. The church authorities recognised this and, since he already had a degree in theology, he followed an intensive ordination course at Chichester Theological College, alongside his teacher-training work. He was priested at Petertide 1978.

For the rest of his working life, he remained both a full-time academic with a demanding career as principal lecturer in education at the University of Brighton, while also serving as a non-stipendiary priest in Chichester diocese. The mid-20th century was the era of the worker-priest movement in France, and there was great interest in a similar scheme in the Church of England. Derek initially became an assistant priest at St Michael’s, Lewes, with six years of close pastoral co-operation with the Revd Peter Wright.

In 1984, the Bishop of Lewes appointed Derek as Priest-in-Charge of Offham and Hamsey, a village parish outside Lewes with a mixed rural and commuter population. Would this very Anglican interpretation of the worker-priest experiment work? Were there enough hours in the day to balance the demands of parish, university, and family (Derek and Judith by now had two young children)? The answer was a resounding “Yes.”

Derek added chairman of the Brighton and Hove SACRE (standing advisory council on religious education) and chair of governors of the village primary school to his portfolio. Using his expertise in all aspects of RE, he became a highly effective chairman of Chichester Diocesan Board of Education, remembered by the then Diocesan Director of Education, Mike Wilson, as full of wise insights, and gracious to all.

After 34 immensely happy and fulfilling years, always with Judith by his side, he retired in January 2018.

A parishioner of 30 years, Michael Conlon QC wrote:
 

The shepherd of your Downland flock,
Ministering to us for a generation,
Through all the changing scenes of life;
Looking kindly on our infirmities;
In love and charity with all; sharing
The unleavened bread of truth; your light
Shining before us.
 

A less frequent churchgoer wrote: “Derek was a wonderful parish priest. He did so much for so many, and when he appears in my mind’s eye, he is always bathed in summer sunlight. For those of us without the strongest of faith, he was a fine example of the goodness of faith and the best of Christian values.”

Derek died on 19 April 2020, aged 76, and is survived by his wife, Judith, their son, Daniel, a corporate finance partner at the law firm Irwin Mitchell, their daughter, Helen, a human-resources manager at Unity 3d, and five grandchildren, Billy, Annabel, Milo, Sophia, and Talee.

At the recent canonisation of John Henry Newman, Pope Francis defined a Christian as one who is “cheerful, easy, kind, gentle, courteous, candid, unassuming, has no pretence”. How well this sums up the Fr Derek whom many remember with deep love and gratitude. May he rest in peace.

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