The Bishop of Norwich writes:
THOSE curacies that go well often result in a lasting friendship between curate and training incumbent and an ever-increasing valuing of the wisdom learnt at a young age.
I was sent by Archbishop John Habgood to look at the leafy suburbs of Middlesbrough, having imagined that the curacy matches were made over the long dining table at Bishopthorpe. Tom showed me around the parish of Nunthorpe, including its fresh-expression meeting — before such things had been invented — in the church hall.
He left the interviewing to his wife, Mary, roping me in to pick raspberries. She was a deeply kind, immensely faithful person, who had the endless patience that equipped her well as a primary-school teacher. After we had picked enough for jamming, the interview was over, and, over tea, I was asked to serve my title there. Like their other curates, I owe much to the gentle care and practical teaching that Tom and Mary offered; great foundations for a lifetime of ministry.
Tom Thompson was born in 1938 in Melling, but grew up in Warton, both villages near Carnforth in Lancashire. His mother was a local primary-school teacher, and his father ran the newsagents at Carnforth station, planting the seed for a lifelong love of books, trains, and travel. He won a scholarship to Lancaster Grammar School, and, from there, went to St John’s College, Durham, to study classics. He then trained at Cheshunt Theological College before ordination in Blackburn Cathedral at the age of 24. He served his title at Standish, before a curacy at Lancaster Priory; he became Vicar of Chorley, and then of Barrowford, all in Blackburn diocese.
Influenced by the theological thinking of Bishop Hugh Montefiore, he moved to Northfield, in Birmingham, where he put much energy into the challenges of an inner-city parish. The call back to Blackburn came in 1982, as Vicar of Longton, outside Preston. Alongside his ministry, he embraced his more theatrical side, taking part in many village pantomimes and playing Thomas Becket in a production in St Andrew’s Church. Fourteen years later, he crossed the Pennines for the new challenge of St Mary’s, Nunthorpe. It is situated overlooking the iconic Roseberry Topping and the North York Moors, and the then Bishop of Whitby thought that the congregation had a sense of having arrived in the Kingdom. Tom’s task was to help them to go deeper in their faith and witness. He did this with patience, knocking on doors and visiting, and with a gentle and determined firmness that some people needed.
As in each of the communities he served, Tom sought to build community through an engaging programme of parish teaching, social, and youth events. Life was busy, not least because, as in three other places, he was asked to be the rural dean and train curates. To be a Lancashire appointed a Canon and Prebendary of York Minster by Archbishop David Hope was a source of quiet pride and joy for Tom.
Mary was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma during their time in Middlesbrough, and retirement couldn’t come too soon. From 2003, they delighted in the house that they had bought in the southern Lake District, immersing themselves in their garden, getting to know their neighbours, and helping out wherever the local clergy needed. Sadly, Mary was to die in 2007, and, after a period, Tom picked up his love of travel, going off on his own or in the company of a widowed friend, Joan. Reading from the church Fathers, poetry, and prose, the U3A, socialising with friends, and a care for his children, Jonathan, Richard, and Rachel, and his five grandchildren filled his final years. His children surrounded his bed as he gently died; a good father, loved by them.
Tom, who died on 4 March, aged 81, is now buried in the Lakes alongside Mary, overlooking Morecambe Bay and in striking distance of the Lancashire grit from which God carved him out. When I was ordained to the priesthood, Tom gave me a book of patristic quotes, and, inside its cover, he wrote “Remember 2 Corinthians 4.5”. He did all the days of his life. A faithful parish priest now gone home.
