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Obituary: The Rt Revd Peter Dawes

25 November 2022

The Rt Revd Dr Colin Buchanan writes:

THE Rt Revd Peter Dawes, Bishop of Derby from 1988 to 1995, had put his trust in Christ during his teens in the war years. After National Service, he gained a first in theology at Durham, and, after training at Tyndale Hall, Bristol, was ordained in 1954. The same year, he married Ethel, and they established a welcoming home, as he began his ministry.

Peter both chaired the Christian Union at Durham and captained the hockey team. He once told me: “I always had to ask myself when sitting down to begin meetings whether this was one to begin with prayer or not.” While hockey did not last long — although he always loved sport and supported the Kent cricket team — his ministry did, and his ability to move between two worlds betokened his life thereafter. The world and its ways, its politics and its people, fascinated him; the Church and its gospel occupied him and he gave his all to it.

He served his title in Islington, where we first met, after which he went to a university-related curacy at St Ebbe’s, Oxford, and then, in 1960, to teach at Clifton Theological College in Bristol. Teaching theology was his métier; together with his enormous love of books, he had a gift for communication. One student writes of his doing much more than lecture “traditionally and formally”, but, rather, “enlivening his teaching with humour, debates, discussions, quizzes etc.” He had new subjects to teach each year; he once said: “I’m thinking of brushing up my Bible and opening my own college.” He also became a theological adviser in preparation for the Evangelical Keele Congress of 1967.

Peter became Vicar of the Good Shepherd, Collier Row, Romford, in 1965. In 15 years, he built up the congregation, and became deeply respected in the diocese. He and I worked together to understand and commend the single transferable vote (STV); we wrote about it, joined the Electoral Reform Society, and were elected (by STV) as founder-members of the General Synod in 1970. In 1975, he was elected (again by STV) to the Standing Committee, and the Synod became a large element in his life thereafter. He soon chaired the Business Committee and very openly sought to use Synod time for making decisions rather than having general debates, as, for example, on evangelism. He spoke in Synod with brilliant good humour. With his concern for electoral justice he twice — in 1976 and 1984 — led the Synod into calling overwhelmingly on the political parties to adopt STV into their policies.

Peter also became Director of Ordinands for Chelmsford diocese, a task that was vital to a healthy future for the Church of England. His ability to multitask led to his becoming Archdeacon of West Ham in 1980, and, at the age of 60, in 1988 ,Bishop of Derby. At the same time, he was asked to be vice-president of the Electoral Reform Society.

Peter and Ethel revelled in Derbyshire, valuing not only its church people, but also civic leaders and memorable MPs, not least Dennis Skinner. Peter distinguished himself, however, by falling off a chair on a kitchen table, when trying to change a light bulb when he was alone at home. He shattered his pelvis and spent weeks in hospital. His secretary reports that “he wanted me to come to the hospital each day so that he could continue working. But he was the boss. . . even if I [like Ethel] thought it was a bad idea.” She also describes his dealing with the clergy as “kind, caring, and approachable, with his inner steel wrapped in a velvet glove”.

Alongside his diocesan work, he chaired the Revision Committee of the Synod on the ordination of women to the priesthood. The actual form of the Measure, including provision for those unwilling to receive the ministry of ordained women, owes much to his statesmanship. Peter took his own consecration as bishop at the age of 60 as especially chartering him to see through the ordination of women and their first appointments in the diocese. Evangelical though he was, he was wisely and humbly keen to learn Anglo-Catholicism, being first taught to use a thurible by John Gunstone, a neighbour in Romford, and then entering sympathetically into the theological back and forth of the Synod.

In 1991, he was invited to chair the council of Trinity College, Bristol, the college, which, in 1971, emerged from the union of three colleges, one of which was Clifton. The then principal, David Gillett, attests how Peter chaired the council in a relaxed and efficient style for six years.

Peter retired in 1995, and moved to Ely, where he and Ethel worshipped at the cathedral, and where he became an assistant bishop in the diocese. Their home remained as open and welcoming as ever. Ethel died in 2016. He is survived by their four children and five grandchildren.

The Rt Revd Peter Dawes died on 10 November, aged 94.

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