Canon David Wiseman writes:
ROGER SAWTELL inspired generations of Christians to live out their faith in everyday life. As one community worker put it, “He was the first person I met and came to know who demonstrated how to put Christian faith into action in peaceful, practical, political, and economic terms.”
Roger was born in Sheffield, where his father was a steelworks manager. He went to Bedford School, then Clare College, Cambridge, obtaining a degree in engineering. He came from an actively Christian family, and his own faith was rekindled during a university mission.
After a graduate apprenticeship with English Electric, in Rugby, he returned to Sheffield to work for Spear & Jackson. The Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Leslie Hunter, invited the Revd Ted Wickham to establish a mission to Sheffield’s industries. Ted got to know Roger well and even officiated at his wedding to Susan, whom Ted had met through the community at Iona. Hunter asked Brother Roger and members of the Taizé community to visit the diocese. Two of the Brothers stayed on in Sheffield, one of them working at Spear & Jackson. So began Roger’s and Susan’s long connection with Taizé, which was to inspire their own vision of an ecumenical Christian community.
After 16 years at Spear & Jackson, Roger was offered the post of managing director, but, instead, he set off with his young family in a large motorcaravan to travel overland to study the Kibbutz movement in Israel/Palestine. His interest in co-operatives had begun in Sheffield and had developed through the ideas of E. F. Schumacher.
On his return, the family moved to Northampton, where he developed a small employee-owned business making fibreglass canoes. By 1980, together with friends from a parish house group, he led the development and formation of the Daily Bread Co-operative, a wholefood business in Northampton which is owned and controlled by the working group of twenty people and has a turnover of around £2 million. He chaired the Industrial Common Ownership Group, now Co-operatives UK, and in 2019 was the recipient of their inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. His wisdom and experience meant that he influenced many similar enterprises, including Traidcraft and Co-operatives UK Finance.
In 1984, Roger and Susan and two friends sold their houses and bought three terraced houses nearer the town centre in which to establish a Christian community influenced by their regular visits to Taizé and their contact with Jean Vanier and L’Arche. A life of prayer, shared meals, ecumenical worship, community living, and support for vulnerable people continued for 24 years, more than 50 people living in the community at one time or another.
Roger played squash until he was 90, swam regularly, and was a keen walker. He died peacefully on 15 December, aged 95, and will be missed by many, but especially by Susan and their children and grandchildren.
