Neville White writes:
YOUR tribute to Sir Michael Colman, Bt. (Gazette, 19 April) rightly points to his achievements as a transformative First Church Estates Commissioner at a time of significant turbulence for the Church Commissioners. His focus on governance, including creating expert sub-groups for properties and securities, however, omitted his guiding hand in establishing the then Ethical Investment Working Group. This was the first time that formal oversight of the Church’s ethical-investment practice and process had been set down. As the Church’s then Senior Ethical Investment Researcher, I saw at first hand Sir Michael’s unwavering courtesy and understanding of the need to get ethics right. His vision, leading to the creation of the Ethical Investment Advisory Group with representation from all parts of the central Church, happily resulted in the highly regarded and industry-leading approach to responsible and sustainable investment which we see from the national investment bodies today.
The Revd David Haslam writes:
YOUR otherwise excellent obituary for Canon Ivor Smith-Cameron (Gazette, 19 April) omitted one of the important posts that he carried out for the church bodies tasked with ecumenical work on race issues. He was the Moderator of the British Council of Churches’ Community and Race Relations Unit (CRRU) from 1982 until it morphed into the Churches’ Commission for Racial Justice (CCRJ) at the end of the ’80s. He was one of those Black church leaders who at the time insisted that this work should continue when the BCC became the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland (now Churches Together in Britain and Ireland). That work on issues such as racial violence, unjust deportations, and discrimination in education and employment, which engaged with affected families, police, business, and Government, led to much appreciation for the Churches from Black community leaders and activists, who intimated that they had not expected this kind of backing from such an unexpected quarter.
Ivor was also the Moderator of what became the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME), between 1984 and 1990. It played a key part in the development of the European Churches’ response to rising racism during that period. It is perhaps unfortunate that this kind of “front-line” profile is less visible these days. Ivor was a regular listener to the Radio 4 programme In their Lordships’ House of the time. There was little doubt that he would have relished a place in that House, and that he would have made a powerful and effective contribution.
Canon David Peel adds: Your obituary of Canon Ivor Smith-Cameron brought back memories of a particularly fruitful day. A few weeks after I started to prepare for ordained ministry at King’s College, London, in 1972, one Sunday, a friend and I went to investigate the weekly eucharist that Ivor had just inaugurated at his house after recently moving. The door was opened by an Indian gentleman, one of several people who lived there. He turned out to be a retired anaesthetist. “Come in. The house is yours,” he said. That welcome represented the hospitality that Ivor offered us and many others, and which encouraged me to understand the importance of pastoral care as an “open-arms”, sometimes liminal ministry.
Until 1975, I frequently attended the house services in Clapham, joining about three dozen others, ranging from a member of the Albery theatre family to the local paper boy.
On that first visit, my friend and I painted a ceiling, and stayed for lunch. Subsequently, more Kingsmen got involved, and benefited from Ivor’s imaginative care and encouragement. I am sure that they would all agree with my expression of gratitude, and of sympathy with those closest to him in his last years.
Dr Andrew Smith adds: Your obituary for Canon Ivor Smith-Cameron concluded that “Many look back on their encounters with Ivor as turning points in their lives.” I can vouch for that, having encountered Ivor in about 1980, when I was training to be a Reader in Southwark diocese, and he was a tutor.
On one occasion, our training group was discussing the participation of lay people in taking services when Ivor broke in. “Readers bore me,” he said. “They’re always talking about Church.” He then apologised for being rude, and invited us to spend a Saturday at his home at in Clapham. There, we experienced his hospitality, and we discussed how redemption could be experienced in everyday life.
I subsequently attended many study weekends at his house and joined a discussion group that met there. Ivor initiated and nurtured many such groups, at which participants related their faith to their lives, and, as he used to say, “anything may be said, provided it is said with courtesy.”
These groups reflected Ivor’s deeply incarnational faith: he had a profound theology of the everyday. That theology was underpinned by the weekly celebration of the eucharist in the living room, carried out simply but with deep reverence and with careful preparation. I have fond memories of processing round the garden on Palm Sunday.
The full church at Ivor’s requiem demonstrated his huge influence and wide circle of friendship. We badly need more people like him
Sue Claydon writes:
IT WAS good to read the positive comments about Frank Field (Gazette, 26 April) on the many ways in which his faith motivated his actions. One area not mentioned was his commitment to peace.
Frank was the sole surviving member of a distinguished group of signatories (Lord McLeod, Trevor Huddleston, and George Appleton among them) who, in 1974, issued a Call to Prayer for World Peace. That call led to the formation of the Week of Prayer for World Peace (WPWP). In it, they said: “Believing that God is calling us to prayer with new purpose and deeper understanding for peace and justice among all men, we invite our fellow believers of all faiths to join in a Week of Prayer for World Peace.” Fifty years on, that call still needs to be heard.
As plans for the 50th anniversary take shape, we are saddened that Frank cannot join us, but know that he will be with us in spirit.