BISHOP DAVID SHEPPARD

a tribute by the Rector

When, six years ago, my appointment to West Kirby was announced, I received in the post a note from a parishioner. I saw from the handwritten note that his name was David and he lived on Melloncroft Drive. A few seconds later I realised that if was actually a letter from

Bishop David Sheppard. The letter was congratulating me on the appointment, assuring me of his and Grace’s prayers, and inviting me to call when I was next on Wirral.

This I did, and found there a warmth of Christian welcome, support and wisdom, that I have been privileged to know for the last six years, just as many others in this place have done. He was our friend in Christ, a fellow-member of the Body here.

There have been many things written about our brother David in the weeks since his death: reflections on his ministry in Liverpool, and before that in Woolwich and East London, on his partnerships with Archbishop Derek Worlock and with the leaders of the Free Churches, on his contribution to the life of the nation, not least through the House of Lords, and on his sporting career. For us in West Kirby and Caldy though David was also, and primarily, the man we saw in Church, sitting with Grace near the back of the Nave during the Parish Eucharist, or presiding and preaching as part of the parish team. I have memories of standing at the door after worship and seeing David talking with people, with that smile and that gentle, genuine interest that so many were aware of.

When he preached, and he was always clear and focused, his homilies at the early Eucharist on Sundays were models of exposition and application of the Scriptures. As I sat and listened I often felt that there were insights I would have wanted to have incorporated in my sermon later on in the day! David would regularly and quite naturally apply the texts to national or international events, or to an issue of world development or justice or peace. Always the Word was applied, and always the Kingdom of God was sought.

In visiting at Melloncroft Drive, even and perhaps especially in the last few years, there was always an atmosphere of calm and peace, not simply that wonderful renewing setting and view, but sense of a house that was deeply and truly prayed in. Often David and Grace’s copy of “Celebrating Common Prayer” , the Daily Office Book, would be sitting on the table, witness to a disciplined inner life that was at the root of what David was. When I visited him in hospital the prayer book was always there. It can be all too easy for “professionals”, and especially clergy, to let their first love grow cold or lost (see Revelation 2:4), not so David.

David’s heart was the Lord’s, from those early days of commitment in Cambridge, through to the last days here in West Kirby. He knew in whom he had believed, and as Bishop Michael Henshall said at David’s funeral service, he knew that Christ has died for him and was forever his Lord and Saviour.

Every week at least either I or Malcolm brought Holy Communion to David and Grace. On one occasion not so long ago there was a natural silence after receiving the Sacrament, and then David said quietly, “He is so close sometimes”. Six weeks or so later, in that same room, David went quietly into the nearer presence of his Lord. It was a Saturday night and he would have taken Communion the following day, but on that Sunday he knew the Lord no longer beneath the forms of bread and wine, but face to face.

In a sermon preached at a memorial service for the victims of the Hillsborough stadium disaster, David said, “God’s miracle says that death is not the end: there is a greater life beyond this world.... I really believe that it’s true: that God raised his Son Jesus Christ from cold death, and that those who trust in him, however simply, are raised to that greater life with him..” And so it is now for him.

David, our friend and Christian brother, we remember you with thanksgiving and affection and commend you at the Altar of God. We assure Grace and Jenny and all the family of our continuing love and support and prayers.

Roger Clarke, April 2005