Dean Jeremy Winston

I received a phone call from my friend Martin this morning to tell me that a mutual friend of ours for the past thirty five years had died overnight. Father Jeremy Winston was only recently installed as Dean of Monmouth, and no sooner had he moved house during a few hectically busy weeks, than he collapsed and was taken into hospital. Tests revealed an advanced brain tumor, and preparations were well advanced for him to start chemo and radio therapy. Martin had visited him in his new Deanery home yesterday afternoon and found him up and about, fully engaged with life as usual, and positive despite the enormous threat over his life and ministry. And overnight he's gone. Such a shock.

Jeremy was Vicar of St Arvans where we lived in neighbouring Chepstow, and when not involved with USPG duties, I'd help him out in his five church rural parish in one of the most beautiful parts of Gwent. He went on to a long and distinguished ministry as Vicar of Abergavenny, and contributed to liturgical reform and governance in the church in Wales, on top of taking several rural parishes into the town benefice, and major restoration works to the church, culminating in reclaiming a mediaeval tithe barn close to the church and turning it into an attractive visitor centre. He was no stranger to ill health and pain, yet packed in to his thirty years of ministry double what most others would achieve. Such a sad day for the Church in Wales.

Jeremy was a mission minded Anglo-Catholic, who could not reconcile himself to the ordination of women because of its impact on church unity, and St Mary's Abergavenny was where many the ceremonies carried out by the Provincial 'flying bishop' were held. His appointment as Dean of Monmouth was welcomed by female and male clergy alike, as his was renowned for his gracious respect for all colleagues, and his regard for decisions made by the Church in Wales, even if he himself didn't agree with them. He'll be remembered as one of the best Bishops the Church in Wales didn't elect. (Or wouldn't elect because of his position on ordination). Despite this personal discomfort, he remained a loyal and true Anglican to the end. He will be missed, and leave a gap in the leadership of the Church he loved.

May he rest in peace and rise in glory.