Damn Good Send-off

I travelled early to Newport this morning to lunch with my friend Martin before we attended the funeral at St Woolos Cathedral of its recently installed Dean, Fr Jeremy Winston who died nine days ago. I felt no desire to dress up and join the eighty odd clergy who sat together, and as a result I stood for the entire service next to the font in the most ancient section of the building which joins the tower with the nave. The place was full with people from all over the church in Wales and further afield, paying their respects to a distinguished priest who had the ability to stay friends with many different kinds of people, many of whom didn't agree with his views.

Bishop of Monmouth, Dominic Walker presided at the Requiem Eucharist. It contained favourite hymns everyone could sing, a Mass setting by Lotte, and anthems including the sublime 'In Paradisium' from Fauré's Requiem. Archbishop Barry was present, and someone said, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet was in choir - the C of E remaining flying Bishop? Or was it his predecessor, now a Roman Catholic prelate?  Many of those who resisted women's priestly ordination were there, but also many woman clergy, who valued the courtesy and respect Jeremy showed towards them. That such a funeral could unite so many people showed what an excellent Bishop he might have made, regardless of his traditional catholic view of ministry - a man who loved his church and all her people. Much of the Church in Wales seemed to be there. It was a damn good send-off as Fr Tim Hewitt said on Facebook tonight.

John Davis, Bishop of Swansea and Brecon gave the homily/eulogy, and gave us a few things to smile about amid the sad solemnity. He was Curate in Chepstow when Jeremy was Vicar of neighbouring St Arvan's, and I was there, working from home for USPG. I was recognised and greeted by Hugh Allen a priest who was in Newport at that time. We hadn't met since. I learned he'd retired early from ministry and joined the Orthodox Church, unable to come to terms with womens' ordination. Communion distribution in such a congested building seemed not to have been well planned and took an age.

The public sector workers' strike meant that Jeremy's burial alongside his mother couldn't take place after the funeral service. So, his body was returned to rest overnight in St Mary's Priory Abergavenny before interment, giving people there an opportunity to pay their last respects. Such are the marvels of technology that the funeral, like his installation service, was relayed by video internet link to the Priory for those who couldn't attend, possibly sparing the environs of Newport's Stow Hill from lunchtime gridlock during the service. Jeremy would have liked that.

As I'd made a mid-afternoon rendezvous back at the office, I had to leave before it was all over without receiving, thereby missing the opportunity to meet and greet decades worth of colleagues from my seven years in Monmouth diocese. On the way out I was accosted by Fr Mark Zorab, Deacon of St Arvan's Parish. He'd been Warden when we last met 23 years ago. I hadn't recognised him in clerical garb as I'd not known him other than as a devout layman. Another life touched by Jeremy's,  grieving the sudden loss of a close friend. 

It turned out I could have stayed longer. My colleague was delayed an hour and a half, stuck in traffic on the periphery of Cardiff caused by closure of the Bay by-pass tunnel, due to the national strike. The city centre was heaving with shoppers - maybe strikers taking advantage of an extra free day? I returned home to eat with Clare and Owain, then returned to a much quieter city centre for an evening of catch up in a workplace as empty as it had been for most of the day.