The Revd Professor Jane Shaw writes:
CANON Vincent Strudwick, priest, former monk, theologian, and church historian, was sharp-witted, warm-hearted, and in close contact with a vast circle of friends and colleagues to the very end of his life.
After National Service as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force, Vincent entered Kelham Theological College in 1952, aged 20, and was professed as a monk in the Society of the Sacred Mission (SSM) in 1956. He graduated from the Nottingham University in 1959 with a degree in history.
The same year, he was ordained deacon. His academic ability and talent for community-building were quickly spotted, and he served as Tutor and Sub-Warden of Kelham Theological College. From the founder of the SSM, Herbert Kelly (who was very old when Vincent met him), Vincent took the idea that the worship of religion had got in the way of the worship of God, and this shaped his lifelong ministry to those who sought God but could not cope with the Church.
Kelham was fulfilling, but Vincent was aware of the rapidly changing society and Church, as he hosted study groups in the community on John Robinson’s Honest to God and spent time with the Episcopal chaplaincy at Dartmouth College in the US. He left monastic life in 1970, and served two parishes in Sussex, was Adult Education Officer for the diocese of Chichester, and tutor in church hstory at Chichester Theological College.
He married Nina, and they had three daughters. Both Vincent and Nina remained strong supporters of the SSM, and, in the late 1970s, the family went to live in association with some SSM monks at Willen (a mixed monastic and lay community), while Vincent worked as ecumenical planning officer for education in Milton Keynes.
In the 1980s, the family moved to the diocese of Oxford, where Vincent held posts for the rest of his ministry. He was Diocesan Director of Education and Training and then Principal of the Oxford Ministry Course — effecting its transformation into the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course. He was a consultant at the 1988 Lambeth Conference.
Vincent was a charismatic and much-loved tutor and lecturer. In 1994, he became Fellow and Tutor of the recently founded Kellogg College at the University of Oxford, where he served as Chamberlain (putting a never-ending fund of brilliant after-dinner stories to good use), and a member of the Faculty of Theology. In 1997, he became Director of Religious Studies in the Department for Continuing Education. There, he founded the Oxford Summer School in Theology — or, as he would put it, re-founded it in the great tradition of Workers’ Education Association (WEA) summer schools of the early 20th century; William Temple, who had served as President of the WEA, was one of his theological heroes.
All those who came into Vincent’s orbit felt that he instinctively understood their search. His capacity for empathetic listening, ready laugh, and generous hospitality invited many into friendship and a renewal of their spiritual life. After retirement, he continued for many years to teach and minister in Oxford, and travelled to the US to offer courses at the Graduate Theological Foundation.
In latter years, he continued to support those who were searching for, or wrestling with, God, running a discussion group in his local pub, and maintaining a ministry of spiritual friendship and direction from his home in Brill.
Vincent preferred speaking to writing more formally (he particularly disliked dealing with footnotes), but eventually decided that it was time to get his theology into print and asked me for assistance. The resulting book The Naked God: Wrestling for a grace-ful humanity (Books, 31 March 2017), characteristically combined autobiography, history, and theology to invite readers into the welcoming and inclusive presence of God.
His last book was published this year: Eliot’s Transitions: T. S. Eliot’s search for identity and the Society of the Sacred Mission at Kelham Hall, based on an archive given to him by George Every (Books, 11 April).
Vincent was made an honorary canon of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1982, an honorary fellow of Kellogg College in 2007, and received the Lambeth Doctorate of Divinity in 2009.
He is survived by his wife, Nina, their three daughters, Rebecca, Alice, and Martha, and seven grandchildren, Olivia, Amelia, Billy, Eliza, Freddy, Florrie, and Sidney. He will be remembered with affection by many friends, colleagues, and former students, on whom his influence was very considerable. He asked to be buried with the cross he wore to his profession as monk.
Canon Vincent Strudwick died on 27 June, aged 92.
