It is with deep sadness that the United Reformed Church (URC) announces the death of the Revd Bernard Thorogood, who died today peacefully in a Sydney hospital aged 92.
He was General Secretary of the URC from 1980 to 1992, after which he retired to Australia. Prior to that he served as General Secretary of CWM from 1970 to 1980 (bringing CWM into being in its current form), and through most of the 1950s and 1960s he was a missionary in the Pacific islands – mainly in the Cook Islands.
From 1980 to 1992 Bernard served as General Secretary of the United Reformed Church, a time of immense change in Church life worldwide.
He was responsible for the 1981 union with the Re-formed Association of the Churches of Christ for drawing them into the general life of the enlarged Church and much of his work was to do with ecumenical affairs.
He gave encouragement and support to the rapidly increasing number of Local Ecumenical Projects (LEPs), a partnership of churches of different denominations (e.g. Trinity Church, Lower Earley, Reading, which is a URC, Methodist and Church of England church).
He also served with the British Council of Churches (now Churches Together in Britain and Ireland) and the World Council of Churches.
The Revd John Proctor, General Secretary of the United Reformed Church, said: “Bernard Thorogood made an enormous contribution as a Christian leader, in the URC, in ecumenical life in the UK, and in the wide networks of the world church.
“He helped create the round table ethos that has shaped the life of the Council for World Mission since 1977. His directions for the URC Mission Council, drafted at the start of the 1990s, still guide the way we do business there. His gifts were legion.
“He wrote with wisdom and depth – theology, poetry, fiction. He was an able visual artist. Yet through it all he had a heart for people, meeting individuals with care and interest, supporting many, sharing deeply in church life at every level.
“We thank God for all that he gave among us, and for his example of gracious character, committed service, trusted leadership and warm friendship.”
Bernard was widowed in 1988, and he married Joan after his retirement in 1992, moving then to Australia. Joan survives him, as does his sons, John and Neil, both of whom live in England. Neil is currently serving as Principal of Westminster College, Cambridge.
The Revd Bernard George Thorogood OBE, MA, DD.
The Revd Bernard Thorogood, a missionary to the Cook Islands and Kiribati with the London Missionary Society (LMS), was the first General Secretary of the Council for World Mission (CWM) and later the General Secretary of the United Reformed Church (URC).
Trained in Scotland and ordained in the Congregational Church, Bernard Thorogood served with the London Missionary Society from 1953 for 18 years in the islands of the South Pacific.
Following three ministries in the Pacific, Bernard Thorogood became Deputy General Secretary of the Congregational Council of World Mission (CCWM, formerly the London Missionary Society) and then its General Secretary.
For ten years, he was responsible for the global work of the mission as this pioneering society was reformed into an international council of churches, in which each has gifts to share and needs to express.
Having changed its name to CWM in 1975 (following the creation of the URC three years earlier), Bernard led a consultation in Singapore in 1976 to review the mission of CWM because of the changing perspective about global mission.
The model had been to send people from the West to the East, but it was changing to “from everywhere to everywhere”. CWM was restructured and became a fellowship of partner churches.
From 1980 – 1992 Bernard served as General Secretary of the United Reformed Church, a time of immense change in Church life worldwide.
He was responsible for the 1981 union with the Re-formed Association of the Churches of Christ for drawing them into the general life of the enlarged Church and much of his work was to do with ecumenical affairs.
He gave encouragement and support to the rapidly increasing number of Local Ecumenical Projects (LEPs), a partnership of churches of different denominations e.g. Trinity Church, Lower Earley, Reading, which is a URC, Methodist and Church of England church.
He also served with the British Council of Churches (now Churches Together in Britain and Ireland) and the World Council of Churches.
Widowed in 1988, Bernard married an Australian, Joan, in 1991 and on retirement the next year moved to Sydney, becoming a minister within the Uniting Church.
Bernard was awarded the OBE and made a Doctor of Divinity in 1992.
His books include: Risen Today, The Flag and the Cross, Letters to Paul, One Wind, Many Flames, Our Father’s House, Risen Today, Old Grey Prayers, and A Guide to Amos. He also edited the history of the LMS called Gales of Change.
He is survived by Joan and his sons John and Neil, who is currently serving as Principal of Westminster College, Cambridge.
The Revd Tony Coates, in Who They Were, wrote:
Bernard Thorogood has been an effective church administrator and ecumenist. He has never had a pastorate in Britain his local pastoral LMS (now CWM) churches of the South Pacific where his comprehensive vision of world mission began to be formed.
He was called back to the UK in 1970 to work alongside Stuart Craig at Congregational Council for World Mission (CCWM) before becoming himself the general secretary.
Following the creation of the United Reformed Church (URC) in 1972, the CCWM became the Council for World Mission (CWM) in 1975.
In 1980 he became the General Secretary of the URC at a time of immense changes in Church life worldwide. He was responsible for the 1981 union with the Re-formed Association of the Churches of Christ for drawing them into the general life of the enlarged Church.
He was Moderator of the British Council of Churches (BCC) Executive and found himself coping with the reaction of the churches to Thatcherism and the Falklands War. He started the UK relationship with the Church in China. From 1983-91 he was on the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Furthermore, he could be heard from time to time on the BBC’s Thought for the Day.
Retiring in 1992, he went to live in Australia.
His most notable achievement, however, was the restructuring of CWM in the 1970s. It had become clear that the inherited missionary structures of Western agencies, run by Westerners, sending Western missionaries to the developing world, we an inadequate response to the new demands of world mission.
A review of CWM’s work was due in 1976 and he called together a consultation in Singapore, involving both the Western sending churches and the receiving churches. The consultation recommended radical change and the outcome was a major restructuring of CWM.
In 1977 it ceased to be a Western mission agency, sending missionaries to the developing world, but a fellowship of (then) 22 equal member churches, each committed to sharing finance and personnel in the cause of world mission at home and abroad. The present CWM is in large part his legacy to the world mission of the Church.
Bernard Thorogood’s quiet wisdom is evident in several books. The opening and closing chapters in Gales of Change: Responding to a Shifting Missionary Context, a history of the LMS which he edited, shows his vision of the church in its global context.
As his leisure activity he lists sketching and his sketches reveal his sensitivity and appreciation of natural and architectural beauty.
Picture: The Revd Bernard Thorogood/Council for World Mission
Published: 30 April 2020