RIP Rodney Hunter, Priest
28 April 2007
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. 1 Corinthians 4:1
‘The history of the of the University Mission to Central Africa is a history full of glory, full of profound thankfulness, as we look back upon the record of martyrs and workers, bishops, priests, teachers, nurses, doctors, mechanics’. So said Bishop Charles Gore at the blessing of Central Africa House in 1929. He went on to describe a changing picture in Africa and continued:
‘New times bring new needs; but new times or old times, the fundamental needs for self sacrifice, patience, courage and love are always the same, and we do from our hearts pray that what we have seen so thankfully in the past, we may see enlarged with all the spiritual powers that the new situation demands.’
Today we have come to Pusey House most importantly to pray for the soul of one who fully embodied those virtues of which Charles Gore spoke. Rodney Squire Hunter offered himself for service in Africa before the UMCA joined with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to form the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1965. He was one of last, if not the last, of a generation of Anglican catholic priests who not only served the majority of their priestly ministry in Africa but made a deliberate choice also to die there. Except for a short curacy in the East End of London and four years as Librarian of this House and Chaplain of Wadham College, Rodney spent the whole of his Ministry in the Province of Central Africa, first in Zambia and then for the greater period in Malawi.
But to parody a phrase of Shakespeare we have come to pray for Rodney not to praise him. Nevertheless it is right also to give thanks for the life of a dedicated servant of God. In theses day when the average incumbency is about 5 years, ordained ministry is often seen as merely functional, when personal fulfillment is seen as more important than sacrificial service, it is even more significant to remember a man for whom priesthood was service and who devoted his life to minister to others far away from his family and country of birth.
I remember the first time I saw Rodney. I was traveling through Zomba, where Rodney taught at the Theological College. I was in a car with the then Bishop of Southern Malawi having only arrived in the country a few days earlier. Rodney was walking briskly down the road looking rather incongruous wearing a very English boater. He had a good selection of headwear, not because he particularly liked them but simply to protect his balding head from the fierce African sun. However, I went on to meet and get to know a priest of personal holiness, humility, utter integrity and simplicity of life.
It was perhaps that simplicity of life that one first noticed about Rodney in his teaching post in Zomba. He did not even have the limited luxuries of most other missionaries. He lived as his students did on a very simple diet and spent what extra money he had on helping others in need. Though he himself lived frugally he always enjoyed and relished hospitality offered by others in the community.
That simple way of life flowed naturally from his belief in the incarnation. But there was no sense of pride, one upmanship or judgment of others who could not live as he did. It was as natural as breathing for him to identify as closely as possible with those he served. He simply lived out what he believed.
For Rodney self sacrifice and commitment were at the very heart of his vocation. We seem to be slightly embarrassed these days to talk about sacrifice as far as the ordained life is concerned, to often preferring to use themes of management, ministerial development and personal fulfilment. But to embrace the priesthood in this way is one way to respond to Christ’s challenge to take up the cross and follow him. In Rodney we saw one who embraced that challenge willingly. We would not have many of the problems that beset the present day church if there were more priests like Rodney. St Paul tells us in his first letter to the Church at Corinth that stewards and servants of God should be trustworthy and he was certainly worthy of the trust that God and others put in him. No wonder he was much loved and held in great respect by the many priests he trained at Lusaka, Kachebere and Zomba and the thousands of ordinary Christians who attended his funeral in Nkhotakota.
Although he spent so much of his time away from England and his family, I know they would want me to mention that very important part of his life. His visits during furloughs were memorable and though he was unmarried he had great rapport with the younger members of the family never forgetting birthdays and other important events with a letter or card from Malawi.
But today as we commend him to God’s mercy we cannot ignore the tragic and shocking way he died. If he was murdered by poisoning as now seems pretty certain, and if the murder was organized by those who supported the election of Nicholas Henderson as the Bishop of Lake Malawi as is possible, then Rodney died because of what he believed. He died because he publicly and vocally championed the orthodox Catholic Faith which nurtured and shaped his own priesthood, which had been brought to Nyasaland by the early missionaries of the UMCA and had subsequently been taught by and practiced by faithful Bishops priests and lay people. I don’t think it is fanciful or exaggerated to say that he died for the catholic faith which he believed and lived out. I am sure that the Revd Nicholas Henderson had no part in the events in Nkhotakota last November which led to his death but I do hope and pray, for the sake of Rodney’s memory, that he will withdraw from involvement in the Diocese of Lake Malawi and encourage the local Christians there to elect a new bishop who will bring peace and reconciliation to that troubled diocese.
Rodney would be embarrassed by the kind things that I and others have said about him. He was, as somebody has said, self effacing to a fault. More importantly he would have asked for our prayers rather than our praise. Like all of us, I hope, he knew his faults but he also knew that Christ had died for him and was raised on the third Day. He believed that in Jesus God took the dead dust of our humanity and raised it to glory. To Martha Jesus gave those great words of comfort:
‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live’. John 11: 25
Jesus has given his followers a share in that resurrection. Make no mistake belief in the resurrection is not some add on to the Christian faith, it is the Christian faith. If there is no eternal life then Christianity is a fraud.
'If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied says St Paul in his first Letter to the Church in Corinth and he goes on 'But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep'. 1 Corinthians 15:19-20
In Baptism Rodney was united to Christ in his death and Resurrection. It is that death and Resurrection we proclaim in this Requiem Mass. Here we join with all Christ’s people living and departed, angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven in what St Thomas Aquinas called ‘a pledge of future glory’.
So as we celebrate this Eucharist we pray for Rodney that he may benefit from Christ’s dying and rising and pass from death to life. Here on earth we a given a mere glimpse of that light and glory but we pray that Rodney may be forgiven his failings, experience that fuller life and light, and share and in all the good things that Christ has prepared for those who love him.
So we thank God for his life, his example of Christian service and priestly ministry, and we pray that he may rest in peace.
The Rt Rev'd Keith Newton, SSC Bishop of Richborough