The Revd Richard Bewes OBE, the former rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place in London, has died aged 84.
Bewes was an influential Christian leader in the UK throughout his life. He was the rector of All Souls from 1983 until his retirement in 2004. He also served on the Church of England Evangelical Council in the 1990s and was on the British Board of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for much of his life.
Early life
Born and raised by missionary parents in Kenya, Bewes made a confession of faith as a teenager, partly under the influence of John Stott, who would continue to be a mentor to him during his undergraduate years and as one of his predecessors at All Souls. After studying at Cambridge, he trained for ordination at Ridley Hall, and was ordained in 1959. Bewes continued to be passionate about Africa and was involved in raising up and training church leaders there.
His ministry took him around the world to teach and preach. He composed hymns and wrote 20 books, including his most recent Under The Thorn Tree, which recalls his early life in Kenya and his vision for revival in the UK church.
Bewes was a friend and colleague of the international evangelist Billy Graham and chaired Graham’s Greater London Mission in 1989. He was present as a teenager at many of Graham’s early evangelistic rallies in the UK in the 1950s, which he described as having had a life-changing impact on him.
Bewes was a mighty preacher. He worked hard at getting the Bible right and would never be satisfied until that truth was shown off in bright, warm and living colours.
He was loved by many because he cared about people so much. Many were drawn into church life because he spoke with integrity, compassion and warmth. He was always looking above and beyond the current fads and conflicts.
He always lifted the listener’s vision to the heroic and colourful characters of church history. No one could tell stories the way he did!
Awarded an OBE by the Queen in 2005 for services to the Church of England, he was also a tennis fan and could be frequently found at the Wimbledon championships.
Much of his work could be summarised in the two extra verses he added for the hymn ‘Here is love vast as the ocean’:
Through the years of human darkness, shone the lamp the prophets trimmed, making known redemption’s story, of the love of God undimmed. Christ for every tongue and nation! All must come beneath His sway; His the everlasting kingdom that shall never pass away.
When the stars shall fall from heaven, and the sun turn black as night, when the skies recede and vanish, and the elements ignite. Then the Son of Man in glory, coming as the Morning Star, shall return to claim His loved ones, gathered in from near and far.
