Stephen Pedley, the beloved “people’s bishop” of Lancaster from 1998 to 2005, has died aged 85. His friend and fellow priest, who trained with him at Ripon College Cuddesdon, remembers a man whose laughter and empathy defined his ministry.
A life devoted to the Church of England
Pedley was born in Coventry to Geoffrey, a priest, and his wife Muriel. He attended Marlborough school in Wiltshire before gaining a history degree at Queens’ College, Cambridge. He then trained for the priesthood at Ripon College Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire, where he and the author of this obituary first met. At Cuddesdon, under the tutelage of Robert Runcie, Pedley embraced the quasi-monastic common life of the Oxford Movement, which had recalled the Church of England to its Catholic roots.
After ordination in 1966, Pedley became a curate at Liverpool parish church, one of England’s most famous and flamboyant city centre churches. It was in Liverpool that he met Mary Macdonald, a clergyman’s daughter training to be a teacher, and they married in 1970.
From Zambia to Durham Cathedral
In 1969, Pedley left Liverpool for another curacy at Holy Trinity Coventry. Two years later, he moved to Kitwe in Zambia’s copper belt, where he served as a priest from 1971 to 1977. Returning to the north-east of England, he was vicar at Stockton (1977-78), rector at Whickham (1988–93), and then residentiary canon at Durham Cathedral (1993–98). He also served as chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II from 1984 until he became bishop of Lancaster in 1998, based in Blackburn.
A pastor known for his laughter and care
Held in great affection as “the people’s bishop,” Pedley reassured, encouraged, and empowered those in his care. His single most memorable characteristic was his laughter, which sprang from his love of life and his delight in people. At times he could collapse in helpless, almost painful, laughter; uproarious and uncontrollable, heels hammering the floorboards. He lifted everyone’s spirits and made sure you knew he was on your side – and that all would be well.
He retired as bishop after seven years, after which he became an honorary assistant bishop for the diocese of Newcastle. Throughout their married life, he and Mary provided open and generous hospitality at their various homes, most happily in their recent years of retirement on the terrace of the Blue House, Newbrough, overlooking the upper Tyne valley in Northumberland, where the wine flowed and the laughter echoed.
Mary survives him, as do their children, Mark, Andrew and Philippa, and six grandchildren.
