The Right Rev Jim Thompson

Extrovert Bishop of Bath and Wells and of Stepney known to millions through his broadcasts on Radio 4's 'Thought for the Day'

James Lawton Thompson, priest and broadcaster: born Birmingham 11 August 1936; ordained deacon 1966, priest 1967; Curate, East Ham 1966-68; Chaplain, Cuddesdon College, Oxford 1968-71; Rector of Thamesmead and Ecumenical Team Leader 1971-78; Suffragan Bishop of Stepney 1978-79, Area Bishop 1979-91; Bishop of Bath and Wells 1991-2001; Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Exeter 2002-03; married 1965 Sally Stallworthy (one son, one daughter); died 19 September 2003.

Jim Thompson - "Big Jim" or "Bishop Jim", as they called him on the Thought for the Day slot of Radio 4's Today programme and elsewhere - was described by Brian Redhead as "a good man to have on God's side". Thompson was Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1991-2001, and formerly Bishop of Stepney, but it was as a broadcaster that he was known to millions, as he spoke on Thought for the Day for over 20 years, as well as on Radio 2's Good Morning, Sunday. Two very successful books, Stepney Calling (1991) and Good Morning! (2003) gave a selection of his thoughts.

As a communicator on radio and in his books, he had a rare talent for conveying the warmth of his physical presence in his voice and in his words - which dealt seriously and sometimes passionately with political, local and personal hopes and concerns. His reflection on the events of 11 September 2001 was nominated for a Sony Broadcasting Award, uniquely for religious broadcasting.

Brought up and educated in the West Country, Thompson was converted to Christianity when, out for a Christmas drink with his friends, he found himself outside a church where Midnight Mass was being celebrated. He qualified as an accountant in 1959 and National Service (1959-61) took him to Germany with the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment as a Second Lieutenant, an experience he described as one of the most enjoyable times of his life. He then went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, to read Theology. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the College in 1992.

He trained for the priesthood at Cuddesdon College, near Oxford, when Robert Runcie was Principal, and after a curacy in East Ham (1966-68), he returned to the college as Chaplain. His time there was formative both for the college and for him: he brought from his experiences of accountancy and military service a wide knowledge of, and sympathy with, the world outside, which he applied to his teaching. People remember his impact in widening the college curriculum, especially in ethics, where he used literature as a way of examining human experience; he thought through and organised the students' experience of practical pastoralia, with better organised placements. His characteristic concern for students who were less happy in the college was perhaps where his concern for justice and acceptance of gay people was first seen. Vice-Principal when he was a student, the Rev Peter Cornwell describes Thompson as "One of the most Christian people I have known. For Jim the love of God encircled everything."

Thompson left Cuddesdon for London in 1972, to became Rector of Thamesmead, a rapidly growing new estate for families being rehoused from slum clearance. Here the family lived in a council maisonette, though they kept a pony on Woolwich marshes. There was no church structure and no church building when he started. Here he realised the importance of working ecumenically with others, particularly Roman Catholics, and became the leader of an ecumenical team.

In 1978 he crossed the river to become Bishop of Stepney, where he had such illustrious predecessors as Trevor Huddleston and Joost de Blank. Here Thompson's ability to think strategically, as well as to relate personally to all sorts and conditions of human beings, came to fruition. The East End take on Christianity is based on 1 Corinthians 13 - that without love, no talent is worthwhile. East Enders were delighted to have an extrovert bishop who wanted to stay at every church event until he had talked to every single person, who remembered the people he had confirmed - even the policeman who once stopped him for speeding.

His understanding for the need to encourage people led to his constant contacts with, and lunches for, teachers and social workers of the area, as well as to his support of the clergy. He could be challenging as well as supportive, and often followed his instincts in this direction - usually getting it right. His ecumenical commitment continued, and his friendship with the Roman Catholic Bishop of Stepney, the Right Rev Victor Guazzelli, was one of his great pleasures.

In the East End, with its great Jewish heritage, and its huge community of Muslims from Somalia and Bangladesh, Thompson's ecumenical interests broadened into a welcoming of other faiths, and active steps towards an understanding of them. He was Chair of the Committee for Relations with People of Other Faiths, 1983-89, and of the Inter-Faith Network UK, 1987-92, and received the Sigmund Sternberg Award for Christian-Jewish Relations in 1987.

But he was only an Area Bishop within the wider arena of the Diocese of London, and from some of his colleagues he met with little support for his passionate concerns - for gay and women's rights, for Bangladeshis, for all who were marginalised. He succeeded in maintaining public loyalty to the Bishop of London, but at a great cost; his passion had another side, of great vulnerability, particularly when he felt himself rejected by those in authority over him, whom he only longed to please and to work with.

This vulnerability was to show itself most clearly in his distress when Margaret Thatcher rejected his nomination to be Bishop of Birmingham. Though he was no socialist, he had put his heart and soul into the cause of the disadvantaged and this was an experience of public rejection by the leader of the nation. He was more philosophical when Private Eye, in its "Bishop of the Month" series, claimed he had only become Bishop of Stepney because (they incorrectly stated) his father was a freemason; with the damages he received from the magazine he was able to employ a youth worker in his area for two years.

Courage and honesty about his own and other people's personal lives he saw as therapeutic. Perhaps his most successful book was Half Way: reflections in midlife (1986) in which he gave his personal account of the problems and temptations of the mid-life crisis and tackled issues that few church leaders have had the courage to own up to.

In 1995 the Church of England's Board for Social Responsibility's sub-committee on family life, under Thompson's chairmanship, made an attempt to look at various issues of family life including the massive changes which have taken place in society's acceptance of sex before marriage. Many were concerned that to insist on the teaching that this must not happen was to exclude almost a whole generation from church life. The report, Something to Celebrate (1995) was instantly and widely attacked, particularly stirred up by the phrase "living in sin" which it wished to reject.

Although this report was not written by Thompson, he supported and advocated it, as chair of the committee which produced it, and found himself and it the target not only of media frenzy, but of rejection from many of his own fellow Bishops and the Archbishop of Canterbury himself. This was hard to take, not only on his own behalf, but on behalf of the young people for whose sake the study had been made. His concern for the young, and particularly for his own adult children, led him to write a book, Why God? (1996), about the Christian faith, trying to make sense of it to the new generation.

In 1991 John Major appointed Thompson Bishop of Bath and Wells, and this began a journey back towards the world of his own background, and away from the issues of urban deprivation. Many people wondered whether he would cope with this change, but he took to it very happily - he had never shed the experiences of his youth, and had kept his passion for horses, and he and Sally were now able to keep their own horses and ride regularly. The desire not to overload his horse was a great motivation for him to lose weight.

He loved the countryside and particularly Exmoor, and was delighted to be President of the Royal Bath and West Society in 1997-98. The countryside and its ways had always been part of his character, and there were still people to be concerned about - it was not an easy time for farmers, who were being hit by a series of crises. Although he wrestled with himself, to try and persuade himself to be against hunting, he decided to support the Countryside Alliance's march and rally.

He took to Bath and Wells his enjoyment of, and love for, people. I remember him during a Diocesan youth camp in Wells refusing to leave the site until he had talked to as many as possible of the hundred or so young people there. He was Chair of the Children's Society from 1997-2002 and Joint President of the English Churches Housing Trust from 1995.

In 2002, Jim Thompson retired. He and Sally went to live near Minehead, where he could easily reach his beloved Exmoor. He was much in demand as a speaker and preacher, and his great pride and joy were his grandchildren Kitty and Stanley.

Ruth McCurry