The Right Rev Edward Knapp-Fisher

Former Principal of Cuddesdon and Bishop of Pretoria

Edward George Knapp-Fisher, priest: born Chatham, Kent 8 January 1915; ordained deacon 1939, priest 1940; Assistant Curate, Brighouse, Yorkshire 1939-42, Chaplain, Cuddesdon Theological College 1946-49, Principal 1952-60; Chaplain, St John's College, Cambridge 1949-52; Vicar of Cuddesdon 1952-60; Bishop of Pretoria 1960-75; Canon and Archdeacon of Westminster 1975-87, Sub-Dean 1982-87; Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Southwark 1975-87; Honorary Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Chichester 1987-2003; married 1965 Joan Bradley; died Chichester, West Sussex 7 February 2003.

The influence within the Church of England, and the Anglican Communion more widely, of Edward Knapp-Fisher, sometime Bishop of Pretoria, was considerable. The most significant phase of his life and ministry may have been his principalship of the theological college at Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, between 1952 and 1960. But there is much more than that to be told.

Knapp-Fisher was born in 1915 and was a son of the vicarage. He was one of five children and knew from personal experience the benefits of family life in a loving home. He was educated at the King's School, Worcester. From there he went to Trinity College, Oxford, where he read Law and took a First. There had been lawyers in the family, but Edward decided to follow in the footsteps of his father and so moved on from Oxford to Wells Theological College to train for ordination.

After a short wartime curacy at Brighouse in Yorkshire he joined the RNVR and served as a naval chaplain for four years. A story about him that went the rounds was a pointer to what was to come. Whereas many a chaplain, when welcoming another chaplain on board his ship, would greet him with an invitation to come and have a gin, Knapp- Fisher's way of welcoming his guest would be to ask whether he had yet said his Evensong. But he was much respected for his integrity and formed friendships with shipmates that lasted many years.

Following his demobilisation in 1946 Knapp-Fisher was given his first taste of Cuddesdon through being appointed Chaplain at the theological college. It was during this time that he joined the Oratory of the Good Shepherd, a society of men living under Rule – including celibacy – but not normally in community.

From Cuddesdon he moved to Cambridge as Chaplain at St John's College. There he wrote the first of his four books, The Churchman's Heritage (1952). His rooms were said to have been unusually austere for a senior member of that great college, reminiscent of a monastic cell. An undergraduate coming to make his acquaintance was dumbfounded. "I must say, Chaplain," he blurted out, "you've made your rooms very nice." Hardly what Knapp-Fisher wanted to hear! But with the simplicity and the asceticism went a remarkable gift for friendship and a somewhat boyish sense of fun. This combination was attractive and challenging. At High Table he enjoyed the intellectual challenge and the varied expertise that he found there.

In 1952 he returned to Cuddesdon, this time as vicar of the parish and Principal of the college. He, his predecessor and his successor all greatly valued the opportunities given them by having that dual pastoral charge, heavy though the responsibility was. When Knapp-Fisher had been Chaplain the ordinands were largely ex-servicemen, older and more mature than the pre-war vintage. By the time he returned as Principal the age level had dropped, as had the level of maturity. Knapp-Fisher felt things needed tightening up.

It could be argued that he turned the screw too tight, making too little allowance for the variety of temperament and churchmanship that could be found in the college. There was more stress on the dutiful keeping of Lent than on theological adventurousness. But the Cuddesdon of that time certainly did not turn out clones. And some clear benefits of the Knapp-Fisher regime were widely acknowledged. First, the Principal himself was one whose life was utterly centred on God. Did anyone ever get to the chapel earlier than he did every morning for his long period of meditation before Matins and the Eucharist? Second, training for the priesthood was a serious business. Priesthood was not to be regarded as a hobby. Third, the Principal was one of the kindest men imaginable. If anyone, in the college or in the village, was in real need they could find in him a wise, perceptive and generous friend.

In 1959 Knapp-Fisher was invited to lead some retreats and conferences for clergy in South Africa. Following this visit a head of steam built up to nominate him for the vacant diocese of Pretoria. His initial response was to decline. But the invitation was renewed, with the enthusiastic backing of Joost de Blank, Archbishop of Cape Town. This time he succumbed, saying that if he were to refuse the call he did not think he could ever again speak to an ordination candidate about vocation.

The years in Pretoria were hard. There was the apartheid issue. There was the sheer size of the diocese – the same as England and Wales put together, Knapp-Fisher used to claim. He did a prodigious amount of travelling. There might be as many as 16 confirmations in the space of four days. Although he would preach, through an interpreter, in English, he would always conduct the liturgy in the appropriate local language, which might be any one out of eight or nine. He had a good ear for this.

To begin with, he did not find it easy to adapt to African culture. He didn't seem always to realise that the "custody of time" he had so impressed on his students at Cuddesdon needed to be interpreted differently in the bush. Yet his contribution was massive, not least in the field of education. He was a founder of St Alban's College for boys and chairman of the governors of the Diocesan School for Girls. He is remembered too for a special interest in the Irene Home for the mentally handicapped. By his fellow bishops he was held in great respect.

It was five years into his episcopate that news broke of his forthcoming marriage to Joan Bradley. Some were astonished. Many had seen him as a lifelong celibate. Closer observers of form had suspected something was afoot, having noticed that Knapp-Fisher had not renewed his temporary vows as a member of the OGS. The marriage was to last 37 years and was exceptionally happy. He and Joan journeyed together, walked together, and went off to retreat together at Malling Abbey clutching volumes of theology by Hans von Balthasar.

Two years after his marriage Knapp-Fisher was given another great opportunity. He was appointed to membership of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Preparatory Commission and then to the International Commission itself. He had a vitally important role as a key draftsman. He showed a genius for presenting controversial ideas in a way that was not controversial. And he earned great trust from the Roman Catholic members, who respected him as a bishop speaking out of his own Anglican tradition rather than propounding personal theories. No work he did ever gave him more satisfaction than the work he did for Arcic. (And members of the commission were indebted to him for the way he raced across Venice on foot to secure airmail copies of a London newspaper so they did not have to miss out on the daily crossword.)

Knapp-Fisher resigned his bishopric in 1975 and returned to England to take up appointment as a Canon and Archdeacon of Westminster. He applied himself with immense diligence to all the duties of his officers, welcoming very much the links with abbey livings for which, as Archdeacon, he had special responsibility.

His home at 1 Little Cloister became well known for the genial hospitality that he and Joan dispensed there. Should he have been appointed to an English diocese? He was surely a bigger man than some who were given such appointments at the time in question. Yet the Church of England in 1975 was markedly different from what it had been 15 years earlier.

In 1987, at the age of 72, he retired and went with Joan to live in the shadow of Chichester Cathedral. He loved the opportunity of a daily Eucharist, and there was still no shortage of demand for his personal ministry. As he had done all through his ministry he continued to make himself available to those who sought him out as confessor and counsellor.

One feature of his life that friends noticed was a growing passion for the theatre, which at this stage he would allow himself a little time to indulge and which he shared with Joan. It was now her needs and wants that (under God, he might have said) were paramount in his thinking.

Ronald Gordon