A HELPFUL CRICKETER

After meeting David Sheppard, I followed his cricket career with interest. Even more importantly, we had a couple of years of correspondence when the subject matter was as much about living a life for Christ as it was about cricket.

I left school, went to University and met with fellow students who took seriously matters of faith and life. I kept reading and thinking and following the advice that David had given about discipleship. Over the years I also read books that he had written and realised that his experiences in ministry were significantly shaping his theology, as mine was being shaped by an emerging emphasis on the connection between faith and justice here in my own church circles.

The years passed, I read more of David's writings as well as his wife Grace's book on her frightening time of mental illness, called AN ASPECT OF FEAR. By now, the corrrespondence of earlier years had ceased but I continued at a distance to note what David was doing. It was now no longer a matter of hero-worship but simply gratitude, admiration and respect for a faithful disciple who was still learning and sharing his experiences with others.

After my retirement in 2000, , I wrote a long letter to David, outlining my own journey of faith in the 50 years since we had met and acknowledging his help through his writings and example.

Among other things, I wrote

'I guess my early correspondence with you was at least partly a form of hero-worship, which has long since faded! However, as I look back on my life, I can see the way in which that brief contact was a shaping force in my Christian journey.
The encouragement of your example;
your emphasis on those great verses "casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you"; and "In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths."';the reading of Grace's book Aspect of Fear; the reading of the Hewitts' book on George Burton [which was very helpful to me in seeking to understand a creative and fragile colleague]; these have all been a source of challenge and encouragement to me and for that I want to assure you of my appreciation. The time you spent in penning an occasional letter to a youngster from th colonies was not wasted !
I may be quite wrong , but I can imagine that the understanding and faith that you now have of the living God is somehow less certain [in the propositional sense] and more grounded in paradox and mystery than it was in 1951. But perhaps I'm projecting too much of my own experience!'

In his reply, David wrote
'Yes, you sensed rightly that I have moved on from that Party Evangelical base--though I owe much to it. Being plunged into the East End of London was the biggest single education of my life. My becoming a bishop, where I had to relate to all of the parishes in a very mixed English diocese like Soutwark, made me learn from different traditions.
Then Liverpool and the partnership with Roman Catholics and Derek Worlock in particular has been another key part of the journey. We were taken out of our depth in momentous years there, facing mass unemployment, closure after closure of companies, conflicts between the Black community and the police, then between the Militant leadership of Midlands City Council and Margaret Thatcher's government.'

I received that letter in March 2001, ten years ago next month. In the years that have passed since then David has died after a long battle with cancer and Grace died last November, also from cancer.