From their arrival one Sunday morning Katharine and Suria soon became active and valued members of the Church. Katharine was elected to the PCC and made a lasting contribution over the years, in her quiet, thoughtful, devoted way. Whatever other responsibilities she had she would never take on anything at St Mary’s without giving it her full commitment. When we began work on planning for the Parish Centre Katharine could always ask the incisive question: she had both an eye for detail and a grasp of the bigger picture. We all valued the experience she brought from the wider world of managing projects and fund-raising.
Katharine had a fine mind and could set out issues clearly and helpfully. I am grateful personally to her for helping me clarify theological issues I have had to work through.
I know too that as she was freed from other major commitments she was able to take a greater role in the parish, and many, many people will give thanks for her calm yet firm hand on things through recent years, including two vacancies.
There is one thing, however, that, among all she did, will remain with me. Katharine became a server at the altar, and it didn’t surprise anyone that she carried out these duties in a quiet, gracious and proper way, with that characteristic attention to detail and yet unobtrusiveness. To have Katharine serve beside me was to understand the sacrament of the present moment. But that was Katharine: to be with her in any situation was to feel her complete attention, her ‘being there’ for you, her care and love: it was to share in that sacrament of the present moment.
And now her being is with God.
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: enter now into thy Master’s rest.”
Keith Hine, Vicar of Bowdon from 1994 – 2008