When I came to St. Edmund's over eight years ago I brought with me a book of prayers - a gift from a retired archdeacon, then in his late eighties, who had been a tremendous source of encouragement to me at St. Chad's, the parish to which he had retired nearly thirty years ago. Ordained in 1937, his name was Francis House and I never tired of hearing about his long and varied ministry which had taken him to Germany, Switzerland, Leeds, Greece, the BBC, Pontefract and Chester. What I loved most about Francis, however, was his prayerfulness and his humility: although I could never hope to emulate these remarkable qualities in him, they gave me something to aim at and I think of him often when I am tempted to impatience or when I experience spiritual dryness.

I only became aware just how significant Francis' ministry had been for the world-wide Church when, not knowing that he had died, I unexpectedly came across his obituary notice in the Guardian in September. I learned things that Francis had never told me: of his meetings with members of the Young Church movement during his trips to Germany in the late 1930's, many of whom were soon to be imprisoned by Hitler; of his subsequent work in assisting both Christians and Jews to escape from Germany; of his presence in Germany on Kristallnacht, when thousands of Jewish properties were destroyed by Nazi thugs, and in Vienna when the German army arrived in 1938.

Francis embodied the Gospel: his whole ministry flowed out of a love of Jesus Christ, a love that enabled and inspired him to work tirelessly for Christian unity as well as for deeper understanding between people of all faiths and none. Perhaps most significantly for me, Francis was a living reminder that we most effectively commend the Gospel to others when we allow our actions to speak for the faith and the hope that are in us.