A break from most of conference today for the funeral of our friend, Chris Bard. Chris was a Church of England priest, a very active member of the Association of Interchurch Families and a radio broadcaster. I first met him in 1978 and came to know and respect him enormously. He's sorely missed both in his public life and by his family and friends. I hadn't known that he was so involved with the local horticultural college and had been part of the team responsible for their multi-faith garden at Chelsea. It seemed entirely fitting that the recreated garden in the college grounds will be dedicated to Chris' memory. Chris had just completed a term as co-chair of AIF at the AGM in late August and the association will decide later how to commemorate him. For now it was good to see so many members at the funeral and to be able to read tributes from young people round the world whose faith lives were touched by Chris' combination of humour, intelligence and lateral thinking.
Some years ago I realised that we shared mutual friends in John and Suzanne, so it was fortunate that Suzanne and I were in Brighton this week and able to make the train journey to Chelmsford for the funeral. It meant missing the debates on Immigration and Poverty but that seemed a price worth paying in the circumstances.
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