Richard Turnbull brought an unusual combination of skills to his life’s work. He died on 26 October, aged 65, having been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Richard Duncan Turnbull was born in South Manchester on 17 October, 1960, the younger son of Alan Turnbull and his late wife, Kathleen, née Ormston.
Shortly after Richard’s eighteenth birthday, his mother died of cancer. He entered Reading University the next 12 months to read for a level in economics and accounting. At that stage he had no Christian commitment, nor any real knowledge of the Christian faith. Spending the summer vacation before his final 12 months within the US Midwest, he found himself staying with a Christian family who had a living faith. In his final term at Reading, he agreed to go to church with some Christian student friends. A guest preacher would visit that evening. Returning for the evening service, Richard got here to faith in Christ. After graduating in 1982 he launched into a profession as a chartered accountant with Ernst and Young, in London.
Chartered Accountancy and Theological Training
On arriving in London, Richard settled at Brandon Baptist Church in Camberwell. Here he would meet his future wife when, just per week after he arrived, Caroline Andrew, a recent graduate from Leeds University joined the staff for a 12 months as a careforce employee. Within a month Richard had been appointed as church treasurer.
Richard and Caroline married in 1986. In 1987 they moved to Southampton, where Richard had been transferred, and joined a small Anglican church in Weston. The vicar encouraged Richard to coach as a lay reader, then to explore ordination. From here they moved to Durham where Richard gained a BA (top notch honours) at Cranmer Hall in 1992 and was ordained in 1994. His PhD (Durham, 1997) explored evangelical theology and social reform within the nineteenth century, themes on which he would write and lecture in future years.
Richard’s curacy was served at Highfield Church, Southampton (1994-1998), during which era he became the youngest-ever member of the Press Council. He then moved to be vicar of Christ Church, Chineham, near Basingstoke (1998-2005).
Richard was known for his high energy and capability for exertions. As well as tending to his parish, and preparing to evangelise, he played an lively role in the broader Church of England, serving on General Synod from 1995. He chaired each the House of Clergy in his Diocesan Synod, and the General Synod Business Committee (2004-2005) in addition to chairing working parties on clergy pay and the funding of theological education. He was for 2 years a member of the Archbishops’ Council (2003-2005) under Rowan Williams.
Wycliffe Hall
In 2005 the family moved to Oxford where Richard had been appointed Principal of Wycliffe Hall, to succeed Alister McGrath. That 12 months, he received an honorary MA from the University of Oxford.
At Wycliffe Hall, he taught courses on Anglicanism, Anglican and Evangelical identity, and on the Reformation. In his early years on the Hall, controversy arose amongst the college over his type of leadership, which was less collegial than some wanted. Further unrest was stirred by his conservative theology. The Board gave its support to Richard, and the final result was that several faculty members resigned. Concern was expressed that the Hall would lose its fame for mental rigour if conservative faculty were appointed to fill the vacancies, who would thus attract more conservative students. The recent principal had a high regard for scholarship, as his recent appointments to college were to reflect.
Richard was a preferred principal along with his students. They appreciated his real care, his modesty, and his sense of humour; and, in recognition of his high energy, nicknamed him Turbo. Seven years after he arrived, in May 2012, the Hall community was each shocked and saddened to listen to that the Board had decided he should stand down. Degree exams were just starting. The exam results that summer placed Wycliffe Hall top of the Permanent Private Halls by a transparent margin, with the next proportion of firsts than a lot of the well-known colleges. Clearly the college each modelled, and instilled, mental rigour. It was a bewildering time.
Simon Vibert, Vice-Principal of Wycliffe Hall from 2007, writes: ‘Richard had a special ability to “keep the foremost thing the foremost thing”: his evangelical convictions were shaped by the reforming priorities of the nineteenth century characters of his doctoral research: Shaftesbury and Wilberforce. This was combined along with his experience as a parish leader, and his plain-speaking, straightforward lifestyle and ministry.
‘My appointment as Vice Principal included organising the School of Preaching, in addition to sharing the important thing ministry priorities of leadership, evangelism and spirituality within the Hall. Richard wanted academic rigour supporting real church ministry. I valued these priorities and proceed to understand all of the evidence displayed now in our students, as church leaders today. I’ll much miss him as a family friend in addition to colleague.’
CEME and US links
In the Autumn of 2012, Richard Turnbull founded the Oxford-based Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics (CEME), with Brian Griffiths as his Board chair, Baron Griffiths of Fforestfach, former adviser to Margaret Thatcher. Through conferences and publications, CEME would bring moral and theological reflection to matters of business and financial policy; and help Christians to see the business and financial worlds as a calling. On his retirement he became Director Emeritus.
Throughout these years, Richard retained and built on his US links. He was Senior Research Fellow for the Dallas-based Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy, and lively in mentoring its Shaftesbury Fellows and in lecturing and in writing for the think tank, the Acton Institute.
The Christian Institute and writing
In 2017, Richard Turnbull became a Trustee of The Christian Institute, taking the chair in 2021. Ciarán Kelly, Director of The Christian Institute, said: ‘He led the Institute through a time of rapid transition marked by the sudden death of its founder and Director, Colin Hart, after which the passing of its long-serving founding Chairman, John Burn, all inside the space of little greater than six months.’ As the brand new Director, Ciarán added, ‘I appreciated Richard’s deep wisdom, borne out of his business experience in addition to his ministry experience.’ Richard ceaselessly gave talks, available within the Institute’s annual lecture series.
James Leggett, a Trustee, said, ‘His great gift was to mix quick considering with thoughtfulness – as Chairman, he had the power to steer graciously, listen intently, and summarise succinctly for the great of the charity.’
Richard’s own ministry had been much inspired by William Grimshaw of Haworth (1708-1763) whose life was marked by sheer perseverance. While Grimshaw’s name is just not as familiar as those of the Wesleys, William Wilberforce, John Newton and others, he was counted amongst their friends and advisers, and, alongside them, played a big part within the eighteenth century revival.
Richard was a keen historian, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Visiting Fellow of St Mary’s University, Twickenham. He had a present for bringing a scholarly mind to his writing, while enabling it to be accessible to a broader audience. His book Reviving the center: The story of the 18th century revival (2012) was published just as he stepped down from Wycliffe Hall. His published legacy also includes Shaftesbury: The Great Reformer (2010), warmly commended by William Hague; and Anglican and Evangelical? (2007) written from his well-informed perspective of the General Synod’s slow shift from orthodoxy, and what this meant for its doctrinal integrity, its funds, and its training colleges.
In recent years, Richard and Caroline worshipped on the small country church of St Michael’s, Begbroke, outside Oxford, where Richard preached often until just a few months before he died.
Richard is survived by Caroline, their 4 children and families, and by his father.
