Today, by the wonders of t'internet, I will be able to attend the first part of the funeral for Revd Gwen Mattock, who has died at the age of 89 (meaning I now discover she was the same age as my own mother).  Gwen was my 'ministerial advisor' for my final two years of training back in 2001-2003 when she was a well-respected retired minister with much wisdom to share.  Gwen's day job was as an educator in the field of primary education, alongside which she was a non-stipendiary Baptist minister, having completed the BU Exam as it then was.  I guess nowadays she would probably have been an RLM.

Gwen was a Sunday School teacher - when I lived in Glasgow, I knew someone who had had Gwen as their Sunday School teacher in Borehamwood, and last week I met someone who had been in her class after she moved to Manchester.  The quiet influence of Gwen's ministry spreads far and wide, as a teacher and as a minister.

The last time I saw Gwen was at my MPhil graduation in 2011 see brief post here and in recent years we had lost contact, though I continued to send her Christmas cards until a couple of years ago.

I am grateful for having known Gwen, and some of her wisdom remains with me to this day (though I still have several years until retirement will allow me to spend a year lying on the settee reading trashy novels!).  May she rest in peace and rise and glory.