A tribute to Brian Haymes (from Sean Winter)

Baptists can be a rough bunch: sometimes passionate; not always given to nuance or sophistication; an often strange mix of the deeply conservative and the deeply radical. In the midst of all of the spiritual vitality, ecclesial complexity, and ecumenical obstinacy that marks out much of Baptist life, Brian Haymes, who has died, was class.

 

He was the product of an extraordinary generation of Surrey (Sutton), suburban Baptist upbringing, part of a family related (if I recall correctly) to John Le Carre (whose spy novels betray regular acquaintance with Baptist chapel life). Brian trained for ministry at Bristol Baptist College at a young age (one of Len Champion's 'men') which prepared him for life-long ministry within and for British Baptists. Two things stood at the core of that ministry: the importance of preaching and the need for a constant recovery and ongoing interrogation of what being Baptist actually meant.

 

Brian was a remarkable preacher, perhaps the best I have heard with any regularity, with a voice that somehow managed to convey intelligence, authority, and deep pastoral sensitivity at the same time. There was a tremor, just at the edge of the voice that may well have been cultivated but that held your attention. But what was so compelling was the way that the full weight of his intellectual and communicative gifts were offered in service of conveying the mystery of the gospel in ways that connected it to the deepest complexities of human experience. That is as preaching should be.

 

And Brian was a quiet but consistent advocate for a vision of Baptist identity that, frankly, has helped to keep many of us Baptist over the years and that, again frankly, he came to fear was being lost.

 

He did it all with grace and humility, with a certain patrician elegance and a wry sense of humour. I initially encountered him as a senior leader in Baptist life, sought him out as a mentor, shared membership of the same church for a while, and came to regard him as a friend. In my own journey there are a small handful of people that have been a constant reminder to me of why I remain an ordained Baptist, and Brian was one of them. He was always very clear that the Christian life was a matter of 'seeing in a glass darkly', with much that is mystery and far less than we would want that is certain, but he now sees 'face to face'. Thanks to God for a life that was lived 'worthy of the gospel of Christ.'

Comments

[John Rackley]

Sean, for all that has been so far written about Brian you have captured for me the essence of the man I knew. It was not his writing for which he will rightly remembered but rather his walking humbly with his God and I note that like many who have been in the business of ‘words, words, words’ for much of his life in its closing years he was being drawn to the more silent contemplation of God.
Thank you
John