Jim Bishop
TO COLLEAGUES OF THE ORDER ECUMENICAL – THE COMPLETED LIFE OF JIM BISHOP
Isobel has asked us to pass on news of Jim’s death which occurred on Sunday 14th January at the grand old age of 94. We express our heartfelt condolences to Isobel and the family. We anticipate a memorable thanksgiving event to celebrate Jim’s completed life. Look for further details regarding live streaming of the service at Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney on Thursday 25 January at 11.30am (Eastern Australian time).
Jim’s passing reminds us of a remarkable period in Australian church history. Jim played a significant role in what became known as the “movement” associated with the Ecumenical Institute. Jim, a Presbyterian minister attended the two-week national conference organised by Australian Frontier (an organisation established by the Australian Council of Churches) held at Wesley College Sydney in January 1967. Joe and Lyn Mathews together with Frank and Aimee Hilliard presented a dazzling diet of Ecumenical Institute courses. Frontier’s Director, Peter Mathews later admitted how amazed but nervous he was with what came out of that event!
Jim together with the Rev Ron Denham who also attended the Frontier conference initiated an association of Sydney inner city clergy who collaborated with others around Australia to invite Joe back to Australia for a return visit in October 1967. The International RS-1 was taught in many locations across the country and culminated in a gathering at Otford when a national organisation was established to “renew the church for the sake of the world”.
The EI movement in Australia expanded and flourished across the continent in 1968 and a new kind of corporate leadership emerged. The quarterly meetings of the Praesidium (representatives of cadres across Australia attended at their own expense) required a basic polity. Jim played the role of “first among equals” which required him to gingerly negotiate with other strong personalities particularly among the Sydney team. The team assigned to Australia in 1968 from Chicago (Fred and Sarah Buss together with Don Clark) greatly appreciated that their housing in Sydney was provided by the Bishop and other families.
At the urging of Chicago, the first Sydney Religious House was established in late 1969 utilising premises provided by St John’s Presbyterian Church in Paddington where Jim was the minister. Jim and Isobel were appointed priors and while sharing that role, it was Jim who came up with most of the ideas as to how things were best done. Given Jim’s individualistic streak we marvel that he was able to gradually adapt to the corporate insights of his colleagues.
At the Frontier conference Jim exemplified an Australian reluctance to automatically accept all that was being presented without interrogating things first. Joe Mathews had to get used to parrying Jim’s frequent sharp questions. Scepticism however gradually gave way to admiration and Jim earned Joe’s respect (particularly when it was revealed that both were well acquainted with the theology of H. Richard Niebuhr). We also remember the consternation Jim caused at the Global Assembly in Chicago in 1969 when he insisted that Australian priorities had to be also considered if the Order was to be truly global. Jim exhibited the necessary cussedness required to be heard.
While Jim and Isobel and their family took up assignments in several global locations, many of us in Australia will especially remember Jim as “one of us”. Like other former Order members from Australia, he returned to serve in the historic church but doing so having interiorised the radicality of RS-1, the profound insights of order religious life and the unique methods which had shaped us all. For instance, Jim with Isobel for a time served in Whyalla, South Australia a city where EI had already left its mark. When we moved to Bondi Beach in 1996 (Jonathan became minister of the “Chapel By the Sea”) the ground had been well prepared by Jim as he had acted as the interim minister prior to arrival. Jim then went on to serve in a most significant ministry as a Prison Chaplain.
We pay tribute to Jim as the unique, unrepeatable gift that he was to history and especially to all of us who knew and loved him. VALE JAMES TREGARTHEN BISHOP – good and faithful servant – well done.
~~ JONATHAN AND JANEEN BARKER
Thanks, Barkers, for these words, especially, “Jim exhibited the necessary cussedness required to be heard.” Looking back, I often imagine a sort of rosy glow around our history, now, at a distance. Cussedness was an important ingredient in that past. There was lots of risk and lots of hard pushing and “things not fitting easily with one another . . . nevertheless . . . So thanks for all of this and for our reality as actual human beings and the efforts involved in gluing together our community long enough to make (some) difference for the church and for the world . . . and for each other . . . and for the persons and communities and organizations touched.
Now here is a question — As I recall Jim and Isobel I have many images of stern looks on Jim’s face, and being a bit at attention in his/their presence (though, Isobel, your presence always seemed more “gracious” . . ) I don’t recall Jim ever being mean or bitter or angry — maybe i missed that meeting?? That disciplined cussedness he maintained is a gift to remember!
~~ Jim Wiegel
Dear Jim, Thank you for your kind words. I think the cussedness the Barkers are pointing to occurred more noticeably here in Australia 🇦🇺! When our beloved Ann Duffy left us, I recall a number of conversations in the study of our Manse ( the Sydney Religious House), when Ann would make her own points of cussedness and they would tussle through the values together.. real and active conversations. ‘Those were the days my friend’. I deeply appreciate all these comments and they will be kept in the file I have established for Order deaths. With greetings and love, Isobel Bishop 🙏⭐️
What a beautiful tribute to Jim Bishop and his movement work in Australia and beyond. As we mourn his death, we give thanks for and celebrate his incredibly passionate and caring life in missional covenant with Isobel and send our prayers to Isobel and family. May his legacy of chiseling justly and compassionately into the future on behalf of ALL continue through those whose lives he touched. Grace and peace,
~~ Carlton and Ellie Stock
Remembering Jim Bishop w deep gratitude for his bold adventure in renewing the historical church. What stands out strongly was his insistance we focus on “the human factor” iin our work in the world. I will be forever grateful for the one and only healing conversation we had, just before our return to the states. Isobel and Jim were just returning to Australia. We grieve peacefully with you, Isobel, family, and colleagues. His smile continues in my heart.
~~ Judi White
You may like to listen to some Welsh folk music. We feel it shows where some of Jim’s special traits come from: determination, playful humour, love of music, love of family and community. In the service, there will be a time of reflection with The Ash Grove, a Welsh song that is aching, hopeful and loving. Jim’s sister Sheila Walkerden says: “Our Mum knew this song, and sang it to us, everyone knew it in those old days”.
~~ The Bishop Family
Thanks Janeen & Jonathan for sharing about Jim’s Death….Jim was a great Prophet who shared his message around the world 🌎🌍🌏
The Holcombe Family had the great opportunity to be assigned with your family and others in Australia and the USA to see if the methods of 5th City would work in Australia too. We discovered it did and Jim was a key part in helping to provide the opportunity in Mowanjum. Our family of Chris and Sarai always talked about how much they loved the experience there and other parts of Australia. Jim and Isobel and their family were a key part in that too. Best wishes to all the Bishop family as you and we celebrate the profound witness and Legacy Jim was to us and the WORLD. Grace & Peace.
~~ Wanda…..on ehalf of the Holcombe Family
Oh Isobel, how can this be: a world without Jim Bishop, a world without the two of you together in it. And as I think of our time in Australia , your family paramount in it and then as global colleagues. Gratitude not diminished by the sadness I feel of this news. May you be comforted commiserate with the gift you and Jim have been to this world. Even if I were with you there would be no words, only a big hug. I send it now. Thank you for your frequent emails to the listserve which I will continue to look forward to. Love, comfort, and kindness,
~~ Sarah Buss
On my the first night at the Bananeiras, Brazil, consult, Jim pointed out to Southern Cross to me. Later, with Jim in one of the VW “combis” rented for use at the consult, as we traveled the rutted road to Silva Jardim, it was on the verge of breakdown. We stopped and Jim made an adjustment to the carburetor. Upon inspection it appeared to me to be literally held together with hairpins.
~~ John Webster
Thank you, John Webster, for this special memory with Jim Bishop. Oh, the jouneys we’ve had and the places we’ve been. I’m grateful for the very practical wisdom of our Australian clergy who learned early on to take care of the practical aspects of life as well as the theological.
Hope you are doing well in these cold days. So grateful for your writings in the Archives about early days with the cadre. In my notes, I see that you are another of our nonagenarians., along with Jim Bishop. John Cock (so many John’s) and I watched an amazing You Tube interview last night with a 102 yr old (Dr. Gladys McGarey) about her recently published book. –Six Secrets to a Healthy and Happy Life at Any Age. She is the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries in the Himalayas, who grew who in that part of India. Her stories reflect the wisdom of both cultures.
With Isobel and family, we celebrate the life of Jim Bishop and the many lives he touched through his work all around the globe and especially his and Isobel’s dedication to the renewal of the local church for the sake of the world. Glad our paths crossed in Chicago when we first arrived and later again in Australia when we were assigned there. So grateful for the detailed memories of Jonathan and Janeen Barker about the long and productive life of Jim Bishop. Grace and peace and gratitude,
~~ Lynda and John Cock
Remembering Jim Bishop w deep gratitude for his bold adventure in renewing the historical church. What stands out strongly was his insistance we focus on “the human factor” iin our work in the world. I will be forever grateful for the one and only healing conversation we had, just before our return to the states. Isobel and Jim were just returning to Australia. We grieve peacefully with you, Isobel, family, and colleagues. His smile continues in my heart.
~~ Judi White
We do not really know Jim personally very much. We heard snippets about him earlier but when we came here at the end of 1984 you were in distance to the ICA/O:E/EI – and we only met him both on occasions here and there, not the least at Pitt Street Uniting Church for worship or other related events. Whatever we learned from the encounters and what people said about Jim and Isobel we were so moved by their vision and courage in starting the first O:E House in Australia, in your parish manse in Paddington and group engagement to work with churches and the community at large of living out justice and caring for one another, including the Aboriginal people.
Jim in particular always seemed very committed and serious, private and longing for a larger or universal whole, based on the gospel and maybe also grounded in an Irish soul and upbringing, which might have also given him a twinkle in his eye or a touch of humour. He seemed to be interested in many things and made so much happen locally and many places overseas. I picture that he has contributed much depth and understanding to the RSI courses and related ones in Australia and beyond and opened many minds and hearts to a deeper and broader way of looking and thinking, including through the eyes of the “Urs” which prepared the way to much of the later changing multicultural realities in Australia.
I bet there were many jewels from living in community in the ICA and its risky large scale visioning, research, methods and practical development that Jim later passed on in some ways in his prison and other ministries and engagements. We also know of the ambiguities and bitter pills that some of the experiences of global communal living brought with them and for the family and share in that ourselves, along with many others.