A PERSONAL VIEW AS ONE who was privileged to count myself as one of his friends, I was very sad to read of Billy Marshall’s death among notices of recently deceased clergy in the pages of the Church of Ireland Gazette. I first got to know Billy, as he was universally called, when I went up to Trinity in 1957 and was living in college rooms. He was already in rooms, being a Scholar of the House – the highest undergraduate honour of the university – and he had just achieved a brilliant first class “Mod” in the field of Mental and Moral Science (Philosophy). As the Auditor (chairman) of the historic College Theological Society, which ranked with the Phil and the Hist as one of the “Big Three” of College societies, he gave the customary inaugural address to a packed audience in the College Dining Hall, his subject being “Ecumenism”. I well remember his conclusion with a quote from the Abbé Couturier, an all-time “great” of the origins of ecumenical endeavour: “Never give up praying for unity – some day the miracle will happen.” I got to know Billy well, along with some of his other friends, through visiting him in his rooms – a triple set in the New Square. One of the latter was a man called Douglas Bluett, whose father was the Rector of Rathmichael parish in the diocese of Dublin and Glendalough, where by a strange coincidence Billy was himself in due course to be the incumbent. Douglas had thrown up his curacy in Edinburgh after around three weeks and was back in Dublin, showing signs of wanting to become a Roman Catholic. It was characteristic of Billy Marshall to adopt a calm and rational approach to his friend’s inclinations. He himself was “high” rather than “low”, despite his origins in a rural parish in the Diocese of Armagh, and remained a quintessential Anglican all his life. SCM activities As students, Billy and I had the good fortune to attend a great event entitled “Edinburgh 1958”, of which I still have the programme, drawing people from the branches of the Student Christian Movement (then a mighty force in Britain and Ireland and abroad through the World Student Christian Fellowship). The long week filled the enormous McEwan Hall to overflowing and incorporated a vast range of activities including plenary sessions with world famous figures such as Visser t’Hooft, the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, and George McCloud, the Presbyterian re-founder of the historic Iona Community and others. I remember a nuclear physicist called John Wren Lewis waxing eloquent on the relationship between the Christian faith and modern science. The worship was mind-blowing and included my first encounter with “Thine be the glory”, sung in French or English according to choice. The quiet daily devotions were thoughtful and moving and centred on the Pauline concept of “Christ in you the hope of glory”. I can’t help wondering how we got to Edinburgh and home again, travelling in a 1928 charabanc of which the owner and driver was our Trinity chairman, who had acquired three such conveyances, christened by him ‘Denis’ (they were Denis buses) ‘Rachel’ and ‘Griselda’. We were on the last of these with its characteristic canvas roof and no sides. There was of course no such thing as a self-starter, only a huge starting handle which required both brain and brawn to get the beast going. I remember Billy attempting to swing the handle, but it seemed that even a “first” in philosophy had not equipped him fully for the task! That was in the Scottish Highlands, where we went for a number of days after the Congress was over, and I well remember the desolation and gloom of Culloden, and the towering majesty of Ben Nevis, below which we spent a night in a Youth Hostel. Billy stayed on in Trinity for an extra year after passing his divinity exams and worked for a Theological Exhibition which was a short but very difficult way of attaining the higher degree of Bachelor of Divinity, which in Trinity ranks above all the Masters’ degrees and is listed immediately after the doctorates. All eight exams had to be taken at once and a thesis produced within two years to qualify for the degree, which Billy of course accomplished! He was later to receive his Ph.D., also from Trinity. In his forward to Billy Marshall’s excellent book, “Scripture, Tradition, and Reason, A Selective View of Anglican Theology through the Centuries,” (Columba/APCK 2010), Archbishop John Neill referred to his experience as “university chaplain, parish priest, ecumenist, and teacher of theology, serving in both Ireland and India”. It was evident to those who knew Billy that he was called to the mission field. Following his ordination as deacon in 1959 and priest in 1960 and his three years’ service as curate assistant in Ballyholme, he went to Chota Nagpur, India, for ten years, where his main work was in the Bishop Hubback Theological College, lecturing in theology. Ministry in Ireland On his return to Ireland, he was appointed Assistant Dean of Residence in Trinity (Chaplain) from 1973-76. He was then recruited and welcomed as Rector of Rathmichael, adjacent to Shankill in the Diocese of Dublin, where he served as incumbent from 1976 -1992, until he memorably became Vice-Principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College and a Canon of Christ Church Cathedral Dublin, retiring in 2002. In the College he taught both theology and liturgy, and his book “Scripture, Tradition and Reason” is largely based upon his much appreciated theology lectures. His lectures on liturgy were equally good, and, if I may be permitted a personal note, I was delighted that he commended my own comprehensive liturgy notes, rewritten to cover the 2004 Prayer Book. Billy also very kindly wrote a foreword to my more recent “The Theology of the Eucharist from a Church of Ireland Perspective” and this was all the more appreciated since his sight...
