The Right Reverend Derek Rawcliffe
The Right Reverend Derek Rawcliffe, who has died aged 89. was Bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church's diocese of Glasgow and Galloway from 1981-91 and before that spent more than 30 years in Melanesia, becoming the first Bishop of the New Hebrides, now Vanuatu, in 1975.
None of this excited any great interest, though his devoted work in the islands of the Pacific earned him an OBE in 1971. But in March 1995, when he was four years into his Yorkshire retirement, he created a stir by revealing in the course of a television programme that he was homosexual – the first Church of England bishop to be open about his homosexuality. Moreover, when he was 50 he had fallen in love with a young Melanesian man and come to believe that his homosexuality was "a gift from God".
None the less, four years later, in 1977 he had married Susan Speight who had been a teacher of ballet and domestic science but was then confined to a wheelchair, the result of diabetic neuropathy. Although much the younger of the two, she was thought to be close to death, but as a result of a shared mystical experience she had a remission and lived for another 12 years. After her death he realised "I was still gay, always had been".
In August 1995 Rawcliffe caused further controversy by writing to Gay Times urging that the age of consent for homosexual relations should be reduced to 14: "I had my first relationship when I was 14 with a man 10 years my senior. I knew what I was doing and gave my consent".
At the time of these revelations Rawcliffe was an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Ripon and initially the Bishop of Ripon, David Young, responded simply by ceasing to invite him to carry out any episcopal functions. But when it became evident in October 1996 that Rawcliffe had held a service of blessing in a hotel for the "marriage" of two men – something he had, it turned out, been doing regularly for the previous five years – Bishop Young withdrew his commission to perform Confirmations and other duties. He was left free to minister as a priest.
Derek Alec Rawcliffe, the son of a tobacconist, was born in Manchester on July 8 1921. When the family moved to Gloucester he attended Sir Thomas Rich's School and also the cathedral to which he was attracted by the music. By the time he was 17 he felt drawn to Holy Orders and went to Leeds University where he took a First in English. He then completed his preparation for ordination at the nearby monastic College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, and from 1944-47 was a curate at St George's Church, Claines, in Worcester.
Rawcliffe then offered for service overseas and became assistant master at All Hallows School, Pawa, in the Solomon Islands. There he displayed considerable teaching ability and was appointed headmaster in 1953.
After three years in this post he moved to become headmaster of St. Mary's School, Maravovo, also in the Solomon Islands, but in 1959 he was made Archdeacon of Southern Melanesia. Based on Lolowai, he spent the next 15 years travelling extensively to minister in the New Hebrides and to the islands of Banks and Torres.
Most of the other clergy were now indigenous and Rawcliffe proved to be an effective leader, identifying with the local culture to the extent of becoming a noted grass skirt dancer. In 1974 he became Assistant Bishop of Melanesia in preparation for appointment in the following year as the first Bishop of the newly-created Diocese of the New Hebrides.
His skills with grass skirt dancing were now augmented by a gift for healing, again related to local culture, and it was this that first brought him into contact with the invalid Susan Speight. Rawcliffe played a vital part in the building up of the new diocese, which was renamed Vanuatu after the granting of political independence in 1980, and prepared the way for the appointment of an indigenous successor.
His unexpected appointment as Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway in 1981 owed everything to the vagaries of the Scottish Episcopal Church's method of electing bishops. When in 1980 a successor to Bishop Frederick Goldies was required, the electoral college could not reach agreement until someone suggested a candidate from the distant South Pacific. Being quite unknown to the electors, but said to have unusual pastoral skills allied to a charismatic personality, Rawcliffe was chosen.
In the event his particular gifts did not travel well. The problems facing the church in Glasgow were not those of remote Pacific islands and, although the new Bishop's pastoral skills were much valued, his organisational ability was limited. The diocese had a bumpy ride during the 1980s.
Radcliffe's homosexual inclinations were not at this stage widely advertised – indeed, they were strongly denied – but there was growing unease in the diocese over the importing of clergy who appeared to share them. It was not until after his retirement to Leeds and his close association with the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement that his own orientation was disclosed.
Release from episcopal duties led to the late flowering of his not inconsiderable literary gifts and between 2000 and 2005 he published three books and four volumes of poems. He was also active in Leeds in the welfare of asylum seekers and the poor, and on the day before his death on February 1 read the Lesson at a church service. Since 1947 he had been an oblate of the Anglican Order of St Benedict.