Funeral address for Tom Hornsby |
Psalm XLVI Be still then and know that I am God.
Even so Lord Jesus show us the Father. Amen.
Shortly before he died Tom had a dream about this service, his own funeral. He dreamt who would be here and such is the love he inspired, you are.
As we come together, however, it is still hard to take in that Tom, while with us in spirit, is not with us in the way he used to be - enthusing us, touching us with his own warmth and humanity; dazzling us with his inimitable taste in ties. The tears of Jesus Christ over his friend Lazarus show the response that is natural. Christ blesses our tears at such a time, they are a gift.
But what a legacy, what a hope and more he has left to us.
Tom was conceived in Newcastle and Neil will speak about his father’s passionate love for the City and its Cathedral. Conceived then in Newcastle but he was a cradle Londoner, born in June 1946 at a time of privation and post war gloom. Rationing was actually tightened in that year and the Ministry of Food helpfully circulated a recipe for Squirrel Pie.
Tom’s life coincided with a period of profound struggle in the outer world of politics and history in which friend and foe were sharply distinguished in the Cold War and we travelled a long way in trying to build a material heaven on earth. I only make that historical comment to illuminate the contrasting quality and depth of Tom’s work and legacy.
This church meant a great deal to Tom and the family. He was churchwarden of St Mary’s and in the 1970’s he designed the neighbourhood centre as a place for embracing the busy life of Upper Street and Islington.
For the builders of the old temple it was necessary to leave the world to find a sacred space. The old temple divided the world into the holy part which was enclosed inside while the profane part was left outside. The words pro fanum literally mean “outside the temple”.
Jesus broke down the middle wall of partition and Tom as an architect designed buildings which were full of invitation. They are meant to reach out and embrace people. At a time when religious people are sometimes too certain that they know who is in and who is out, Tom’s work and spirit points beyond all that to a mature faith in which what is labelled secular becomes sacred and is embraced by the Temple. All the world is supernatural for those with the eyes to see. Be still then and know that I am God.
I first got to know Tom when he was working on the church of St John’s Brownswood Park. We had huge fun designing the consecration service full of colour, symbol, celebration and even naughty incense made according to legend from trees whose seeds Adam and Eve had smuggled out of the Paradise Garden. It is ironic that when the script in the outer world is focussed on decline and church closures, in the real spiritual world, Tom has been designing new churches and renovating old ones for new endeavours. Delight and care were the hall marks of his work at St John’s. The truth is that he was a priest/architect
Another continuing theme was his concern for and ability to connect with young people. Here at St Mary’s he ran a youth group. I frequently encounter people whose lives were enriched by the experience of that group during those years. He was involved in the movement to establish foyers, paces of welcome and hospitality for young people throughout Europe. It was a movement which once again unites good design with a human and spiritual purpose.
Neil will speak about Tom as a father and grandfather but my own children also love Tom not least as the architect of perhaps the only tree house in the City of London which formed a part of the restoration of the Old Deanery for residential use after a spell as a bank. He took infinite pains and the See Library is full of meticulous plans which combine a love of the building which went beyond mere antiquarian interest and which also had sympathy for four young children living in such an environment. He never pooh poohed their hopes of at last finding secret tunnels.
Then of course there is the church in Doha, Qatar’s first Christian Centre since the 7th century. Tom was born on the festival of St Anthony of Padua who had followed the example of his mentor Francis in travelling across the sea to enter into dialogue with Muslims. The Doha Centre is to be an Oasis of welcome, hospitality and dialogue and the proposed Church of the Epiphany is to be a home for the body of Christ active as a Community. Hospitality was a great theme in Tom and Tricia’s life together. Their home is a true oasis and Doha is to be an oasis of hospitality robed in stone.
The world in which friends and foes are sharply distinguished and where we have attempted to build a material heaven on earth is facing a huge challenge which it cannot meet from its own resources. Tom has not only worked to transcend the divisions between people but also to open up the world to a richer way of seeing.
Epiphany is the festival of manifestation, of seeing the God who, while as St John says “no one has seen him at any time” yet in Jesus Christ we can see his human face. He has become accessible. In the church of the Epiphany his spirit will be visible in flesh and blood, stone and glass. It was hugely symbolic that Tom was able to attend the launch of the appeal for the Doha vision at Lambeth Palace in October.
Tom was able to open us up to a richer way of seeing because he personally lived beyond the horizon and never developed the small calculating mind which is typical of the earthbound. By contrast, he had grown into the beginner’s mind. The beginner’s mind is a state very different from that of the naïve person. Being naïve is a state in which we think that we know but in reality we do not. The beginner’s mind sees the darkness and the light and does not rush to judgement because darkness and light belong together and so do death and life.
After Tom was diagnosed with his cancer one of his dearest friends said, “He is a Christian and has been preparing for this all his life”.
Much religion is very dangerous because it is full of illusion and naivety. What we call God is too often the surreptitious way in which our bruised ego re-emerges and re-establishes itself. Rather “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. Jesus teaches us that the first step in becoming human is to refuse to be a little god, to be close to the humus, humble and willing to be taught by “what is” - even death. That is why Jesus refused the offer of drugged wine on the cross. If we follow in this way, as I believe Tom did, then we come to share the beginner’s mind and spirit which can see the wonder of life and invite the people who work from fear and self protection to find their true freedom and fulfilment.
Tom’s closest partner in this journey over the past years has been Tricia. Everyone here is grateful for their partnership. We have received much from them and surround her with Neil, Mel and Harry with our love and prayers, we surround them and give thanks for them today, we shall give thanks in the years to come but above all we shall bless them at our own Epiphany times.
The great struggles in life have an apparent variety but they share in reality a similar underlying pattern. There is always the struggle between love and fear; love and illusion; love and self protection. In the power of Jesus Christ and his cross Tom was a victor in those struggles. It is significant that whilst so often the hospital rings to ask the family to come; on this occasion Tom issued the invitation and the family gathered around him. I hope that encouraged by him we shall all be able to say as he did, “I love you” when we die.
In our first lesson Nehemiah, intent on restoring the waste places and the temple of Jerusalem says “Let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river”. Those letters have been written and sent with Tom as he goes before us, the letters are in the form, of the work he has done and the love he has shown.
There is a fear of death which comes from never having lived yet. But once we have touched the mystery of life and see the life which flows through the very core of our being inviting us to the Epiphany festival of true seeing beyond the constraints of this level of being, then we do not fear. Rather we are given the strength to embrace death like St Francis who said “welcome sister death”.
There is a terror in losing what we have never found but if we have touched the real, the good, the true and the beautiful which is of course what we are created for then we are filled with hope and look forward to seeing behind the veil at Epiphany. It is in this faith that we believe he lived by and in which he dwells that we pray - Rest eternal grant unto him O Lord and let light perpetual shine upon him.
