Faith Bowers: 1939-2025 

'It is hard to determine the depths of the multi-faceted service Faith has rendered to British Baptists... as we mourn her passing and we give thanks for such a rich and generous life'  

World War II found Faith evacuated from Croydon to Stroud in Gloucestershire where early contact was made with the Baptist church. This began a life which orbited around various organisations beginning with the letter B: BSF, BHS, BU [and LBA], and BWA, but to state things as baldly as that, would be to take too administrative a view of affairs, for all these organisations basically offered networks of service and friendship.

In true Baptist fashion Faith started with the local –Bloomsbury Baptist Church, – moving through association to national and then international bodies, progressing from service to the Baptist denomination to wider ecumenical relationships.

The Baptist Student Federation was an organisation where many later denominational leaders found their Baptist vocation, very often with personal encouragement from Ernest Payne. The relevance of this here is that it was in the John Clifford Society that Faith, the Latinist, and Brian, the electrical engineer, first met, and developed friendship that blossomed into a marriage that over more than 60 years has given magnificent service to the denomination.

Within the Baptist Historical Society Faith was soon found recording its affairs as minute secretary, progressing to becoming de facto its publications officer seeing an array of important publications through the press. In 1985 she became subeditor of the Baptist Quarterly when John Briggs became its editor. Together, they ensured that it became the journal of preference for Baptist scholarship from all round the world. Unlike some other editorial teams they did not readily reject material that was not quite right, but rather worked with authors until their works were publishable.

Added to work on the journal Faith, with meticulous care, saw all the society’s major publications through the press from receipt of manuscript through to finished volume. In one particular case, Bernard Green’s unfinished manuscript on Baptists and the Third Reich involved Faith and John undertaking additional research and the writing of chapters for which Bernard still only had scattered notes, a task he was anxious for them to undertake.
 
For many years Faith and I met on the Baptist Union Council, often sharing judgements on the business in hand. Within the life of the Union, Faith and Brian, with the assistance of Richard, played a leading part in creating the excitingly inclusive work of the Baptist Union Initiative for those with Learning Disabilities (BUILD) with its pioneering work in creating a more inclusive church for those with Learning Disabilities. This later led Faith to share her insights ecumenically, and was delighted when a Roman Catholic priest confessed to her that in this work ‘We have the same aim: to help them know Jesus loves them.’ This pioneering work Faith recorded in many a mould-breaking article and an array of influential books.

Faith too played a major part in developing the denomination’s ecumenical engagement with others as a Baptist Union representative on the British Council of Churches at a time, 1987-90, when new ecumenical instruments, particularly Churches Together in England, were being planned, which it was hoped would widen the sharing of commitments with both the Roman Catholic Church and more conservative evangelical groups.

She later served as the secretary of the Union’s Doctrine and Worship Committee from 1992-2003, and was a Baptist representative on Churches Together in England’s Theology and Unity Group which involved some writing explaining Baptist ecclesiology to our ecumenical partners.

In due course Faith’s Baptist commitment was internationalised, with service on the History and Heritage Commission of the Baptist World Alliance from 1990 where careful study of the Baptist heritage protected Baptist concepts of the gathered church from some newer emphases that put such understandings at risk. Faith, Brian and Richard became well-loved members of the History and Heritage group and the Bowers’ home became a place of pilgrimage for many international Baptists visiting the UK.

Faith has served historical scholarship well with her own writing, especially her model history of Bloomsbury, and her articles in the Baptist Quarterly, some written jointly with Brian.  Most recently a joint effort has been the producing of a digital version of Geoffrey Breed’s several indices of biographical information on Baptist ministers.

Faith shared my own historical interests, believing that the theology of the priesthood of all believers should shine through in the way we did history. Up to the present, ministers have been easy to trace because there has been an annual collection of obituaries, though this is becoming rather less predictable – not so the laity, for them what happens after the benediction, as they disperse into the world to undertake their daily work, needs much greater research.

Another contribution to Baptist historiography has been her editing [with Joe Kapolyo and Israel Olofinjana] of Encountering London: London Baptists in the 21st Century [London Baptist Association] in which she appears not only as editor and author but, with her long and loyal service of the Association, as a key part of the story itself. Her last publication was her editing of husband Brian’s autobiography, A Happy Life, the autobiography of Brian Bowers, published last year.
 
It was natural that Faith would be a strong supporter of the role of women in the denomination, both lay and ordained, indeed the contribution of those who were not in ordained ministry was exemplified in the lives of Faith and Brian. The Quarterly has published Faith’s ‘For God and the People: Baptist Deaconesses 1901-1905′ (2010) and ‘Liberating Women for Baptist Ministry’ (2014). In the same period, she wrote ‘Prophets and Pietists: Differing Faces of Baptist Identity’ in Anthony R. Cross and Ruth Gouldbourne (eds.) Questions of Identity: Essays in Honour of Brian Haymes (2011). Put together Faith’s written contributions to Baptist life and heritage would be worthy of a doctorate on publications. The Baptist Historical Society did the next best thing when it elected Faith as one of its Vice Presidents.
 
At the centre of all this was personal faith, church membership and family. The delicacy of Brian’s health was well-recognised before Faith and Brian became engaged, and, though a matter of serious concern, was well managed until his final years.  Giving birth to a son with Down's syndrome in 1969 added another dimension to the Bowers story, leading Faith into pioneering endeavours to make the church more welcoming and inclusive of those with learning difficulties.

Accordingly, while not ignoring the contribution of older son, Keith, and his family, the Bowers story cannot be written without frequent reference to Richard who once needed special care and education, but who for a number of years has himself become Faith’s major carer. For many years as a member of Bloomsbury he was conspicuous for extending the church’s welcome to strangers and newcomers. Working for a more inclusive church is attractively told by Faith in When Weak, then Strong: Disability in the Life of the Church (2008).
 
In later years, no longer able to travel into central London, Faith made a notable Baptist contribution to the life and worship of the parish church in Worcester Park, a contribution which has continued after her movement to north Kent.
 
Whilst spending many hours recording the contribution made by others to the mission and ministry of Christ’s church, Faith herself has made her mark as a vital part of that story. Indeed, it is hard to determine the depths of the multi-faceted service Faith has rendered to British Baptists but we want here to recognise the immense debt we owe her.

Many of us who worked with her and many more, both in this country and the wider Baptist family, who gained great benefit from all that she did, will want to join with her family, as we mourn her passing and give thanks for such a rich and generous life.    
 

J H Y Briggs

 
 
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