The Late Lady Runcie - Tribute from the Bishop of St Albans
The death of Lady Runcie, widow of the late Lord Runcie, former Archbishop of Canterbury and former Bishop of this Diocese has been announced.
The Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Revd Dr Alan Smith, paid the following tribute to Lady Runcie on hearing the news:
“Lady Runcie was enormous fun, with a fund of stories and anecdotes. Playing piano duets with Lindy was one of the unexpected bonuses of coming to the Diocese of St Albans. I also discovered the extent of the network of her friendships one evening when she came to dinner. Not only did she already know most of my guests, but she even knew the Italian Archbishop who had flown in that morning and was staying with me.
“Despite living in the grandeur of Lambeth Palace and mixing with the great and the good, she was allergic to pretension and pomposity. She kept her feet firmly on the ground, saying that one of the gifts of teaching children to play the piano is that they were not interested in who she was, just whether she could teach well.
“Her wide circle will miss her and her zest for life.”
The late Rt Revd Lord Runcie was Bishop of St Albans from 1970 to 1980.
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