Lord Coggan, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who died on May 17th aged 90, was (until George Carey) the first 20th-century Cantuar who enjoyed, or suffered, the label of being an evangelical. He was also one of the most sagacious, uncompromising and punctilious archbishops of all-England, a quiet-mannered family man who wore the purple amethyst on his ring finger humbly.
His primacy, from 1974 to 1980, although comparatively short in years, revived the morale of the Church of England. He gave new impetus within the worldwide Anglican Communion; initiated vigorous attempts to unify, or at least bring closer together, churches of different confessions; and made a series of bold, if sometimes naive, attempts to evangelise England.
In April, 1975, he visited Ireland, as he said, to bring what encouragement he could to the people and to the church leaders who were working for peace and reconciliation.
He praised the initiative of the Protestant churchmen who had met leaders of the Provisional IRA in Feakle, Co Clare, the previous year and which resulted in a short-lived ceasefire. "Nothing is gained by silence," he said. He did not think that anyone was too bad to talk to.
He was also impressed by how much the churches were doing to promote reconciliation in the North, particularly the work of the Corrymeela Community and little groups "where the barriers are transcended".
It was a clergyman's duty to bring love and understanding to the people, he told a press conference at the end of his three-day visit to Northern Ireland. Referring to the Rev Ian Paisley, he said: "Anybody who tends to whip-up hatred doesn't help the situation." Love should replace hatred, he said. "It does not seem that is the effect of Mr Paisley's labours," he commented. "If you have two so-called religious people at loggerheads, it shows that they are not close to the Lord."
In Dublin, where he preached in St Patrick's Cathedral and met President Cearbhall O Dalaigh, he said people should work actively, by prayer and other means, in helping the organisations promoting peace.
His primacy was a turning point for the Anglican Communion. A Lambeth conference, the gathering of the communion's bishops every 10 years, was due. An indefatigable host, he broke with precedent and led the spiritual elders into secret conclave on a Canterbury hilltop - up till then they had met in London and in public. Real and deep anxieties were aired.
If his time on the throne of St Augustine had a flaw, it was simply that he often seemed to be an archbishop in a hurry. Certainly, his translation from the archbishopric of York had left him with little time. He was also obviously - and early - influenced by what he saw of the world. Even then, it seemed to many to be rushing to the point of exhaustion, weighed down by over-population and depleting natural resources, and failing to bridge the gap between the rich and poor.
He had an ecclesiastical courage which owed nothing to naivety. In 1977, for example, on the Pope's own patch in Rome, he jettisoned all diplomacy and called for inter-communion between the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. His plea was uncharacteristically spectacular.
He was a strong - and early - supporter of the ordination of women; indeed, he proposed the reform at the Lambeth conference in 1970. Reaching out to other faiths, he will also be remembered for his support for the Council of Christians and Jews.
Donald Coggan was born in Highgate, north London, educated at Merchant Taylors' school, Northwood, Middlesex, and St John's College, Cambridge, and was in his mid-teens when the call to be ordained came to him.
Ordained into the priesthood in 1935 - the same year that he married - his first curacy, at St Mary's, Islington, had a moving effect on him. He always maintained that he learned much, both of life itself and of the meaning of ministry, during his three years amid the poverty, unemployment and inadequate housing of that part of inner north London in those pre-war days.
He went to Canada in 1937 as professor of New Testament at Wycliffe College, Toronto. He returned to England in 1944 as principal of the London College of Divinity, and stayed for 12 strenuous years to re-establish the status, as well as the buildings, of the famous evangelical college. In 1956, he was appointed bishop of Bradford. He was enthroned as archbishop of York in 1961, and completed 18 creative years before his translation to Canterbury. He retired in 1980, when he was made a life peer, surrounded by honour and affection.
In the years between 1944 and 1997, he had also found time to write more than 20 books, ranging from studies in theology to evangelical tracts and biographies of the saints. His last book, Meet Paul: An Encounter With The Apostle, was published in 1997.
Throughout his primacy, his wholesome humanity ran like a golden thread from start to finish of his ministry. "The joy of being a priest," he once said, "is that your work never ends until they carry you out. Then another begins - that's elsewhere."
He is survived by his wife, Jean, and two daughters, Ruth and Anne.
The Right Rev Dr (Frederick) Donald Coggan, Lord Coggan of Canterbury and Sissinghurst: born 1909; died, May 2000