Lord Runcie, who preceded Dr George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1980 to 1991, died at his home in St Albans on Tuesday evening aged 78. He had for some years been suffering from prostate cancer. Dr Robert Runcie's years at Lambeth Palace coincided with Margaret Thatcher's tenure at Westminster across the Thames.
It was a period when the Church of England and the other churches were seen as providing the intellectually coherent opposition that many thought the imposition of free-market economics demanded.
Most notably he commissioned the controversial report Faith in the City, which in 1985 was leaked to the press before publication by a government source which was thus able to rubbish it in advance as Marxist theology. It drew attention to the poverty and deprivation of inner city areas and of the concrete jungle estates into which former slums had been decanted, and pointed out sharply that alleviating these problems could not be left to wealth trickling down from those becoming steadily wealthier.
Dr Runcie, who served as a tank commander in the Scots Guards during the second World War and was awarded the MC for rescuing one of his men from a burning tank, was even criticised by government sources for refusing to adopt a triumphalist tone at the service in St Paul's to mark the conclusion of the Falklands War in 1982. He insisted on remembering in prayer the families of all killed in that conflict, whether in Britain or Argentina.
One of the highlights of his term at Canterbury was earlier in 1982 when he was able to welcome Pope John Paul II to his cathedral, and the two knelt side by side in prayer at the spot where Thomas Becket was martyred in 1170. At that meeting the two signed the common declaration committing the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion to continuing along the road to unity.
In a tribute to his predecessor, Dr Carey praised his outstanding contributions to the life of the church and the nation. He added that Dr Runcie's fight against cancer had been waged "with such cheerfulness while maintaining a full diary that few were aware of the battle being waged".
The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, who was appointed by Dr Runcie as chairman of his commission on women's ordination, described him last night as a "dedicated and faithful servant of God. He had the great ability to listen and speak to people of every background. I came to see the strength of his character as he tackled the possible splits over women's ordination and the nature of authority in Anglicanism. I came to appreciate his intellectual gifts, his humour, and his remarkable memory of names and faces."
The Archbishop of Westminster, Dr Murphy-O'Connor, recalled the "very warm personal relationship" he had had with Dr Runcie and paid tribute to his deep commitment to Christian unity. "I was particularly moved that, though ill, he insisted on attending my recent installation."