The Church of England mourns the loss of Sir Derek Pattinson, who died, aged 76, on Tuesday, October 10. As Associate Secretary General, he helped to see into being the General Synod of the Church of England in 1970 and served as its Secretary General from 1972 to 1990.
William Derek Pattinson was born in Cumbria in 1930, the only child of Thomas and Elizabeth Pattinson. He was educated at Whitehaven Grammar School and The Queen's College, Oxford, and entered the Home Civil Service working in the Inland Revenue and in the Treasury Office.
In his spare time, Derek was much involved with the Church. He was asked to serve as a member of the Chadwick Church and State Commission, 1966-70, where he took a vigorous and radical line. This brought him to the attention of those seeking a successor to Sir John Guillum Scott, then Secretary to the Church Assembly. In 1970, the General Synod was to replace the Church Assembly and a dynamic Secretary General was needed. Pattinson was asked to apply and was appointed, taking over from Sir John in 1972.
High profile debates took place in the Pattinson years - on a possible Anglican/Methodist Reunion, the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission statements, the televised Ban the Bomb debate and debates on women and the priesthood. The visit of the Pope to the UK gave Pattinson the excuse to show his flair; a special train was commissioned to transport the whole membership of the Synod to Canterbury for the great service of thanksgiving and reconciliation.
The 1970s and early '80s were a significant time of legislative reform and development, including the Endowment and Glebe Measure, the Vacation of Benefices Measure, the Worship and Doctrine Measure, the Patronage (Benefices) Measure, the Dioceses Measure, and legislation concerning the care of churches, cathedrals, and parochial registers and records, as well as the legislation that gave birth to the Diocese in Europe. In addition, liturgical reform was a dominant theme in the Synod's agenda, culminating in the Alternative Service Book 1980.
On retirement as Secretary General, Pattinson was knighted and then tested his vocation to the priesthood. He was ordained priest in 1992, serving in the Parish of St Gabriel, Pimlico.
Derek Pattinson was a liveryman of the Woolmen's Company and a member of the Parish Clerks Company, of which he was Master in 1986.
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