Sir Fred Catherwood (1925-2014) - Legacy of a Life Well Lived

Today (4^th December) The Times newspaper carried an extensive obituary to Sir Fred Catherwood, the Northern Irish born former politician and industrialist who died on 30^th November at the age of 89. A similarly detailed obituary was carried earlier in the week in The Guardian. Both pieces trace the life and career of a one-time prominent public figure who in decades spanning the 1960s-90s served in roles including Director General of the British Overseas Trade Board, Chairman of the British Institute of Management and Vice President of the European Parliament.

Throughout his adult life Fred Catherwood was a committed Christian. On first view this was not unusual for a man of his generation, and yet what is striking is the complete way in which he sought to integrate his commitment to God’s word and to the world in which he lived and worked.

The late Dr John Stott (a friend and contemporary of Catherwood's) had talked in the 1960s about how evangelical Christians tended to live their lives in ‘evangelical ghettos’. Often Bible believing Christians were comfortable, and confident in church, but awkward or unthinking in relating what the Bible said to so called ‘secular issues’ such as work, politics, social issues and community life. These issues came to the fore at a major gathering of evangelical Christian leaders in Keele in 1967.

Timothy Dudley-Smith (biographer of John Stott) describes Keele as  signalling a ‘change of direction’ for British evangelicals in that it affirmed the importance and urgency of secular engagement; calling Bible believing Christians to face out into contemporary society with both humility and confidence.

Two years after Keele, Catherwood and Stott co-founded what was to be known as ‘The Shaftesbury Project’ a resource centre and think tank designed to equip Christians to apply the Bible to an emerging range of social and current issues.

A number of things are striking about Sir Fred Catherwood’s legacy.

Firstly – the need for prayerful encouragers in the life of the church. Evangelical historian Brian Stanley in his book The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism explains how in the late 1940s the then General Director of Scripture Union John Laird compiled a list of ‘Blokes Worth Watching’ – young Christians in whom he saw the necessary gifts for future leadership. Laird set out to pray for and encourage these younger Christians, who included Fred Catherwood, John Stott and Michael Griffiths (a later general director of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship).

A second aspect of Catherwood’s legacy is how it points to the need for a new confidence in the person of Jesus Christ as we face out in to an increasingly secular society. In any generation it is easy for Bible believing Christians to feel both under pressure and overwhelmed by the world around them. In a 1979 book First Things First Catherwood explored the relevance of the Bible to a range of social and public issues. This thoughtful and well-reasoned book concluded with a chapter that focused on the authority of the crucified, risen and returning, Jesus Christ. The book finished with Peter’s words to Jesus ‘You have the words of eternal life.’ Faith in Christ, Catherwood argued, compels the Christian to step out and to engage with a lost and fragmented world.

A third, and final strand, of Catherwood’s legacy is its insistence for rediscovering humility as the key to how Christians seek to influence and change the world around them. In a 1997 book Jobs and Justice, Homes and Hope Sir Fred argued that the New Testament church earned the right to influence and challenge society ‘from the neighbourhood up’. It was because the early Christians were genuinely concerned for the needs of their neighbours that they were able to point their neighbours to Jesus Christ as the hope of the world. Christian influence, Catherwood argued, cannot be imposed on others by a ‘moral majority’ rather he wrote: ‘The early church were people who ‘turned the world upside down’, and if we want to have the same impact, we will do it in the same way by caring for our neighbours in need.’

One contemporary Christian leader, speaking this week, described Sir Fred Catherwood as ‘a great Northern Irish export.’ The richness of his legacy reminds us that there is indeed much to be thankful for as we reflect upon, and learn from, such a life.