Vale Davis McCaughey AC

The death of the Reverend Dr Davis McCaughey in March 2005 touched countless people across Victoria and beyond.

At the densely packed thanksgiving service for his life, at St Michael's Church in the City of Melbourne, this gentle man's commitment to ecumenical dialogue, and particularly interfaith dialogue, was highlighted.

Noting first his achievements in the World Students' Christian Federation and the formation of the World Council of Churches, a longtime friend and colleague, the Reverend Dr Harry Wardlaw, stressed Dr McCaughey's achievements in Australia.

Not only did he draw Christians of different denominations together, but through the Council of Christians and Jews 'he brought together people of these two great traditions of faith', Dr Wardlaw said. 'In all these things, he displayed his great longing to bring unity into a sadly divided world.

'When I thought about the contribution he made to developing the life of Ormond College to which he had come as professor of New Testament studies, and which he went on to serve as Master of the College, and of his contribution to the academic life, both in theological studies and in the wider life of our universities, his contribution to discussions of medical ethics in the modern world and his creative contributions to developing the role of Governor in our State polity, I began to recognise just how much we had to thank him for.'

Davis McCaughey, nevertheless, had always insisted that a Christian funeral was a place in which one heard the Word of the Lord, not the words of mourners or of the admirers of the one who had died.'His life found its focus and its integrity in Jesus Christ, and this provided a foundation for his constant struggle to discover and speak the truth in a spirit of love,' Dr Wardlaw continued.

'And he did struggle, more I think than many of his friends realised, as he sought to achieve that integrity, that fullness of humanity measured by the measure of the fullness of Jesus Christ, as offered in the first Letter to the Ephesians. 'Even those of us who are not Christians – Jews or Moslems or secular humanists – may all respond in their different ways to the call to maintain the truth in a spirit of love.

'There was nothing exclusive about the faith of Davis McCaughey,' he added.'He had an expansive and inclusive view of human culture, knowing better than many of his colleagues that theological affirmation depends on the free flow of the human imagination.

'Davis understood well the old Hebrew story of Jacob wrestling through the night with an unknown assailant from whom he sought to wrest a blessing..For Davis, the outcome of such a wrestling match was not likely to be expressed in some newly formulated doctrine; it was more likely to come as a cry, an affirmation of faith in the divine name.'

The personal qualities of Davis McCaughey were certainly at the centre of the mourners' thanksgiving; his unfailing courtesy, the warmth of his hospitality, his ready wit and his amazing capacity for coining an apt phrase

'Nowhere, however, was his building up a community of true humanity more fully, more impressively, more perfectly manifest than in the family that he and his wife Jean brought to maturity,' Dr Wardlaw added.

'There at this center of Davis's life one sees the integrity of truth and love that the writer of the Letter to the Ephesians is commending to us all.'

Dr McCaughey's colleague, the Irish-born Revd Dr Robin Boyd, read a prayer of thanksgiving that covered every aspect of his friend's rich life. His last words emphasised the deep and lasting friendships he made outside the Christian community. In these, Dr Boyd offered thanks for his friend's especial commitment to Jewish-Christian relations.

The service concluded with the Revd Dr Robert Anderson offering the Aaronic blessing in both Hebrew and English.