Stewart Downey (1991-2006)
In March 1991 J. Stewart Downey (b 1938) arrived with his wife Beryl and their family to become the ninth Vicar of Christ Church. Following the departure of John Short, the PCC had taken the significant step of deciding that one of the two representatives that it elected to oversee the appointment of the new vicar should be a woman. Doreen Seward was Vice Chair of the PCC and accepted this role alongside then Churchwarden, John Henson. With the backing of the PCC, the pair decided that appointing a church leader with outstanding pastoral gifts was a priority.
With his Northern Irish accent and mischievous sense of humour, Stewart Downey swiftly brought a different atmosphere to Christ Church. He immediately began visiting members of Christ Church in their homes and encouraged his clergy colleagues to do the same.
A feature of Stewart’s ministry that increasingly emerged during his time at Christ Church was his strong desire to make the church more accessible to outsiders (usually described by him as ‘pagans’).
Another noteworthy feature of his ministry at Christ Church was his great enthusiasm for welcoming and integrating Koreans into Christ Church (see also Life at Christ Church: 1991-2006).
The photo below shows Stewart at his 65th birthday party in 2003, in conversation with Sarah Parker and Stephen Kuhrt.
The Resignation of Stewart Downey
In 2006 Stewart Downey announced that he would be retiring. He was 67 and had been Vicar of New Malden and Coombe for fifteen years. At the time, this was the third longest tenure in the church’s history following the twenty seven years and eight month tenures of the first two vicars, Charles Stirling (1865-1892) and William Allen Challacombe (1893-1920). On the day he announced his retirement, Stewart noted that he was younger than Llewellyn Roberts, the sixth vicar of the parish between 1958 and 1968, had been when he arrived!
His final Sunday at Christ Church was in April 2006. At the beginning of the 10.45 am service, Stephen Kuhrt expressed his concern that Stewart might choose to preach his final sermon on Genesis 22.5: ‘Abide ye here with the ass and I will go yonder’! Instead, Stewart preached on the conversion of the Roman Centurion Cornelius in Acts 10-11 and the way that Peter was compelled to reevaluate his theological position in the light of what God was clearly doing amongst the Gentiles. ‘Perhaps as we face the challenge of Christian mission and ministry in the twenty first century and recognise the fresh things that God is doing’, Stewart declared, ‘we too need to change our theology’.
Following his retirement, Stewart took a ‘house for duty’ post living for a number of years in a vicarage annex at St Paul’s, Kingston Hill in return for stints of part time ministry in Bermondsey and then Surbiton. Stewart and Beryl Downey always retained a great love for the northeast of England, from where Beryl had originated, and so it was no surprise when they fully retired to Newcastle in 2018.
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John Short | Building CCNM 1991-2006 | Stephen Kuhrt |  |
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