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FUNERAL OF STEPHEN BRANDON QC
Peterborough Cathedral
Monday March 9th 2015
Lord Carey
‘Who will separate us from the Love of God?’
We gather in this magnificent Cathedral to
remember Stephen Brandon, to celebrate his
remarkable life and to place him in the care of
his loving heavenly Father. And our first
thoughts are for Beatrice and Bella and other
members of the family who feel the impact of
loss and separation most keenly.
Separation is a hard and ugly word and we feel
the keenness of the word most particularly
when death happens. We know that death
cannot be avoided, and the grim reaper will
catch up with all of us one day. But it is when
death comes to someone in his prime, and at
the height of his powers, that death is most
unwelcome, dashing our hopes and dreams.
We need to recall at a time like today that the
only recorded mention of Jesus weeping was
at news of the death of a friend. It is right to
grieve in different ways the passing of a greatly
respected and loved man. I am always moved
when I go to St.Thomas’s Church in Fifth
Avenue, NY to see the words offered by our
Queen following 9-1. She sent this message to
New York: ‘Grief is the price we pay for love’.
So it is.
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But the apostle says to us a beautiful thing:
‘Nothing can separate us from the love of God
which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.’ And that
promise applies particularly to those whose
service to humanity and to their Lord has been
as unswerving and as dedicated as Stephen’s
has been.
The last nine months or so have been for
Stephen – and in different ways for Beatrice
and Bella – a long, slow and at times a very
painful and debilitating death. But it has also
been a dignified, holy and deeply Christian
death as Stephen accepted the fact of dying
and prepared for it, quietly and calmly to meet
his Lord and Saviour. The care for him has
been magnificent and on behalf of Beatrice
and Bella our gratitude goes Thorpe Hall and
all specialists, doctors, nurses, chaplains and
others who in different ways ministered to
Stephen’s needs.
But what a wonderful journey it has been! In
human terms, a career of success and service;
of fulfillment and faithful dedication to a
career in law, become an outstanding
barrister. But his journey had humble
beginnings; born and brought up in Bolton. A
bright boy, he did very well at school and went
on to Nottingham University to read law and
then to Cambridge to complete a Masters. He
and Beatrice met during his pupillage in 1981
and married in 1982. It has been a very
happy marriage in which Stephen and Beatrice
have supported one another in their different
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careers, and the family enriched and blessed
through the gift of their daughter, Bella.
Stephen then joined his set of Chambers that
year and remained there until his death,
becoming Head of Chambers in 2007 and
serving with distinction. One of his colleagues
described him as one of the most respected
men in his field, and absolutely superb in
court. Robert Venables QC, his colleague and
friend who read the epistle earlier, told me that
when Stephen applied to take silk twenty or so
years ago the Lord Chancellor needed no
persuasion that he should be granted it
immediately, because of his outstanding
practice as a junior which had impressed
those much older than he. He took on eminent
cases at the Revenue Bar. I spoke to Stephen
often about the case with the Government of
Uganda. Last year he successfully negotiated a
$180 million dollar settlement for Tullow Oil
against that government without, in Robert’s
words, ‘being fed to the crocodiles in Lake
Victoria’. There were other prominent cases
that we have no time to mention, but in all of
them, his counsel was respected and followed.
Stephen had an amazing mind, shrewd and
sharp, critical and careful. As a result he was
greatly respected by his legal peers and, sadly,
died at the height of his powers with so much
more to offer. He was, as we all know,
exceedingly courteous, friendly and helpful- a
extremely neat man with that mop of curly fair
hair that was a distinctive feature of his
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appearance. Stephen loved life, music, sport
and, as many of us know, he was very
knowledgeable about wine. He loved his
beautiful home and family and had every
reason to look forward for more fruitful work.
Alas! That hope was dashed and he faced
death bravely and in the love of God.
But Stephen’s keen mind was also a gift to the
world outside his profession. He was a Board
member of United Church Schools Trust and
brought to our Board meetings the same
clarify of mind, the same diligence and the
same enthusiasm for the educational aims of
our Trust. His intellectual strength was
guided by a firm Christian faith and by his
passion to help those children who through no
fault of their own started out with few
advantages. When our Trust decided, under
Sir Ewan Harper, to take our work into the
State sector, Stephen was totally behind us
and lent his considerable powers to make this
happen. He believed with the entire Board in
educating the whole person- mind, body and
spirit- and frowned upon short-term
objectives. Stephen played an essential role in
the restoration of Clopton Church, doing much
the intricate work that few others had the
ability to do.
And now, we lay him to rest. St.Paul in
Romans 8 asks that most important question
of all: ‘What can separate us from the love of
Christ?
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He then answers by further questions as a
lawyer might ask: ‘Can hardship separate us?
Can trouble do it? Can persecution stop God’s
love? Can peril such as conflict resist it?’
No, he answers: ‘In all these things we are
more than conquerors!’ More than conquerors.
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor
life, neither angels nor demons, neither the
present nor the future nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation will be able to separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And these triumphant convictions about the
robust character of God’s love is the
foundation stone of the hope we are
celebrating in Stephen’s homecoming. We
urgently need them in our society today, since
nothing seems stable in this world of ours;
insecurity is written across human experience.
We live in a society that is careless of spiritual
things, living for the moment and living as if
we shall live forever. Such foolishness! And we
Christians are not guaranteed immunity from
temptation or tragedy or even the same
mindset– but we are promised victory. God’s
pledge is not that suffering will never afflict us,
but that it can never overcome us and will
never separate us from his love.
And this is what we celebrate today- and we
have perceived this grace and love in a human
face. Separation, but the faith in which we lay
Stephen to rest assures us that Stephen
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cannot be separated from that love that was so
tangible in his life, and present with us today.
George Herbert, that great English poet was
gripped by the transcending love of God in the
Easter message of the cross. When a close
friend died, he once wrote about death and his
friend in these words:
“Death, thou wast once an uncouth hideous
thing,
Nothing but bones,
The sad effect of sadder groans:
Thy mouth was open, but thou couldst not
sing.
But since our Savior’s death did put some
blood
Into thy face,
Thou art grown fair and full of grace,
Much in request, much sought for as a good.
For we do now behold thee gay and glad,
As at Doomsday;
When souls shall wear their new array,
And all thy bones with beauty shall be clad.
Therefore we can go die as sleep, and trust
Half that we have
Unto an honest faithful grave;
Making our pillows either down, or dust.
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Yes, what a glorious hope we celebrate today,
because ‘nothing in the whole of creation can
separate us from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In that hope and in that faith we lay Stephen
to rest. ‘Go forth upon thy journey, Christian
soul’: nothing in the whole of creation can
separate you – and us – from the Love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
George Carey