READING,
England; May 19, 2000 — An Honorary President of the United Bible Societies
(UBS), biblical scholar, author and former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Coggan
died on May 17 at the age of 90. He is survived by his wife, Jean, and two daughters,
Ruth and Anne.
Dr (Frederick) Donald Coggan had served as President of the UBS from 1957 to 1976 and was active as Honorary President since then. In this capacity he continued to travel on behalf of the UBS attending the UBS Councils at Chiang Mai, Thailand (1980) and Budapest, Hungary (1988). The last important UBS event he attended in this capacity was the UBS World Assembly in Mississauga, Canada, (1996).
The Rev Fergus Macdonald, the UBS General Secretary, said that Donald Coggan had a “deep personal love for Scripture, which was always evident in his preaching and writing”.
“He was strongly committed to Bible translation in dignified, modern language, and to communicating the relevance of Scripture to the contemporary scene,” said Mr Macdonald. “He made an enormous contribution to the development of the UBS from the time he became president virtually until his death.”
Dr Coggan was a strong Bible advocate as evidenced by his keen interest in the worldwide Bible cause and the many books he wrote on biblical matters. He also contributed to the New English Bible translation and the Revised English Bible.
Dr Coggan founded the Lord Coggan Memorial Fund, which helped to subsidise hundreds of thousands of Children’s Bibles supplied to Russia following the fall of communism in the early 1990s. He was also president of the Bible Reading Fellowship with which organisation he published two books on the Psalms in the People’s Bible Commentary series.
He was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974 to 1980 – the highest position in the Anglican worldwide community – and before that served the church as Archbishop of York (1961-1974) and Bishop of Bradford (1956-1961). On his retirement from active church service in 1980 he was made a life peer as Lord Coggan of Canterbury and Sissinghurst.
Tributes have been pouring in for a man said to have “the common touch”. Queen Elizabeth II of England has sent a private message to the family. Dr Coggan was a strong supporter of the church ecumenical movement seeking to build relationships between the denominations using common ground such as the Bible. He worked to improve Christian-Jewish relations and spoke out in favour of women priests. Dr Martin Robinson of the British and Foreign Bible Society called him a “fine scholar” for whom “the purpose of scholarship was to make the Bible accessible.”
The Rev Dr John Erickson, a former General Secretary of the UBS, called Dr Coggan “an encourager” who had been a great strength and asset especially at times when the UBS had undergone major changes.