Press Releases03 Aug 10

Bishop Chillingworth's Address at Lt Neal Turkington's Funeral

Address by Bishop David Chillingworth at the Funeral of Lt Neal Turkington, 1 Royal Gurkha Regiment, in St Mark’s Parish Church, Portadown, on Tuesday, 3rd August, 2010

Bishop David Chillingworth, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.  (Bishop Chillingworth was Rector of Seagoe Parish Church, Portadown, from 1986 to 2005)

Bishop David says, ‘The depth of our sorrow is surpassed only by our pride in Neal’

We have heard the tributes to Neal – ‘a man who could be trusted’ and ‘a leader who spread quiet confidence among his men.’ We gather today to share the love, the pride and the sorrow of his family. As a community, we honour him with our deep respect and our gratitude.

Since I heard the news of Neal's tragic death, I have been carrying pictures of him in my mind and heart. My favourite is of Neal in the Primary School Rugby Team on the bench at Ravenhill. It was a serious moment. The boys share that unselfconscious single-mindedness of purpose which only 10 year-olds can have. I thought about football in the Rectory Garden ... Sea Scouts where he began to show his ability as a leader … about how he became a reader and a thinker. I remembered with great pleasure a day which we spent with Neal in San Diego when he was staying with family. And later on he was very good at staying in touch with his old friends.

Then I look at the picture of Neal the soldier – the picture which has been in the papers and on the websites. I can see in the determination and the resolution of the soldier the child and the teenager I knew. I listen again to the tributes – ‘relentless and steadfast in his pursuit of those causes he believed in with his passion for making a difference.’ Yes – the teenager in San Diego had become a citizen of the world who could write lyrically about his volunteer work in El Salvador, building a better life for the poor of the world. There was so much to Neal – he pushed the boundaries, he thought deeply and he questioned. He became the soldier who committed himself in the service of his country and in the cause of freedom and peace – the trusted comrade who supported and inspired others. We and our political leaders should reflect very carefully on all of this – on the cost and the sacrifice of young men and women who serve on our behalf – as we strive to build peace in Afghanistan and across the world.

We meet in humility to honour Neal. We honour the parents and the family and the community which shaped the child into the man and the man into the brave and resolute soldier. We stand in the presence of the grief of Ivor and Marie, Gareth and Cathy – that mingling of joy in the privilege of being parents to such a child, siblings to such a brother – and the depth of their loss not just of the past but of the future. We gather around them with all the sympathy, the prayerful love and the support which we have to offer. The depth of our sorrow is surpassed only by our pride in Neal.

The passages of scripture we have heard today challenge us – words about how the Spirit of God brings freedom at the deepest level. Jesus speaks about the poor in spirit, the meek, those with a passion for justice, those who are peacemakers. And the life and death of Jesus reminds us of the deepest truth of all – which is that to pursue these causes in a spirit of love will inevitably involve sacrifice.

Neal died doing the job that was his passion. When he was offered a place with the Gurkhas, he said he was ‘ecstatic ... I cannot imagine the future but it holds such promise that I cannot wait.’ We give thanks for such a life. May Neal rest in peace and may God’s healing love bring comfort to Ivor and Marie and their family today and in the days to come.

Issued on behalf of Bishop Chillingworth