Hundreds packed Suva’s Holy Trinity Cathedral today for the funeral of Archbishop Jabez Bryce – and hundreds more spilled out on to the wide verandas surrounding the cathedral.

Among those mourners were Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, the President of Fiji, and his wife Adi Koila Mara Nailatikau; Prince Tungi of Tonga, who represented the Tongan royal family; Ratu Epeli Ganilau, the Fijian Minister of Defence and his wife Adi Ateca Mara Ganilau; various bishops from New Zealand, and dignitaries and churchgoers from throughout Fiji and the South Pacific.

They’d come to pay their last respects to the man who’d led the Diocese of Polynesia for almost 35 years, and who guided it from its colonial past to a genuinely Pacific present.

Those mourners heard his great friend, Sir Ellison Pogo, the retired Archbishop of Melanesia, pay tribute to a man whose life was so centred on the eucharist and prayer that he called him “a walking sacrament.”

Bishop Jabez had been his mentor, he said. He'd taken him under his wing when he was a young bishop, he'd introduced him to wider church circles, and he'd helped him grow as a leader.

Bishop Jabez had worked tirelessly to unite Anglicans in the Pacific, Sir Ellison said – and he never lost the opportunity to remind Anglicans that they would only be decent ecumenical partners if they were, first of all, committed Anglicans first.

And Bishop Jabez’s value in that ecumenical field was underscored by the Most Rev Petero Mataca, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Suva, who told the mourners that Archbishop Jabez was his “unforgettable friend”.

They’d first met in 1966 when they were both Vicars General. They got together regularly after that – both at religious ceremonies, and on the golf course.

“We became friends,” said the Archbishop.

And as golfers do, they’d banter on the course.

“After we’d both became bishops we’d tell one another: ‘Fiji does not need two bishops – so let us play. The winner stays – and the loser goes’.”

That was ecumenism at a personal level – and Archbishop Mataca said it was Archbishop Bryce who introduced him to the formal ecumenical movement, and was later instrumental in having him elected to the executive of the Pacific Council of Churches.

“Bishop Jabez would often remind us, " said th Archbishop Mataca, "that three things were essential for the life of the ecumenical movement. Prayer is a must; co-operation in works of mercy is a must – and dialogue is the way forward.”

'Man of passion'

The Rev Amy Chambers, Principal of the St John the Baptist Theological College, said Bishop Jabez was a pastor and a teacher who had a ministry of care.

“He cared for the church. He was passionate about the responsibility placed on him as head of the church.”

“For him”, said Amy, “the rituals, practices and discipline of the church were very important: and everything to do with worship was to be done properly.

“The discipline of daily prayer was part of his life and he encouraged all those in ministry under him to practice it.”

He cared deeply for people, too, said Amy. First for his wife Tlisi and their children Jonathan and Fitaloa – and then for his wider church family.

He had been a friend to Amy and her family for 24 years, and she recalled for the mourners little gestures that conveyed the depth of his care. Such as when her brother died, in 2005.

Bishop Bryce was in Geneva at the time – and he phoned her to ask if she had all she needed for his funeral.

“He was a loyal friend. He taught loyalty, and lived loyalty. He cared for those around him and expected the same loyalty from them.”

He was generous too, she said – in all sorts of ways.

"No-one came away from the Bishop’s office empty handed.

“You either received some money, a prayer and a blessing, words of wisdom – or, if you’d fallen short of his expectation, a good telling off!”

"He never beat around the bush: he was a straight shooter and he said what he thought to your face. But it was never harsh criticism – it was words of wisdom to guide you."

Fr Michael Bent spoke of how he and Jabez had met in 1960.

Both were on a steep learning curve: Jabez, fresh from his training at St John’s, and Michael Bent, the young priest newly arrived from England, grappling with culture shock.

“For me,” he said, “those early days were filled with a kind of envy at one who strode so easily across cultures – who was at home with the young Kiwi teachers on ‘country service’, at home with the Tongan and Samoan communities as they celebrated in their own ways and styles; at home with the upper crust of the cathedral community when we were invited out to swish dinner parties – and yet one who could take his share with the labourers in the cutting of grass and the sharpening of cane knives."

Archbishops' reflections

The Hon Sosiua Tupou 'Utokamanu, a former Minister of Finance in the Tonga Government, and Archbishop Jabez's first cousin, spoke on behalf of the Bryce family and sketched out the milestones of his life, and Archbishops Brown Turei and David Moxon later added their own reflections.

Archbishop Brown said the late bishop was a ‘veritable Prince of the church’. He'd come to the episcopacy when some bishops still wore garters. He had dignity, he said, he was always in charge, he was always immaculate in his presentation – and he demanded things be done decently and in order. He was also, said Archbishop Brown, a tikanga leader with whom who his brother archbishops, from the other two tikanga, could easily engage

Archbishop David, who’d known Bishop Bryce for 40 years, said Bishop Bryce had made credible the ever-present, all-knowing, all-comprehending, all-loving God that Psalm 139: 1 – 18 – the psalm chosen for the funeral service – speaks of.

“If I went up to heaven, you would be there; if I lay down in the world of the dead, you would be there…

If I flew away beyond the east, or lived in the farthest place in the west, you would be there to help me…”

Archbishop David also told of how Archbishop Bryce would often refer to the statue of Christ which hangs high on the wall of the lady chapel at the Suva Cathedral.

It is a statue of Christ wearing a chasuble, a sign of the resurrection, while hanging from his cross, the chasuble hiding the spear wound in his side.

It is an statue which suggests, said Archbishop David, that there is no resurrection without suffering. Archbishop Jabez had believed and understood that – and he believed in the triumph of the self-giving, self-sacrificing love that Christ had shown.

After the committal, Archbishop Bryce’s hearse was driven slowly through throngs of mourners who lined the driveway leading out of the cathedral grounds.

He will now be flown to Auckland for cremation, and his ashes returned to Holy Trinity Cathedral in Suva.

The place which had been his seat in life for almost 35 years, will hold his earthly remains until the resurrection.