The Rev'd Kenneth R. Cracknell

1935 - 2022

The Rev'd Kenneth R. Cracknell

Norwich, VT — October 26, 2022

Although his travels took him around the globe, Kenneth Cracknell, who has died at age 87 of complications of COVID, was in his heart a Londoner. Born in the ex-urbs of the Capitol, Kenneth's earliest memories were of the bombing of his neighborhood during the Blitz, and his evacuation to the countryside for safety. His parents, Doris (Sutton) and Percy Cracknell, in Kenneth's words "never let on how frightened they were," even with nightly air-raids.

At the Royal Liberty School in Southend-on-Sea after the War, Kenneth made friends quickly, learned everything in the curriculum ("except science") seemingly without much effort, and was known for his affable nature and thespian skills, both of which would prove useful throughout his career. He read English Literature at Oxford University (Lincoln College) and went on to study for the Methodist ministry at Richmond Theological College. After a stint ministering to small congregations in rural Lincolnshire, Kenneth went to Nigeria to teach in 1962, taking his wife Elizabeth (Vine), and two young daughters, Penelope and Sarah. (A third daughter, Deborah, would be born during their time there.). Kenneth loved Africa and its peoples, but his time in Nigeria was disrupted by the Biafra War, and after six years, the family was forced to flee.

Kenneth returned to an England that had dramatically changed. Migration from the Indian sub-continent had resulted in a rapid influx of Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs, and the imperative for mutual understanding between Christians and people of other faith traditions became his single-minded commitment for the rest of his life.

While he was getting to grips with the intricacies of the situation, he pastored congregations in Leicestershire, and was University Chaplain at Loughborough University, while earning post-graduate degrees from the Universities of London and Leeds. Appointed the first head of Interfaith Relations for the British Council of Churches in 1978, he traveled around the world facilitating conversations and collaborative work between religious groups that had histories of animosity toward one another. It was a difficult life to combine with family commitments, and he and Elizabeth separated during this time, and eventually divorced.

After more than a decade of globe-trotting, lecturing, and organizing for the British Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches Dialogue Sub-Unit, he was called by the Methodist Church to its seminary in Cambridge, Wesley House, to teach his theological principles to a new generation of future pastors. There he held the Michael C. Gutteridge Chair in Theology and served as President of the ecumenical Cambridge Theological Federation. There, too, he met fellow-professor Susan J. White and they married in 1994.

Soon he was on the move again, this time following Susan to a new job at Texas Christian University, where in 1996 he became Distinguished Professor of Global Studies and Interfaith Dialogue at Brite Divinity School. Once again, a new group of students responded to his vision, and now many are professors, journalists, and activists for interfaith understanding. Right up to the time of his death he followed their work with interest.

In retirement, Kenneth and Susan moved to Norwich, Vermont, dividing their time between there and London. One of those people who made himself at home anywhere, Kenneth plunged into teaching ILEAD / OSHER courses and holding informal symposia for those seeking deeper understanding of religious ideas and practices. His capacity for making friends never failed him, and he would often return from an errand long after he started out because he "got to talking." Kenneth and Susan's online bookstore, Sutton Books, grew to an inventory of nearly 40K volumes during this time, and he was secretly proud that some of his father's "business genes" had actually passed to him. He continued to lecture and to write, and his love for trains, dogs, poetry, politics, and his newly-adopted home in Vermont also continued to the end.

Kenneth was author of 5 books and innumerable scholarly articles and monographs. On the occasion of his 65th birthday, friends and colleagues from all strata of his life gathered to celebrate with him and to present him with a published volume of essays in his honor (A Great Commission: Christian Hope and Religious Diversity, Peter Lang, 2000).

Kenneth's passing is mourned by his colleagues, friends, and family and especially by his wife, Susan White of Norwich VT, daughters Penelope Jones and her partner Michael Stocks of Yorkshire, UK and Sarah Cracknell of Sheffield UK, a stepson Todd Waller and his wife Kimberly of Salem, MA and Kathmandu, Nepal, his younger brother Malcolm ("Tom") Cracknell and his wife Felicity of Boston Spa, UK, grandchildren Alexandr Zaharievski and his wife Alicia, Stefan Zaharievski, Claire Mainwaring, Grace Mainwaring, Bethan Cracknell-Daniels, and Jonah Cracknell-Daniels, step-granddaughter Zoe Waller, and great-granddaughter Alice Amelie Yun Zaharievski. Kenneth was so enormously proud of the many accomplishments of these extraordinary young people, never wavering in his conviction that each of them will change the world for the better.

He was predeceased by his parents and was heartbroken by the deaths of his youngest daughter, Deborah and her husband, Richard Mainwaring.

Kenneth's family is especially grateful to the staff at Hanover Terrace Health and Rehabilitation Center for their attentive care for him in the last years of his life, and to Bayada Hospice. Donations in his name may be made to the Friends of the Norwich Public Library, of which he was Treasurer for many years, or to the Upper Valley Humane Society, in gratitude for his canine companion Jiva, and for the many other rescue dogs that had enriched his life.

A funeral service will be held at the Norwich Congregational Church on Sunday the 4th of December at 11:30 am. Reception following.

Knight Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements. Condolences may be expressed in an online guestbook found at www.knightfuneralhomes.com