Peter Toon’s Last Days

Last week in Oxford, as part of the proceedings accompanying the Peter Toon Memorial Lecture, hosted by The Prayer Book Society and Pusey House, the Rev’d Tony Noble preached the sermon at Evensong. Noble happens to be Peter Toon’s last rector, and he began his sermon by telling of his time with Fr. Toon, including administering last rites:

I first met Peter Toon about 12 years ago, when I was Rector of All Saints, San Diego. I knew of him as an evangelical scholar, writer & defender of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. 

It was a Saturday night & my phone rang. The voice said, “Is that Fr Noble?”. I replied, Yes. “I understand that you use Rite 1 with catholic additions.........how close to the Prayer Book are your Services?”, he asked. I said that the 8 am Mass was mostly from the Prayer Book. 

Next morning Peter & his wife, Vita, attended the 8 am Mass. he introduced himself & I felt quite honoured that such a notable evangelical had attended my church. They continued to attend faithfully every Sunday. Thus began a pastoral relationship which became a friendship. 

Peter described himself as an evangelical catholic & his great theme was that the Anglican church was “reformed catholic”. He believed that the 1662 BCP was the foundation document for this understanding. I enjoyed our theological discussions & listening to him. 

Peter came to San Diego for health reasons & to be near his family. In due course his health declined. I visited him with Holy Communion in hospital & at home. Then came the day. It remember it well - it was a Saturday & St Mark’s day. I had just finished saying our usual Saturday Mass & the phone rang. It was Vita, saying the time was near for Peter to go to his Lord. 

I got the Blessed Sacrament & Holy Oil & drive to their home. Upon arrival Peter asked for the Last Rites “in your tradition”. I was humbled to be asked by this great evangelical scholar to administer the last rites. It was a grace-filled experience for me. 

I spent the rest of the morning with Peter, listening to his favourite hymns on an old cassette player, occasionally praying or reading the bible. In the afternoon I went home to prepare for Sunday. About 8 pm the phone rang - Vita telling me that Peter had passed. I went over & Vita had lovingly dressed Peter in his robes. His instructions were that I should commend him using the 1662 Burial Office, which was typed out in Peter’s non-nonsense way. 

It was a privilege to have ministered to Peter & his family. 

This and the remainder of Noble’s winsome sermon may be downloaded from the recent sermons page on the Pusey House site. (If you are reading this some time in the future and the sermon is no longer there, try the sermon archive page.)