Greet, Dr Kenneth Gerald
1918- 2014; e.m. 1943

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Born in Bristol on 17 November 1918, he served for two years as a lay pastor in Herefordshire, before training for the ministry at Handsworth College. On the recommendation of Dr. Wilbert Howard he was appointed to Tonypandy Central Hall. He gained a reputation in his circuit ministry as a fine preacher and was a secretary in the Christian Citizenship Department from 1954 to 1971. As Secretary of the Conference 1971-1984 he was highly regarded as an ecumenical statesman, faithful to Methodist principles, yet a trusted and knowledgeable partner in reconciliation. He was President of the 1980 Conference and Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council in 1982.

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He also held office in both the World Methodist Council and the British Council of Churches and was a member of the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches. In 2002 he was made a member of the Order of Jerusalem for his 'outstanding contribution made in the service of the World Methodist Council'. A moral theologian whose most considerable published work is The Art of Moral Judgement (1970), he was a lifelong pacifist dedicated to world disarmament and a vice-president of the World Disarmament Campaign. He contributed a monthly column to the Methodist Recorder for 30 years and in 1962 delivered the Beckly Lecture on The Mutual Society; also the Willson Lecture (in Kansas City) and the Cato Lecture (in Sydney). He died on 11 February 2014.

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His younger brother, Brian Aubrey Greet (1922-2015; e.m. 1947) was born in Bristol on 12 June 1922 and followed his brother into the ministry, training at Handworth College with a postgraduate year at Drew University, NJ, where he gained an STM. A lifelong pacifist and conscientious objector, he was passionately dedicated to the causes of peace and social justice and ecumenical relations. His wife Jill was the daughter of Dr Maldwyn L. Edwards. In 1973 he became Chairman of the Nottingham and Derby District, serving in that office until retirement in 1989. He died on 8 December 2015.

Quotations

'Born six days after the end of the Great War, Greet was nurtured in the liberal ieals of a Bristol Methodist family, dedicated to social justice and pacifism. These values, to which he added church unity, dominated his life and work. They were not. However, immediately obvious from his urbane manner: he was never a tub-thumper, but expressed his views with courtesy and wit, as well as conviction.'

Church Times, 28 February 2014

Sources
  • Conference Handbook, 1971
  • K.G. Greet, Fully Connected: a volume of memoirs (Peterborough, 1997)
  • Colin Morris, Snapshots (2007), pp.93-95
  • Methodist Recorder, 21 February, March 14 2014; 1 April 2016; 4 November 2016
  • Church Times, 28 February 2014
  • Guardian, 28 February 2014

See also

Entry written by: GSW
Category: Person
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