The Revd Pat Heap: 1938-2024 

'How anyone could be involved in so many activities was related to a deeply held faith, the Lord’s calling and a generous distribution of gifts for each task she was called to. And to her love and concern for people, which shone through her life’s work'

 
The sudden death of the Revd Pat Heap on 24 December 2024 occurred while walking on the beach at Mundesley, Norfolk where the family had gathered from Cambridge, London, the Netherlands and New York for their annual Christmas together. She was 86 years old and had been married to Brian for 63 years.
 
Pat grew up in Leverton, Lincolnshire where her father, Richard Grant farmed a nursery on rich and fertile soils that favoured the growth of many plants under glass. She was brought up to believe in Christ, to say prayers, read the Bible and to be a Christian Scientist but it left her disappointed.

Schooled at an Anglican boarding school in Cheshire for six years and then at Boston High School where her desire to be a vet and fulfil a natural and intuitive gift with animals was not encouraged by the staff. Animals were a big part of her life at home raising piglets with her father on the family farm, or riding Taif, her beloved Arab horse.

Instead of a vet’s life she chose to read Agricultural Science for a BSc Honours degree in the University of Nottingham’s School of Agriculture at Sutton Bonington where she graduated in 1959, followed by a post-graduate diploma in Physiology at the University of Edinburgh.

During her time at university she said she met ‘real’ Christians and was converted through the Christian Union and baptised by immersion at Hucknall Baptist Church. It was Paul’s verse in his letter to the Ephesians that had become personal and real – ‘for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God’.
 
In 1960 Pat exchanged the possibility of doing a PhD at Nottingham for life at Cambridge to be with her boyfriend Brian who she married a year later. Her first ‘boring job’, as she called it, was in the university’s School of Agriculture but it led to a successful interview for a place in the prestigious Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology where, among other things, she grew tobacco mosaic virus in tobacco plants for Sir Aaron Klug who won the 1982 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Her first child, Peter, was the first of three children born between 1963 and 1966 (Richard and Rachel, twins) and writing later in the Life of Faith in 1973 she described the experience of encouraging ‘shut in’ young mothers to meet weekly for Bible study and fellowship while the babies slept.

Frustrated by being unable to continue to run the youth group with Brian, or go to midweek meetings because of tiredness, the weekly Bible studies proved such a blessing that up to 20 small children were cared for in one room of the house while mothers benefitted from the Inter-Varsity Fellowship’s Group Bible Study Outlines. The work expanded to become part of a growing national movement; little did she know that her part in organising a big day meeting in the University Arms hotel, Cambridge on House Groups was a portent of things to come.
 
As a member of Zion Baptist Church from 1960, the minister was the Revd Dr Raymond Brown who also took her marriage ceremony at a Methodist Church near Leverton. Pat and Brian lived in the village of Barton close to Cambridge and were members of the Baptist church from 1968 and later, when they moved into the city, the open Brethren church at Queen Edith Chapel from 1979 with its lively young people’s activities.

Pat became progressively involved in the Cambridge Evangelical Association and the Cambridge Christian Festival Committee and became responsible for week-long Christian Festivals in the city involving speakers that included the Revd David Watson. Thereafter, she put on significant events in the Cambridge Guildhall and Corn Exchange featuring Adrian Snell, Garth Hewitt, Marilyn Baker, Nicky Cruz and others, which attracted large audiences
 
In 1982 she joined the Cambridgeshire Churches Local Radio Group and became part of an ecumenical team that broadcast BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Sunday hour-long Christian magazine programme Something to Think About (STTA). Pat was the producer of STTA in a voluntary capacity for some 16 years with a small ecumenical team winning 13 national awards for Christian broadcasting. Some of the STTA interviews were written up when she had time to spare during the Covid pandemic and are available in an eponymous booklet available on Amazon.

The programme built up a large and diverse audience. Meeting Cambridge’s Regius Professor of Hebrew one day in the street, he remarked to his wife that ‘this is the woman I go to bed with every Sunday Night’ referring to the evening repeat of the morning programme when he was otherwise occupied with his own church. She led a related five-week Lent Course for seven years on What on Earth is the Church for? that culminated in an event at Ely Cathedral and St Ives Free Church. She was presented with a distinguished Ecumenical Medal by Bishop Peter Smith, Catholic Bishop of East Anglia.
 
In 1990 Pat was invited by the local BBC radio to provide the spiritual input for a listener holiday to the Oberammergau Passion Play. For the whole trip she shared a room with the travel courier who, in Pat’s words, ‘did not take kindly to sharing with someone old enough to be her mother and religious with it!’ She avoided Pat as much as possible and they rarely spoke.

At a service put together in a tiny Roman Catholic chapel, the travel courier surprised Pat by turning up, left in tears and later burst into their room asking Pat if she did that sort of thing often because she had always been against women in the church, but she took it all back. Pat went for a long walk asking God what he was saying to her, coming away convinced by the need to explore the need for further training. After studies she was accredited with the Baptist Union Lay Pastor’s Certificate three years later, passing with 8 of the 9 modules with distinction.
 
Pat was ordained and inducted as minister of Mill Road Baptist Church, Cambridge in 2001, the same year as her husband was knighted but she was always reluctant to use the title to which she was rightly entitled. More important was the love and passion she experienced for preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus and encouraging the growth and life of the church.

She soon launched new outreach initiatives with the local community and City Council but the most ambitious was a building project that replaced ageing Victorian buildings with new facilities that included a spacious church hall with kitchen facilities, associated small rooms and offices, and 16 flats. Despite challenges raised by the City Planning Authorities, they were successfully overturned, and the project was completed on time, within budget and cost neutral as the flats were sold in quick time
 
Pat has been referred to as ‘something of a life-force! Her energy and faith in Christ were infectious, and whatever she undertook was done as part of a whole-life commitment. By the time of ‘retirement’, she remained in much demand for mentoring newly appointed ministers, counselling across different generations and Christian advocacy. She helped at the Fare Shares Café at the URC Emmanuel Church where she and her husband were members, working weekly in a kitchen placement and developing a strong rapport with volunteers who had learning disabilities.

At the Bible Society’s local action group she was hugely committed for over 46 years, working at times as secretary and catering chief (although she wouldn’t have accepted that title) and arranging biennial public events with invited speakers and accompanied by a supper of her home-grown produce.

During Covid, she took up keyboarding to digitise biblical translations of less-common languages, an exercise that not only meets someone’s spiritual needs but keeps alive someone’s heart language. At Amnesty’s local bookshop she helped to raise funds for their ongoing work, and for Amnesty International she took part in letter-writing that urged Presidents and Ministers to release of persecuted Christians around the world who were imprisoned for their faith.

Also, she was encouraged to start a Torch Trust group in Cambridge and was a Director of the Christian Blind Mission UK. The aim was to enable the blind and partially sighted to thrive in the Christian community with fellowship over a meal, largely provided by her produce from her allotment. She helped a VIP craft club for the elderly with whom she had a natural gift of listening and communicating as well as applying her skill in resolving knitting disasters.
 
A Thanksgiving Service for Pat’s life and work was held at St John the Evangelist Anglican Church, Cambridge where she was a member. At a full church, the Revd Ceri Payne, assistant vicar, officiated and tributes were given by the Revd Paul Hills, former Regional Minister for the Eastern Baptist Association about Pat’s call to ministry, Penny Flynn, lay preacher from the URC at Downing Place, Cambridge about her Christian advocacy, the Revd Canon Dr Gale Richards, Regional Minister, Eastern Baptist Association, Ecumenical Canon, Ely Cathedral, Chair of Churches Together in Cambridgeshire about her mentoring and counselling skills, and Pat’s children.

Her gift with words, the clarity of her preaching and the helpful way in which she used poems in worship were highlighted together with her practical support for the disadvantaged.
 
Among the wide range of tributes from home and abroad, her family of three children (and five grandchildren) spoke of their memories of mother - her very strong sense of right and wrong ‘which you might expect that from a minister, though it was a conviction that far predated that role. It was tied to another important quality that if a goal was worthy, then her sense of right made her willing to do all kinds of tedious work to bring that goal about’.

Her deep passion and respect for nature and the natural environment was described and how she loved being in nature particularly during many international adventures. ‘She taught all of us not to be wasteful and re-used things until they couldn't be used any more – like the coat she wore on her allotment that was Rachel’s as a teenager’. Her allotment referred to previously, was tended for nearly 50 years with pride and joy - battling mud, drought and slugs, to provide vegetables and fruit.
 
With the family living in three countries, Christmases were recently held in Norfolk which she loved for its big, wild beaches, open skies, and ever-changing sea, which reminded her of the Wash, where she grew up. She loved playing games together, and her infectious love of puzzles – jigsaw, crossword and sudoku, drew in the whole family. A jigsaw puzzle with family members was the last thing she did before her final walk along the beach.
 
'How anyone could be involved in so many activities was related to a deeply held faith, the Lord’s calling and a generous distribution of gifts for each task she was called to. And to her love and concern for people, which shone through her life’s work' was a comment expressed by Penny Flynn during her tribute at the Thanksgiving Service. Pat leaves husband Brian at Cambridge, Peter who teaches philosophy in New York, Richard who is an energy expert in London, Rachel who is a clinical psychologist in the Netherlands, and five grandchildren. 


Acknowledgements
Warm thanks are expressed to all who helped with the preparation of this memoir including the extracts taken from tributes at the Thanksgiving Service. 

Sir Brian Heap