One of his roles in the realm of ecumenical dialogue was to puncture what had become the lazier theological presuppositions of other people's comfort zones.
His description of a vision early one morning of Mary the Mother of God who announced that she had come to help him pay deeper attention to her Son, acted to break down some of the more habitual theological and cultural prejudices.
This could be an uncomfortable role for a man who held the post of a Presbyterian minister in a parish in Northern Ireland to hold.
[3] In 1985, he became Team Rector of All Saints, Sanderstead (in the diocese of Southwark) from where he retired from ministry (1994)[3] although still continued both his writing and lecturing career.
In his latter years he and his wife Truda were based at St Barnabas College near Lingfield, Surrey, where he continued to write, preach and teach.