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Terence Hardy Waite CBE (born 31 May 1939)[1] is an English humanitarian and author.

Waite was the Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of England, he travelled to Lebanon to try to secure the release of four hostages, including the journalist John McCarthy. He was himself kidnapped and held captive from 1987 to 1991.

After his release he wrote Taken on Trust, a book about his experiences, and became involved in humanitarian causes and charitable work.

Early life and career

The son of a village policeman in Styal, Cheshire, Waite was educated at Stockton Heath County Secondary School where he became head boy.[3][4] Although his parents were only nominally religious, he showed a commitment to Christianity from an early age and later became a Quaker and an Anglican.

Waite joined the Grenadier Guards at Caterham Barracks, but an allergy to a dye in the uniform obliged him to depart after a few months.[5] He then considered a monastic life, but instead joined the Church Army, a social welfare organisation of the Anglican Church modelled on the Salvation Army, undergoing training and studies in London. While he was held captive in the 1980s, many Church Army officers wore a simple badge with the letter "H" on it to remind people that one of their members was still a hostage and was being supported in prayer daily by them and many others.

In 1963, Waite was appointed education adviser to the Anglican Bishop of Bristol, Oliver Tomkins, and assisted with Tomkins's implementation of the SALT (Stewardship and Laity Training) programme in the diocese, along with Basil Moss. This position required Waite to master psychological T-group methods, with the aim of promoting increased active involvement from the laity. During this time he married Helen Frances Watters.[6] As a student, Waite was greatly influenced by the teachings of Ralph Baldry.

In 1969, he moved to Uganda where he worked as Provincial Training Adviser to Erica Sabiti, the first African Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi and, in that capacity, travelled extensively throughout East Africa. Together with his wife and their four children, Waite witnessed the Idi Amin coup in Uganda and he and his wife narrowly escaped death on several occasions. From his office in Kampala, Waite founded the Southern Sudan Project and was responsible for developing aid and development programmes for the region.

His next post was in Rome where, from 1972, he worked as an international consultant to the Medical Mission Sisters, a Roman Catholic order seeking to adapt to the leadership reforms of Vatican II. From this base, he travelled extensively throughout Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe, conducting and advising on programmes concerned with institutional change and development, inter-cultural relations, group and inter-group dynamics and a broad range of development issues connected with health and education.

Archbishop's special envoy

Waite returned to the UK in 1978, where he took a job with the British Council of Churches. In 1980, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, appointed him the Archbishop of Canterbury's Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs on the recommendation of Tomkins and Bishop John Howe.[9][10] Based at Lambeth Palace, Waite again travelled extensively throughout the world and had a responsibility for the Archbishop's diplomatic and ecclesiastical exchanges.[10] He arranged and travelled with the Archbishop on the first ever visit of an Archbishop of Canterbury to China and had responsibility for travels to Australia, New Zealand, Burma, the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and South Africa.

Awards and honours

In 1991, following his release Waite was elected a fellow commoner at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.[20] In 1992, Waite received the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Worship.[32] In the same year, Durham University made him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law.[33] In 2001, Anglia Ruskin University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Philosophy.[34] On 30 May 2009, at a ceremony in Ely Cathedral, the Open University made him an honorary D.Univ.[35] He was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Chester in 2009.

In 2006 he was elected a visiting fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Courtesy – Wikipedia
- Terry Waite

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