‘A man without an enemy in the world,’ was how someone once described Roger. So true. He was a man with a twinkle in his eye, ready to diffuse a difficult situation with a quip or that lovely smile of his.

I thought I had said a final earthly goodbye to Roger at his farewell ‘do’. But no, he popped up again at Keswick Convention when I was paying my annual visit there. Then, last year, I was reading a manuscript and, lo, he popped up again. This time he was being used (along with June) to illustrate a key point in Peter Maiden’s wonderful book, Radical Gratitude: Recalibrating Your Heart in an Age of Entitlement [Shoutout alert]. The late Peter Maiden was employing Roger and June to show the sort of selflessness and gratitude which we would all do well to emulate.

Like many other contributors, I thank God for the wonderful opportunity to know, and work with, Roger Kennedy. May his family know God’s comfort at this time, safe in the knowledge that he is with Christ, which is ‘better by far’.