Howard Wyndham GUINNESS

GUINNESS, HOWARD WYNDHAM (b. London, England, 22 Nov 1903; d. Wentworth Falls, NSW, 28 July 1979). Evangelist and pastor, co-founder and itinerant promoter of IVF.

Howard Wyndham Guinness was the sixth son and ninth child of Irish parents, Henry Guinness and his wife Annie (nee Reed). Both his father and grandfather, Henry Grattan Guinness, were noted evangelists, and Howard grew up in a home marked by a vibrant Christian faith. To his family background was added personal conviction -- at the age of fourteen when he was led to Christ by Bryan Green, later to become himself a noted evangelist.

Following secondary education at The Leys School, Cambridge, Guinness entered St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in 1922, completing 1928 (MRCS, LRCP), but never practising medicine. While still at school, Guinness had commenced with his brother Gordon a direct and enthusiastic approach to evangelism that strengthened during his medical training, and was to remain his life-long passion. An active sportsman with a warm, friendly personality, an engaging laugh, genuine interest in people, and above all with a zeal to win other students for the Kingdom of God, Guinness was soon recognised as an outstanding Christian leader. He shared in the formation of the London Inter-Faculty Christian Union in 1923, and later became its president. When the InterVarsity Fellowship (IVF) was established in England in 1928, Guinness became vice chairman. Even before sitting for his final examinations, Guinness was invited to Canada as travelling representative of the newly formed Canadian IVF to galvanise student work there. He postponed his medical career and travelled across Canada, setting up Christian Unions in universities, harnessing the energies and capturing the vision of Christian students wherever he went. Guinness proved at once to be remarkably well-suited to this new and untried role. Christian groups in universities throughout Canada were established or strengthened. Seeing the potential for Christian leadership in the already established summer camps, he encouraged the setting up of Pioneer Camps, boys' and girls' camps along the lines of the Varsity and Public Schools camps, already well established in Great Britain. Both movements thrived, and Guinness's work has endured.

While still in Canada he was invited to come to Australia by J B Nicholson (q.v.). He arrived in Jan 1930, and during the next few months the pattern of founding groups or strengthening Christian witness in schools and universities throughout the country was repeated. The Evangelical Unions of Sydney and Melbourne universities were established in quick succession, and the Crusader Union, modelled on the Crusaders Union of Great Britain, was established in independent schools in Sydney and Melbourne. Guinness did not so much establish evangelical witness in these places as to harness, organise and re-invigorate individuals and smaller groups already there. Each was left with the strength and vision to persist; each has continued ever since.

Guinness had intended to remain abroad for a few months only, but did not return to Britain for more than two years. He continued his role as travelling representative for the IVF, contributing to its growing role in publishing with a number of booklets on apologetic and devotional topics. Of these, Sacrifice had an enduring usefulness over several decades. He paid a second visit to Australia 1933-4, and travelled also to South Africa, India and Europe. At length, he recognised that a medical career was no longer his vocation, and trained for the Anglican ministry at St Aidan's College, Birkenhead. Settling down at last, he m. Barbara Green on 18 April 1939, shortly before his ordination. He served as curate under Leslie Wilkinson at Worthing before war service as chaplain in the RAFVR 1942-6. On demobilisation, he was attached to the Oxford Pastorate for four years.

His return to Sydney in 1949 as rector of St Barnabas', Broadway, at the invitation of Abp H W K Mowll (q.v.) was unexpected; some doubted that the mercurial Guinness could settle to the regimen of parish work. However, the appointment was deft and successful. Originally a working men's mission church, St Barnabas', near Sydney University, now became largely a university church with a large and enthusiastic student congregation. His passion for student evangelism continued in missions to all the mainland universities during this time. In 1957, he unexpectedly moved to the well-to-do St Michael's, Vaucluse in Sydney's eastern suburbs, where a very different congregation found his ministry equally acceptable.

He had suffered for years from a hoarse throat; this led to a lymphatic carcinoma which was successfully treated in 1960, but his voice gradually deteriorated, forcing his retirement in 1971. He lived in the aptly named 'Green Pastures' at Wentworth Falls, writing his memoirs, Journey Among Students (Sydney, 1977) and a volume of verse, published posthumously.

Howard Guinness had an evergreen buoyancy and attractiveness. As a young man his dynamism could lead him into impetuous, even rash actions. In maturity, he was an evangelist and preacher with a remarkable capacity to meet people on their own ground. As an older man, he had a joyful radiance that won acceptance in the long haul of a parish ministry, though he was never able to work comfortably with a parish council. Coming to Sydney in youth as a new graduate with immense expectations made of him, he more than fulfilled all his sponsors' hopes. Returning in middle age with an established reputation, he maintained a powerful evangelistic presence in one of Sydney diocese's key ministries and enhanced the Christian maturity of this flock. Irish by birth and English in education and outlook, Guinness was ever the Englishman, a product of late Edwardian public school and 'varsity, which remained his great love throughout more than forty years of lay and ordained ministry. During this period, the Anglican church, like so many other elements of Australian society, looked for its leading figures —prelates and others —from England, so that his self-assured competence and assertion of leadership in student movements was not only acceptable but expected.

He was at his best with an audience. After his ordination, this was generally a congregation, a fellowship meeting, a confirmation class. As travelling representative of the IVF, he was often at the centre of a jovial group of young men; as chaplain, a cheerful companion in the mess. As an evangelist, he had the knack of understanding the mind of his uncommitted hearer, and enjoyed playing the role of Devil's advocate in a debate. As teacher he could express himself in clear terms that confirmees could recall vividly. As author, his pamphlets were nicely tuned to the needs of the hour. In all of these facets of a varied ministry he had a memorable and lasting impact on the lives of a great many young men in three continents.

M L Loane, Mark These Men (Sydney, 1985); J Parker, A Vision of Eagles (Sydney, 198U); Year Book of the Diocese of Sydney 1949-80

STUART BRAGA