Rev. Peter Southwell-Sander, 64; his sermons inspired on both sides of the Atlantic

In the congregations he served in his native England and at Old South Church in Boston, the sermons of the Rev. Peter Southwell-Sander were full of humor, imagery, and relevance to the daily lives of those he touched.

His words were remembered long after he spoke them from the pulpit.

``In his sermons, he would draw upon theater and opera and preached a great deal in story and narrative; he had a real gift," the Rev. Anthea Cannell, an assistant priest at St. Mary the Virgin Church in Theydon Bois, England, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Rev. Southwell-Sander, a priest in the Church of England with the prestigious title of canon emeritus for his work at Chelmsford Cathedral, died of cancer at his Boston home on June 7. He was 64.

He was the husband of the Rev. Nancy S. Taylor, senior minister at Old South Church and the first woman to hold that ministry in the 337-year history of the church. Rev. Southwell-Sander often gave sermons at Old South or joined his wife in them.

His flare for the dramatic enhanced both his sermons and his ministry.

``Peter had a number of unique attributes," said Jeff Makholm, Old South Church moderator.

One was his mastery of Italian opera; he authored two books, one on Verdi and another on Puccini, Makholm said. Another, was his mastery of British stage comedy.

His love for Italian opera and all things Italian was boundless. He was an expert on Venice, and when he lived in England, he sometimes conducted tours there, Makholm said.

At Old South, he tutored the readers -- lay people who speak from the pulpit -- ``because his speaking style was so clear and unique," Makholm said.

``The congregation loved to hear him read from the Bible, because there was always the story, the dynamic, the gestures. He would take on the voices of the people [in the text] and made it engrossing."

Taylor said her husband ``felt too often that sermons were long and boring discourses." He wanted to give character to the words, she said, which he also did when he read her all the Harry Potter books, creating voices for the characters.

In England, she said, where he was chaplain at Cambridge University, students dubbed him ``the trendy vicar."

``He had long sideburns, and, at a time when priests of the Church of England were wearing black shirts with white collars, Peter was part of a kind of progressive movement where they substituted white ties for the collars," she said.

He was also a longtime supporter of the ordination of women in the Church of England.

Rev. Southwell-Sander was so beloved by his students at Cambridge that they once tossed him into the Thames as part of a promotion for a musical folk club he started while a chaplain there. He was ``a good sport and a bit of a ham," Taylor said.

He was born in Reading, England, and was adopted as an infant. His natural father, a pilot, died when his Spitfire was shot down during World War II. He was adopted by Geoffrey, a surgeon in the Royal Navy, and Jacqueline Southwell-Sander. He grew up in Reading and attended Charterhouse, a private boys' school, and sang in boys' choirs. He entered Cambridge University, where he studied English at Gonville and Caius College and theology at Westcott House.

He was ordained a priest in the Church of England at Canterbury Cathedral and served parishes in and around London. He first served at Girton College, the women's college at Cambridge University, his wife said, where one of his duties was to order the wines for the young women's dinners. He then served at Great St. Mary's, the university church at Cambridge and later became canon at Chelmsford Cathedral in Chemsford, England, the second-largest diocese in the Church of England, where he oversaw the continuing education of clergymen. He was a sought-after teacher of preaching.

He met Taylor at a preaching conference at the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1994.

After a transatlantic courtship, they were married in New York, ``halfway between Idaho and London," Taylor said, in 1996, when she was senior minister at First Congregational Church in Boise, Idaho. Rev. Southwell-Sander joined her for the last five years of her 10-year stay there and served as executive director of Opera Idaho and as part-time preacher.

The couple came to Massachusetts in 2001, when Taylor became minister and president of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ.

``We are the descendants of the Puritans and the Pilgrims," Taylor said, ``and the largest Protestant denomination in the Commonwealth." She was appointed senior minister at Old South Church in 2004.

Rev. Southwell-Sander gave new life to his wife's church, Jeff Makholm, the moderator, said.

He chaired the committee that brought the Freedom Schooner Amistad to Boston Harbor in 2004 and was chairman of the committee that planned ``Let Justice Roll," a citywide interfaith worship service during the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004.

Last June, while battling the illness he had been diagnosed with nine years ago, he wrote, directed, and acted a British-syle stage review for church audiences.

At last year's Boston Marathon, which finishes near Old South, he stood outside the church in a track suit and welcomed runners inside.

He often stood at the door and greeted people, Makholm said. ``Peter singlehandedly welcomed dozens of new members into Old South," Makholm said, ``simply by his unique and extravagant welcome at the door.

In addition to his wife, Rev. Southwell-Sander leaves three sons from a previous marriage, Mathew of London; Duncan of Norwich, England; and Benjamin of Norfolk, England; a daughter, Miranda of London; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Old South Church.