Reverend Reginald Kissack

Title: Reverend

Epithet: Methodist minister and university chaplain; member of the World Council of Methodists and of the original Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (Oxfam); co-founder of the Isle of Man Family History Society (1910-1998)

Record type: Biographies

Biography: From ‘New Manx Worthies’ (2006):

Rex Kissack was educated at the Liverpool Collegiate School, and in 1928 won an open scholarship to Cambridge to study Classics. He graduated in 1932, and in 1933 went to Richmond Theological College. In 1934 he was ordained into the Methodist ministry and gained his Bachelor of Divinity degree from London University in 1935.

After three years as chaplain to Westminster College, London, he started his ministry as a circuit minister in Bolton (1938-1940). He volunteered to be a chaplain in the Royal Air Force in 1940 and served in Egypt, Palestine and Italy. The letters that he wrote to his wife and mother, which are now in the Manx National Heritage Library, reveal the activities of a war-time chaplain.

His ministry continued after the war in Oxford (1946-52), Leeds (1952-55), Rome (1955-63), Colwyn Bay (1963-65) and Liverpool (1965-75). On his retirement he continued as a supernumerary minister in the Isle of Man until 1996.

Following the end of the war he went to Wesley Memorial Church in Oxford where he was chaplain to the university. Many students remember the Sunday evening 'open house' at the manse. Several of those attending went on to influential positions, including the future UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher. During his five years in Oxford Rex also coached for Jesus College Boat Club and one year for the university second crew, Isis.

On arrival in Oxford he was asked to participate in a small committee examining how refugees in Europe could be assisted following the end of the war. This was called the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, now better known as Oxfam. In Italy, Rex was the Oxfam representative, inspecting refugee camps, and he continued to be actively involved on Oxfam committees until he retired in 1975.

In 1951, Wesley Memorial Church hosted the World Methodist Conference. With a minister from the USA Rex Kissack wrote a paper proposing the creation of the Oxford Theological Institute, which today is the main forum for the exchange of theological ideas that share the ethos of Methodism. There followed a period as a member of the executive of the World Council of Methodists. The headquarters of the World Methodist Council at Lake Junalaska, South Carolina, has many of his papers and the items relating to Wesley which he collected.

Oxford was followed by three years as chaplain at Leeds University. Just after arriving he was asked if he would be interested in becoming the Methodist Missionary Society representative in Rome. He replied that he would need to complete the three years at Leeds. The Missionary Society respected his principles and waited for two years.

The society asked him to prepare the Italian Methodist Church for autonomy. His task was to develop an infrastructure so that the church could become a legal organisation with its own administrative structure; the model had to be one that could be transferred to all other countries.

In 1955 he moved to Rome with his family. The situation in Italy was not easy, and Pope Pius XII was strongly antagonistic towards all Protestants. For six months pressure was put on the Italian Customs to refuse to release the family's possessions. Finally Rex found a communist official who agreed to provide the necessary paperwork because he was fiercely anti-Catholic!

One of the first actions that Rex took was to start services in English for the non-Italian community in Rome. Today this is one of the strongest English-speaking expatriate Methodist communities in the world.

Pope John XXIII succeeded to the papacy in 1958, and Protestants found themselves no longer outcasts, merely referred to as 'separated brethren'. As the planning went forward for the Vatican Council, Rex was invited to advise on how the Protestant churches could be incorporated into the council as observers.

The reaction of the Methodist Church to approaches from the Vatican was negative, but Rex Kissack knew it was important to develop the contact. He also believed that there would be changes in the World Methodist Council and that a different policy would prevail. He was right. In 1962 the President of the World Methodist Council did accept an invitation to visit the Vatican. Later Rex was one of the official observers for the Vatican Council, thus becoming the holder of a Vatican passport. This was followed in due course by papal medals, now in the archives of Manx National Heritage.

The work of producing legal structures for the Italian Methodist Church was completed in 1962. Between 1955 and 1962 Rex drove the length of Italy developing new churches and ensuring that the existing ones grew; by 1962, 49 churches had increased to 56.

In 1965 he was appointed as chairman of the Liverpool District. The effect of the ecumenical changes following the Vatican Council were beginning to be felt, and the challenge in Liverpool was to convert these ideals into practical reality. Rex was responsible for developing the coming-together of Catholic and Protestant churches through quiet diplomacy. He worked closely with the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool and the Roman Catholic Archbishop to lay the foundations of a strong ecumenical relationship.

Retirement in 1975 brought him 'home' to the Isle of Man. Since his days camping with the Liverpool Collegiate School at Glen Mooar near Kirk Michael he had been attracted to this quiet glen. He had helped purchase a field from the farmer of Ballacarnane Mooar when his parents wanted to build a house in 1936. His mother still lived there, so in 1975 he accepted the position of Supernumerary Minister of Laxey. He was able to wind down into retirement, although he remained as an active preacher until 1996.

In 1978 he and his wife Elizabeth moved to Glen Mooar, and he started to research the history of the Kissacks. The results of this work are found in two books, The Seed of Isaac and The Maclsaacs. One of the founders of the Isle of Man Family History Society, he ensured that the society established itself properly and also that their research was of high quality. The Seed of Isaac was submitted to the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies and 'highly commended'. Rex was a familiar figure in the Manx Museum library, serving as president of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society from 1983-4.

In 1991 Rex Kissack was invited to become Chaplain to the House of Keys. He took his duties seriously, sitting at the back of the chamber to listen to debates and eating lunch in the canteen with the Members.

Rex had a subtle sense of humour and enjoyed the bizarre situations in life. His sermons could bring ready laughter into the pew. Friends remember poems in his letters, often parodies of W.S. Gilbert's patter songs; Classicists could get a Latin or Greek verse.

There remains only one of his eight Christmas greetings from Rome, that of 1959, a view of the Capitol printed on the back of a postcard and sent to some 100 friends. All it needed was a stamp of the smallest value, but the verse was unmistakably Rex Kissack's chosen way of greeting:

Outlook for Sixty's not too murky,
If Fed with Fear, we're Talking Turkey — We'd relish, too, a Summit Diet
Of Peace, if only once we'd try it,
For there's enough Good Will, at least, To make Wise Kings move West and East, Hope too, if that which orbits them
Should focus still on Bethlehem

Rex died at home on 16th April 1998 and is buried in Kirk Michael Churchyard. On the day of his funeral in the Isle of Man, a mass was said for his soul in Liverpool's Roman Catholic Cathedral. It was a fitting tribute for a man who had done so much for ecumenism.

Biography written by John Kissack (son) with Henley Crowe.

(With thanks to Culture Vannin as publishers of the book: Kelly, Dollin (general editor), ‘New Manx Worthies’, Manx Heritage Foundation/Culture Vannin, 2006, pp.265-7.)

Culture Vannin

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Gender: Male

Date of birth: 4 September 1910

Date of death: 16 April 1998

Name Variant: Revd Reginald 'Rex' Kissack

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