Père René Beaupère (1925 – 2022)

‘Apôtre et artisan de l’oecuménisme’

We were sorry to hear that Père René Beaupère, Dominican priest from Lyon, France, founder of the Association Française des Foyers Interconfessionaux Chrétiens (AFFMIC), the equivalent of AIF in France, and a major player in ecumenism, died on 10 December 2022. 

Growing up and studying in Lyon, Père Beaupère met Paul Couturier, founder of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 1939, which brings together all baptised Christians including Orthodox, Anglican, Roman Catholic and other Christian traditions to pray for unity. From the early 1950s, Père Beaupère found a vocation to develop ecumenism. He became a member of the Groupe des Dombes, a gathering of RC and Protestant theologians which has met regularly since 1937 to visit holy places and to share fellowship, theological insights and different experiences of prayer and worship. In 1953 he founded the Centre St Irénée in Lyon for the study of ecumenism, which has been the source of many ecumenical initiatives. 

Père Beaupère organised the first ecumenical pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1961, followed by numerous trips to many countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, including places behind the Iron Curtain. These trips brought together Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran and other Protestant Christians who shared their beliefs and their prayers and grew in their faith and their commitment to unity. He had a particular interest in the pastoral care of ‘mixed marriages’, bringing couples and families together to discuss their situations and to learn more about each other’s shared lives of faith. He started a regular review ‘Foyers Mixtes’, sharing the experience of such families and containing articles on theological subjects and their pastoral care. Ecumenical catechesis of children in these families developed, led by priests, pastors and couples, in parishes around Lyon and elsewhere.  Their work inspired the World Council of Churches and the Second Vatican Council.

Ruth and Martin Reardon met Père Beaupère as AIF was beginning to grow from its early roots in the late 1960s, and gradually they began to share more and more of their experiences and insights, leading to visits by members of AIF to meetings in France and Switzerland, and to various international ecumenical conferences in different countries, where their relationship developed further. This in turn led to the first international gathering of interchurch families at the World Council of Churches HQ in Geneva in 1998, organised mainly by the French and Swiss groups, and with many AIF members attending, and the second international gathering in Rome in 2003, which brought together couples and families from the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and beyond. The planning group PREPROMA for this gathering had members speaking French, English, German and Italian, and meetings were held over two years in Lyon, where we received warm hospitality from local families and the Centre St Irénée. Theological exchange and documents such as the so-called ‘Rome Document’ followed this meeting, and this led to a group of 12, both lay and clergy, representing interchurch families from 10 countries, to talk with members of staff at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, where we were warmly received.

Père Beaupère was always at the centre of activities at the very interesting and enjoyable meetings of French interchurch families in Lyon, Paris and Lille. These always included social times as well as the usual talks, discussions, shared prayer and worship such as AIF has at Swanwick. One year there was a blind magician who kept us all fascinated, especially the children. Another year when the meeting was held in December members were invited to bring food and drink from their region, which as you can imagine meant a wonderful buffet. I took a Christmas cake, which divided opinion. One French-Swedish couple brought some smoked reindeer salami, and I had to remember not to mention that when I returned home to quite small children! Père Beaupère would often do a party turn with a twinkle in his eye, such as a comic verse or reading, and and also one year he treated us to an extended lecture on his particular field of specialist knowledge, the writer Antoine de St-Exupéry (author of ‘Le Petit Prince’), whose family he knew very well in Lyon. 

Some of you may remember that Père Beaupère came over from France to attend Martin Reardon’s funeral. He took the TGV to Paris, and one of the AFFMIC members drove him through the tunnel and round London to Turvey, returning soon after the service, a real whistlestop tour. Ruth was very touched that they had made the journey. The last time she met him was at an AFFMIC weekend in Lyon in 2015, when Margaret Minoletti accompanied her on the journey and I joined them there. The two ecumenical friends and colleagues were really delighted to see each other, and it was very moving to see them embracing each other and talking for a long time together.

Another well-loved ecumenical mentor to interchurch families who will be very much missed. May he rest in peace.

Melanie Finch