Retirement of the Reader of the Temple

Master Rory Phillips, Chair of the Temple Church Trust, writes…

Mark Hatcher arrived as Reader of the Temple in September 2015. He quickly became a superlative colleague and a dear friend. He initially remained at the Bar Council as Special Adviser to the Chair of the Bar. In 2019, he moved down Chancery Lane to be here in the Temple Church full time. He has thereby been able to transform the role of Reader. He has been a most welcome and welcoming presence, unfailingly generous in spirit and warm-hearted, a true representative of the Temple Church at its best. He also has an encyclopaedic mental Rolodex: he knows everyone and remembers everything. He has to the full, then, that most sympathetic of gifts: he recognises judges, barristers, clerks, our annual visitors from around the world and our regular congregation from 30 yards as they cross Church Court towards a service, or concert or special event.

Mark’s preaching is utterly true to himself: kind and nonjudgmental, capacious in his understanding and care of others. He has remained true, too, to his passion for justice: in his own preaching and the organisation of visiting speakers and special discussions on socio-legal topics. It is a rare person who will say no to such an invitation from Mark to speak here.

After a full decade, Mark retired in July, with well-deserved acclaim and with the heartfelt thanks and best wishes of us all. He remains, of course, a Bencher of Middle Temple and an Honorary Bencher of The Inner Temple; he has good reason to be back here to see his many friends, and we all hope that he will be. All of us will remember, for a long time to come, Mark’s smile and his greeting, his sensitivity and his good cheer. He has helped to make the Church what it is, and what we all hope it will – thanks to the years of his presence and his work here – remain. We are very grateful to him indeed, and we send to both him and Clare our very best wishes for the future.

The Rev’d Mark Hatcher writes…

When I climbed, with a little trepidation, the steps of the Temple Church’s vertiginous pulpit to give my first sermon as Reader, I was conscious of the ‘Battle of the Pulpits’. My 16th-century predecessor, Walter Travers, regularly disagreed publicly with the Master of the Temple, Richard Hooker, on matters of worship and doctrine. It was, of course, a time of religious ferment, but their increasingly acrimonious disputes led to a prolonged gladiatorial contest. Their sermons were not for the faint-hearted; they could last an hour or more apiece. These disputes became famous, then scandalous. Eventually, Travers was banned from preaching in 1586. I am happy to say that relations between the Master and the Reader over the past ten years have been very harmonious. Under Robin Griffith-Jones’s distinguished leadership as Master and with the dedicated support of the Temple Church Trust, the Church has gone from strength to strength.

During my tenure as Reader, there have been three Chairs of the Church Committee (Ian Mayes KC, Sir Stephen Tomlinson and Andrew Spink KC) and a fourth, Rory Phillips KC, who became Chair of the Temple Church Trust. This was created in 2024 following important changes in the governance arrangements between the Inns and the Church. The Benchers of the Inner and Middle Temple, who have served and continue to serve on these two bodies, have been extremely generous with their time and expertise on behalf of the two Inns to oversee the work of the Church. This work is supported by a small executive team in the Church Office, led (since 2024) by Chief Executive Paul Cutts and with input from the Inns’ staff. Their contributions have increasingly focused on ensuring that the Church is sustainable for the future and remains ‘the beating heart of the Temple’.

I have been blessed to participate in the life of the Temple community, to have shared ministry with Robin Griffith-Jones and to have worked with the Church’s music department led by Tom Allery, Matt Power the Verger and Catherine de Satgé, the Church Administrator and the whole Church team. It has been an enormous privilege to have worked with such a dedicated and talented group of colleagues to inspire our worship, sustain the Church and help promote its vitality. There is a great deal to thank Rory Phillips and his fellow trustees for, as well as the Church team for their considerable parts in safeguarding and promoting the Church’s future. The Temple Church is in very good hands.

Rory Phillips KC
Chair of the Temple Church Trust
3 Verulam Buildings

The Rev’d Mark Hatcher
Reader of the Temple Church 2015–2025