On Wednesday 19th February, 2014, at 11:30am a service of thanksgiving for the life of journalist Dessa Trevisan OBE was held at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street. Download Order of Service (pdf)
We gather in the journalists’ church to remember Dessa Trevisan, for more than 40 years the Times correspondent in Eastern Europe, who covered the big events of the Cold War from the uprising in Hungary in 1956 to the fall of Yugoslavia, her native country.
Her understanding of Eastern European Politics and her wide range of contacts meant that her analysis was always shrewd and well-informed. She was small of stature, but with a formidable character, a stylish dresser, a fiery temperament, and fluent in many languages.
After her expulsion from Belgrade she lived in London, but on retirement she returned to the Balkans, to Montenegro, retaining her passionate interest in the politics of that part of the world. She was honoured with an OBE in 1994.
We remember her with admiration and affection, and commend her today to the love and mercy of God as we celebrate her life and all she meant to us.
Amen.
Address
Dennis Taylor
William Shawcross
Reading
Patrick Bishop read Psalm 121
1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Michael Knipe read A Frontline Dispatch by Dessa Trevisan
Michael Robinson read Farewell My Friends by Rabindranath Tagore
Music
The choir & organist of St Bride’s performed the following anthems and songs: