Below is a full tribute to the late Alan Welch from Rev Vincent Jambawo of St. John’s Methodist Church, Amersham:

Monday 4th January was a dark day for all of us in the Methodist Church and beyond.

Alan Welch, a well-respected and deeply loved member of the church family and wider community of Amersham died while doing what he liked best … cycling!

Despite the profound sadness inevitably accompanying this experience of death, I have no doubt in my mind that Alan Welch would not like to see us weeping over his body.

He was too outward-looking for that and his generous spirit towers with noble rebuke over any attempts to feel sorry for him.

Rather let us celebrate our good fortune and undeserved blessing for having had as our dear friend one Alan Welch.

Consequently when friends and family, neighbours and strangers, church goers and non-church goers meet at 3:30pm on Friday 22nd January at St Johns Methodist for a thanksgiving service, it will be not to mourn but to pay tribute to a life that touched and transformed the lives of many others.

I’m therefore not surprised that words of grief to my inbox (necessary as they may be) have been overwhelmed by heartfelt messages of tribute and celebration to Alan’s valiant efforts to improve the lot of humankind wherever that encounter may be.

Messages have been pouring in from Ghana and Kenya (where Alan taught Physics and Chemistry in a number of secondary schools with his dearly beloved and now departed wife Margaret, San Diego, California where Alan went on a staff exchange and from literally everywhere locally. His thoughtful presence and quiet wisdom suffused any conversation that he would be part of.

Although he would never publicly admit it, perhaps Alan’s crowning glory was in the establishment of Lab Aid, a charity that resources school laboratories in Africa with equipment from the UK.

This clearly demonstrates how Alan inhabited and embodied the vision of his kindness and generosity because it brings together different strands of his multifaceted life.

For me personally, Alan was a source of sensitive encouragement and powerful inspiration. His capacity to listen with sharp yet unobtrusive insight is hugely appreciated by me and many others in the church and beyond.

He was a giant of a man in firmly believing that the structural inequalities we find in the world could be conquered by love and generosity because they were made from nothing more than ‘human self-centeredness and greed’.

Alan, may your soul rest in peace as you soar with angels in heaven.