This is a text-only version of an article first published on Wednesday, 10 April 2013. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
The House of Lords was recalled today for Members to offer tributes to the late Baroness Thatcher.
The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd John Pritchard, spoke from the Bishops' Bench. The Lord Bishop of Oxford:My Lords, I rise in tribute to the noble Lady, Baroness Thatcher, sharing with noble Lords a string of strong memories of a remarkable woman, the first to occupy the office of Prime Minister. As others have said, she changed the face of Britain, opening up new avenues of possibility in all directions - share ownership, home ownership, the liberalisation of markets, entrepreneurial innovation and so on.
She strengthened Britain's role in the world with her clear policies on defence, the Falklands, Northern Ireland, Communism, Europe, South Africa and more.
No-one was in any doubt that there was a force in the land. I spent the last years of the 1980s in County Durham, so I know some of the deep divisions Lady Thatcher's policies caused.
Billy Elliot country was not an all-singing, all-dancing landscape.
It's almost impossible to find moderate opinions, for or against, on her style of leadership, but the one thing we can all acknowledge is that she was a leader of absolute integrity in terms of her own beliefs.
She was an iconic 'conviction politician. 'The Church of England had its moments with Lady Thatcher of course.
The suggestion that the date for the enthronement of the Archbishop of Canterbury be moved so that it avoided a clash with the budget of 1980 was one early instance.
Happily, and in a rare example of the lady being for turning, in the end it was the budget that was rescheduled. The Church traditionally has a role of being in critical solidarity with governments of all persuasions and so the production of the influential report Faith in the City and the Archbishop of Canterbury's Falklands sermon in which he remembered the bereaved on both sides - these both caused momentary mayhem.
But that was to be expected when issues of principle were at stake.
It didn't dent her respect for the Church or our regard for her steely qualities. It was entirely fitting that the place where she particularly enjoyed the chance to walk securely and privately in her latter years were the grounds of Lambeth Palace, which successive Archbishops placed at her disposal. We should remember too her roots in Methodism and the influence that her Christian faith played in informing her beliefs about personal responsibility and the importance of religion in public life.
Methodism was born in the pursuit of justice and hope among working people.
It had, and still has, a radical edge, and it's from that edge that Margaret Thatcher drew much of her strength.
You don't have to agree with every decision she took to acknowledge the strength of character, the determination, the passion, in all she did. History will continue to debate the legacy of Baroness Thatcher for years to come, but she clearly defined politics not just for a generation but for many generations. Some of us may perhaps wish that, on a few more occasions, the lady had been for turning, for turning has a good pedigree in Christian theology, but we can still applaud her many achievements while regretting the excesses. And we most certainly will not forget her.
May she rest in peace.