PEPPERDENE, LIDDEN MAX MULLER (1896-1982)

PEPPERDENE, LIDDEN MAX MULLER, Anglican rector, Chatham, 1957-69; b. London, England, 11 Feb 1896, s/o Frank S. Pepperdene and Elizabeth Archer; m. Florence Elizabeth Shaw; d. Moncton, 12 Sep 1982.

Lidden M. M. Pepperdene, who received his theological training at Wycliffe College, was made a deacon of the Anglican church in 1926 and ordained a priest the following year. From 1926 to 1930 he was curate at All Saints Church in Toronto, after which he was rector of Trinity Church in Quebec City for eight years. He was the incumbent at LaTuque, Que., between 1938 and 1941 and at St Luke's Church, Portland (Saint John), N.B., from 1941 to 1946.

In 1946 Pepperdene was appointed a judge of the Juvenile Court of New Brunswick for the Saint John district, and he occupied this position for over three years. He returned to pastoral duties in 1950 as rector of Sussex and came to Chatham from there in 1957. In so doing, he stepped into the shoes of a younger priest, the Rev. H. Crawford Scott, who had held the rectorship since the retirement of the Rev. Thomas Parker in 1955. Scott's term had been marred by disputes and other difficulties, and he had taken his departure without notifying the parish of his intention to do so.

Pepperdene was inducted as rector of Chatham in February 1958 and remained in office, in spite of serious health problems, until his retirement in 1969, at age seventy-three. It was his misfortune to be the rector on 12 January 1964, "perhaps the saddest day in the history of the parish," when Chatham's beautifully-renovated St Mary's Chapel was razed by fire. This disaster occurred at a time when he was despondent about shrinking memberships at both St Paul's and St Mary's, and he spoke out against rebuilding the church. Later, after being criticized for negativism, he stated that although he was opposed to rebuilding he would go along with whatever the vestry decided to do. To many in his congregation this seemed like weakness. In fact, the historian of the parish, while allowing that Pepperdene was "an excellent preacher," chastises him for pessimism and lack of leadership in general and states that what the parishioners needed in the 1960s was "another Forsyth"; that is, a dynamic, decisive figure such as Canon David Forsyth, who made Chatham parish his personal fiefdom from 1873 to 1930.

Pepperdene, who was residing at Petitcodiac, N.B., at the time of his death in 1982, was survived by his wife, Florence Shaw, three sons, and three daughters.