Former Sub-Dean Canon Robert Reiss dies aged 80

Canon Reiss was educated at Trinity College Cambridge and Westcott House, Cambridge.

He served a curacy at St John's Wood, London from 1969 to 1973. He travelled to India and South East Asia in 1973 and worked in the Rajshahi Mission in Bangladesh, in the Diocese of Dacca for three months.

On his return he was Chaplain at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1973 to 1978.

From 1978 to 1985 he was Selection Secretary for the Advisory Council for the Churches Mission (ACCM) and was made Senior Selection Secretary in 1983. From 1986 to 1996 he was Team Rector of Grantham, Lincolnshire. From 1992 to 1996 he was also Rural Dean of Grantham, and then in 1996 became Archdeacon of Surrey and Honorary Canon of Guildford Cathedral. He was a trustee of the Churches Conservation Trust

He was appointed a Canon Treasurer of Westminster in 2005 and later became Sub-Dean.

He retired in 2013. In retirement he obtained a Lambeth degree (an academic degree conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury) and published a book Sceptical Christianity: Exploring Credible Belief. An essay Death, Where is Your Sting? Dying and death examined was published last year.

Canon Reiss is mourned by his wife, Dixie, his daughter, the playwright Anya Reiss, an extensive array of friends, and the wider Abbey community.