SHAWNEE - Catholics and Episcopalians alike said goodbye to a good friend Monday morning at St. Gregory's Abbey Church and Cemetery when they laid to rest the Rev. Ian Riding, interim president of St. Gregory's College.

Even the heavens took part in his burial Mass by providing overcast skies and rain - weather reminiscent of Ormskirk, Lancashire, England, where Riding was born October 15, 1944.

The Mass was attended by about 40 Oklahoma priests, as well as a standing-room-only crowd of friends and parishioners from all over Oklahoma.

Riding died at 12:20 p.m. Friday at Mercy Health Center. He had been in the hospital about ten weeks, said the Rev. Dan Ward, who is administrator and now acting president of the college.

Riding had suffered degeneration of tissues in his digestive tract for many years. Although he was in pain most of the last ten years of his life, he continued to perform an amazing amount of work.

Benedictine Sister Assumptia Betzen, who worked with him during the past four years in Chandler, talked about his openness, empathy and compassion.

"He just had it all," she said.

One of the last major works of his life was his doctoral dissertation on the pastoral theology of dying.

In it he wrote: "Dying is not merely the act of the moment, but contains within it the past from which it has emerged, and points to a future yet to be achieved."

For a man who faced certain death much earlier than the majority of his peers, he was more afraid of the aftermath of surgery than of dying, Betzen said.

She said Riding told her not long before he died that "the best thing anyone can do for the dying is just be there."

In reviewing Riding 's life, college president Ward said his friend's life journey had many turnings.

Riding was baptized in the Church of England. He earned a bachelor's degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1969. This was followed by bachelor's and master's degrees in theology at the University of Cambridge. He was ordained as a priest in the Church of England December 17, 1972.

That same year, he came to Oklahoma City to begin his ministry at St. John's Episcopal Church. While there, he became acquainted with the Benedictine monks at St. Gregory's. He entered the Roman Catholic Church as a novitiate at St. Gregory's in 1977.

He was conditionally ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1980. He then served two years as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Chandler and St. Michael's Church in Meeker.

During this time, he was completing work on a doctoral degree in pastoral theology at Heythrop College of the University of London. After defending his dissertation earlier this summer, he recently submitted the final revisions.

The Rev. Charles Buckley said monks at St. Gregory's would push to have his doctorate awarded posthumously.

In the funeral homily, Ward talked about Riding 's deep compassion but noted he had a few faults.

"I'm convinced it will take us at the monastery months and months to empty and dispose of his boxes," Ward said, to the delight of those who knew of Riding's foible as a collector.

Ward, an Irishman, chuckled when he recounted another story about Riding, an Englishman. That was the time Riding had to confess to Ward, his religious superior, that he had gotten a speeding ticket driving back from Chandler on St. Patrick's Day last year.

Ward's voice broke when he spoke of his friend's sadness in the last days of his life that he was too weak to pray over scripture.

"He told me, 'Old friend, I mention your name to God every day in my heart."

In remarks before the service, Ward said Riding also was a runner, lifted weights and was learning to play the cello.

After the Mass, pallbearers carried his simple, light gray casket to the abbey cemetery on the church's west side.

The graveside service ended with an invitation for everyone to throw a handful or shovelful of red Oklahoma clay into the grave.

Clods of dirt hitting the casket lid with a dull thump provided accompaniment to the mournful sounds of Oklahoma City bagpiper Tim Copelin playing "The Dark Island."

Margaret Henderson of Norman, an oblate and co-member of the Sisters of Benedict, said throwing earth into the grave provided closure.

Henderson said someone had asked her how she would feel if Riding had never been in her life.

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world," she said.