HTR Magazine June21 Web - Flipbook - Page 12
were in some ways the perfect way to
use his musical abilities in the service of
the church. He was deeply interested in
church music and was a strong,
clearvoiced cantor. His time as a
Precentor also suited his passion for
good order in church services, put to
practical effect when he co-ordinated
liturgy and music for Robert Runcie’s
enthronement as archbishop and for
the historic visit to Canterbury of Pope
John Paul the second.
He served as a parish priest in very
varied situations. In 1964, he and my
mum took our very young family to
what is now Zimbabwe, to minister in a
large rural area centred on the school
and church at Daramombe. His life
there was dominated by long days
driving on dirt roads in unreliable
vehicles to minister to a widely
dispersed Christian flock – and by
preparing others to take forward the
work of the Anglican church there as
the country moved towards majority
rule. His was a progressive mission
there.
His two other parishes were as
different from rural Zimbabwe as
possible: a busy central London church,
St John’s Hyde Park Crescent; and his
final parish at Holy Trinity, Rothwell (a
small town in this diocese with a strong
sense of community which he enjoyed
being part of). Peterborough was his,
and my mum’s home, for much of his
retirement. This monumental cathedral
was his spiritual home. He was proud,
as was my mother, to become an
Honorary Canon here.
He had a deserved reputation for
beginning some conversations at about
what would normally be the third or
fourth sentence, for his drill sergeant
firing of questions at people and for
being able to find fault in almost any
piece of writing or church service. He
could be irascibly impatient –
particularly with traffic lights.
At the same time, as a priest and as
father to three children, my dad was
compassionate and non-judgmental. He
was not openly emotive, but could be a
surprisingly patient listener. That
hiding of emotions may be linked to a
family life scarred by tragedy. His father
died when Paul was just six, his mother
when he was fifteen. He had the good
fortune to be well cared for by a much
loved aunt and to fall in love with a
brilliant and beautiful young Cambridge
undergraduate, Judith Linton. They
married in 1957. My mother started the
marriage taking a very traditional role
and that is almost certainly how my dad
liked it. He was not an early supporter
of the ordination of women. That
changed in time, as mum was ordained
first as deacon in 1987 and then as
priest in Peterborough Cathedral in
1994. It is a sign of my father’s progress
along the road towards equality that he
retired from his vicarage at Rothwell to
live at my mother’s rectory at
Aldwincle.
