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'Called to Serve'
The stories of the ordinands of St
Faith's, Great Crosby
Myles Cooper Davies
I cannot remember when the thought of
ordination started for me, but it was certainly when
I was still a child. My father died after a long
illness when I was 8, and when I was about 10, I
decided I would much prefer to go to Church, at St
Philip’s in Litherland, rather than go to Sunday
School. The clergy there became something of a role
model for me, and I soon became convinced that this
was what God wanted me to do with my life. My
Confirmation when I was 14 was an important moment
in my coming to faith, and even more, a few days
later, my first Communion. From this time on, the
Eucharist grew in importance for me, but St Philip’s
followed the usual pattern of Evangelical parishes
in those days, with Holy Communion taking place only
once a month at the main morning service, and a
weekly celebration at 8am.
From school at Merchant Taylors’ I knew a number of
people who belonged to St Faith’s, and as I moved
into the Sixth Form I decided to come to St Faith’s
myself. This was in the early years of Fr Charles
Billington’s ministry, when many new things were
starting to happen. But I remain grateful for
everything which St Philip’s had given me, not least
an abiding love for the words of the Book of Common
Prayer. I love to celebrate the Prayer Book
Eucharist, and as I do so I hear in my memory the
cadences of the voice of the Revd Geoffrey Taylor,
then Vicar of St Philip’s.
Slowly and not always easily, God opened the doors
for ordination to happen. Canon Basil Naylor, the
Director of Ordinands, decided that I should be
sponsored for a Selection Conference when I was 19,
in the aftermath of my failing some of my University
exams at Durham. The result was that I was ordained
at the youngest possible age of 23, after spending
three very happy years at theological college in
Salisbury.
I went as curate to St Mary the Virgin, West Derby,
a marvellous and busy parish with a strong choir and
a large number of baptisms, weddings and funerals. I
recall a Saturday in August one year when we had six
weddings, on the hour, and we had already done two
weddings and a funeral the day before! So it was a
great place to learn how to do all the pastoral
aspects of being ordained.
There were lots more clergy then, including curates,
but it is hard now to think back to when all of us
were male. West Derby had four of us on the staff,
including Deaconess Lena Prince, who taught me so
much about pastoral ministry. It was Lena’s ministry
which convinced me that God was calling the church
to open ordained ministry to women, and later on
when she retired, she became honorary curate at St
Anne, Stanley during my time as Vicar. It was a
great blessing that her hobby in retirement was
parish visiting! I had the wonderful privilege of
preaching when she presided at the Eucharist for the
first time in 1994, for which she had waited for
nearly forty years, and again at her Funeral
Eucharist in 2012.
After my curacy, I returned to Crosby and Seaforth
for the next six years. Fr Peter Goodrich was then
both Vicar of St Faith’s and Priest in charge of St
Thomas, Seaforth within an informal Group Ministry
which included St Mary, Waterloo Park and Christ
Church Waterloo, as well as St Andrew’s United
Reformed Church and Waterloo Baptist Church. I
became the curate, with specific responsibility for
St Thomas, Seaforth. The church building had closed,
and we worshipped in the church hall, and soon after
my arrival, we created a lovely prayerful chapel on
the stage of the hall which seated about a hundred
people. We prayed in it each day, and it became much
loved. St Faith’s people were wonderfully
supportive, and I had the great blessing of having
my mother and grandmother come to share the Vicarage
with me. On Sundays our services were timed so that
it was possible to be at both St Thomas’s and St
Faith’s, so I was often able to preside or preach at
St Faith’s alongside our services at Seaforth. After
three years, the Waterloo and Seaforth Group
Ministry came into being formally, and as a
consequence I became the Vicar at St Thomas’s for
the second part of my time there.
During the Seaforth years, I was also invited by the
Bishop to become the Assistant Diocesan Director of
Ordinands (DDO), and as part of a team, I looked
after those who were exploring their sense of call
from the Liverpool Archdeaconry, handing them on to
the DDO at the point when they were ready to go to a
Selection Conference.
In 1984, I left Seaforth to become Vicar of St Anne,
Stanley in the Old Swan area of Liverpool, and I
remained there for 27 years. St Anne’s was very like
St Faith’s in many ways, with a strong sense of
community, where people cared and looked out for
each other very deeply. They supported me in the
work with Ordinands, and when I was asked by Bishop
David Sheppard to become DDO in 1994, they were
delighted, as I made it clear both to them and to
the Bishop at that stage that it was my intention to
stay there as long as I was DDO.
I have always loved the music of the Church and have
long believed that it is one of the ways in which
God brings people to faith. Both at West Derby and
at St Anne’s the choir was a hugely important part
of our parish life together, and, along with serving
at the altar, a marvellous way of involving young
people in the life and worship of the Church. I
thought that I would be a Parish Priest until I
retired.
In 2005, two great changes happened for me. I felt
the time was right after 12 years as DDO for someone
else to bring fresh vision into this important role.
Our neighbours at St Paul, Stoneycroft, another
church built and endowed by Douglas Horsfall, had
been without a Vicar for two years, and I offered to
become Priest in charge. In the same month that I
was licensed, the role of Canon Residentiary at the
Cathedral was advertised, as the Bishop and the
Chapter wished to include a serving Parish Priest as
a member of the Chapter. I applied for this and was
appointed. It was good to have the variety of
ministry, not least on Sundays, when I would be in
the Cathedral about one week in three, with a
Cathedral colleague offering cover in the parishes,
and the other two weeks with business as usual in
the two parishes.
St Paul’s had a major restoration programme underway
and during the six years I was with them, we
completed two stages of work with grant funding from
English Heritage. For my last three years there, I
was Vicar of the United Benefice of St Anne with St
Paul.
When the post of Canon Precentor became vacant, I
did not apply as we had a new curate in the parish
and it would have been quite wrong to consider
leaving her without her training incumbent. However
when an appointment was not made, Bishop James, Dean
Justin (as he was then) and I found a means of me
becoming Precentor whilst remaining Vicar of the
parishes for a further couple of years. This lasted
until Dean Justin moved to be Bishop of Durham in
October 2011, when at last I became full time at the
Cathedral and Acting Dean for a year. For the first
time in almost 30 years, I found myself with just
one job, even if it was looking after a Cathedral!
The Precentor is the person accountable to the
Chapter for everything concerning worship: the music
and the choir, the orders of service, the Cross
Guild, the stewards, the flower team, the bell
ringers, the Passion Play team. In addition as Vice
Dean, I also deputise for the Dean on several
occasions, and look after the Cathedral Company
Committee which is there to reflect the concerns of
the Cathedral congregation. Since earlier this year,
I represent the Cathedral on the Rodney Street
Association and Love Canning who are concerned about
the local environment immediately around the
Cathedral.
Worship is the Church’s shop window as it is where
most people have their first encounter with the
Church, so it really does matter. I believe that
effective Liturgy has the power to bring us very
close to God and to bring people to faith. Poorly
prepared or badly presented Liturgy has the power to
do precisely the opposite!
Among the memorable moments during my time at the
Cathedral have been great occasions such as the
Battle of the Atlantic with HRH the Princess Royal,
and two which I remember with particular pleasure
are the service when we commemorated the May Blitz,
and Daniel Bishop, the Associate Organist and I
created a soundscape which recalled the sounds which
the city must have heard in 1941. The great moment
of that service was to see everyone, including very
senior clergy and VIP guests swaying along and
joining in with Dame Vera Lynn as we all sang “We’ll
meet again…” There wasn’t a dry eye in the house!
And there was a wonderful service for the
anniversary of the Coronation, when the
Probationers, the youngest members of the choir, had
about ten processions carrying the Crown Jewels,
including a Crown - which fooled quite a few
of our visitors - from the west end to the
High Altar. The children must have walked miles in
that service and I’m sure they all slept well that
night!
Weekday Choral Evensong on a dark winter’s evening
when there are just a few of us in the Cathedral
with the most lovely music and the timeless words of
the Book of Common Prayer are also very special,
particularly for me the psalms.
I reached my 40thanniversary of ordination in
September 2015, and it was good to celebrate this in
the Cathedral, at the very altar where I had been
ordained, and later that day in St Margaret of
Antioch, Toxteth, yet another Horsfall church!
A highlight of the service was for me to give
flowers to my mother once again, and to give her
God’s blessing, just as I did the first time I
presided, forty years ago, and to thank her for
being at my side for a great deal longer than 40
years.
October 22nd, 2015