THE CATHOLIC HERALD JULY 15 2011

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Bishop Evans loses struggle against cancer

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BY ED WEST

BISHOP Michael Evans of East Anglia has died after a long battle with prostate cancer.

The 59-year-old bishop passed away on Monday evening in hospital six years after he was diagnosed with an advanced and aggressive strain of the disease. Throughout his illness he continued his work right up until his admission to hospital a few days before his death.

His death was greeted with sadness across the Catholic and wider Christian community, with Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark saying: “Bishop Michael will be very much missed by so many people in the Archdiocese of Southwark and the Diocese of East Anglia – family, friends, laity, religious and clergy.”

Born on August 10 1951 in south London, Michael Charles Evans grew up in Kent and attended Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury, going on to study for the priesthood at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, in Surrey.

He was ordained in the Archdiocese of Southwark in 1975 and spent two years as assistant priest at St Elizabeth’s in Richmond, London, and then studied for a theology degree at London University before going back to St John’s Seminary, where he lectured in doctrine.

He spent two years as vicerector at the seminary, with the then Mgr Peter Smith, later the second Bishop of East Anglia and now Archbishop of Southwark, as rector.

He then served as parish priest at St Augustine’s in Tunbridge Wells for eight years before Pope John Paul II appointed him as the third Bishop of East Anglia in 2003. On his appointment he said he was “astonished” and felt “unworthy”.

In 2006 he was told that he was suffering from an aggressive form of prostate cancer, which affects many men in late middle age. But he continued to work tirelessly in the diocese despite worsening health.

In January 2011 Bishop Evans broke the news to his diocese that he did not have long to live. He wrote: “Rather than resign, I would like to continue among you as your bishop and the father of our diocesan family until this stage of my life ends. I do not know how long that will be. I am most grateful for the ways you have cared for and so prayerfully supported me in recent years. You remain very much in my thoughts and care.

“As I live now under the shadow of death, my prayer is very much that of St Paul that I may know something of the power of Christ’s Resurrection and a share in his sufferings, trusting that the Lord is with me. I pray that even now I can joyfully witness something of the good news we are all called to proclaim.”

Archbishop Smith said: “As a priest of the archdiocese, Michael was totally committed to his priestly ministry both as a pastoral priest and professor of theology for many years at St John’s seminary.

“Having known him as a fellow student, a friend and brother priest involved in the formation of future priests, I was delighted when he was appointed as the third Bishop of East Anglia. There Bishop Michael continued that dedication, emphasising the bishop’s role as a teacher of the faith and spending himself in building up the diocesan family of East Anglia.

“He was unstinting in using his time and great talents in the service of the clergy, religious and people of the diocese.”

He added: “Even during his long period of ill-health, although increasingly restricted in what he was able to do, he refused to give up. I have no doubt that he will be greeted by the Lord he served so faithfully, with the words: ‘Well done, good and faithful

Bishop Evans persevered in service as a bishop even in the later stages of his cancer Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk servant, enter into the Kingdom prepared for you.’ ”

The Rt Rev Stephen Conway, Anglican Bishop of Ely, also paid tribute. “I am very sad to learn of the death of Bishop Michael Evans,” he said.

“Like Pope John Paul II, Michael’s living with his illness was more eloquent than any sermon about living through human weakness the joy of Christ’s Resurrection.

“He will be remembered in our prayers across the Diocese. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.”

A regular writer of articles and pamphlets on theological issues, Bishop Evans always focused on ecumenical dialogue as an important part of his ministry.

From 1991 he was a member of the British Methodist/Roman Catholic Committee and in 1997 was appointed by the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity to be one of the eight Catholic members of the International Joint Commission for Dialogue.

Bishop Evans was also one of the four Christian co-presidents of the ChristianMuslim Forum established by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

A life-long supporter of Amnesty International, he left the organisation in 2007 after it came out in support of abortion, saying that “it cannot expect those of us who are just as passionate about the human rights of the unborn child to feel at ease being part of such an organisation”.

Much of his priestly ministry was spent working with young people, especially older teenagers and young adults, and every year from 1984 he spent a week’s retreat at the ecumenical community at Taizé in France, and as a bishop invited young adults from the diocese to accompany him.

From 1989 to 2003, he was a member of the Catholic bishops’ conference Committee for priestly formation, and from 1995-2003 he was chairman of the Archdiocese of Southwark justice and peace coordinating committee.

Thanksgiving Mass marks closure of Cheshire church

BY MARK GREAVES

BISHOP Mark Davies of Shrewsbury has closed a 1960s church in Cheshire after repair costs escalated to more than a quarter of a million pounds.

As The Catholic Herald went to press Bishop Davies was scheduled to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving at St Raphael’s church in the Millbrook area of Stalybridge yesterday to mark its closure. Priests from across the diocese were expected to attend.

The bishop closed the church after consulting parishioners over whether they felt they could raise the £250,000 needed for urgent repairs.

He celebrated Mass at the parish in May and said in a homily that the church could stay open if parishioners were able to raise the money for repairs themselves.

The roof and fabric of the church, built in 1963, were extensively damaged partly because of the area’s heavy rainfall.

It was feared that electrical systems may be exposed to the rain and that the building would become unsafe. There is, as yet, no plan for the building – it may be demolished.

Ahead of the Thanksgiving Mass Bishop Davies said: “It is always a sad moment to see a church closed. I was grateful to be able to meet with the people of St Raphael’s as we faced this difficult decision together.

“On Thursday we gather with feelings of sadness but most of all to give thanks for this church building and the great purpose for which it was built almost 50 years ago. This purpose continues as we look forward to the continuing mission of both parish and school.”

Fr Bernard Forshaw, the parish priest of neighbouring St Peter’s

Church in Stalybridge, will now celebrate a Mass at St Raphael’s parish hall every Sunday at 5pm.

He has been overseeing the parish since May when its former parish priest, Fr Paul Hughes, resigned on health grounds.

Fr Forshaw said: “We are all very sorry to see St Raphael’s church having to close so quickly due to the rapidly deteriorating condition of the building and the escalating costs to put it right.”

He said he was “looking forward to working with the parish and [primary] school community at St Raphael’s and to caring for their spiritual needs”.

The Millbrook area was originally served by St Peter’s church but the new parish was set up in 1958 by Bishop John Murphy after Catholics in the area had been worshipping at a canteen for about 12 years.

The canteen at Staley cotton mill had accommodated a weekly Mass for 50 or so Catholics at the courtesy of the mill’s director.

In 1958 Fr James Fraser arrived in the area and began to celebrate Masses, hear Confessions and perform baptisms from a rented house called Red Croft and later from a wooden parish hall.

Work on St Raphael’s church started in 1961 and it was opened two years later at a cost of £69,500 (about £1 million in today’s money). The primary school was added in the 1970s.

Its distinctive features include a dome and a 60ft-wide stainedglass window depicting the Old Testament encounter between St Raphael, one of the three Archangels named in the Bible, and Tobias.

Stalybridge is an old mill town in the foothills of the Pennines with a population of 22,000 people.

The closure comes just a month after another church in the diocese, Ss Peter and Paul in New Brighton, the Wirral, was reopened by Bishop Davies.

The church had been closed in 2008 by the previous Bishop of Shrewsbury, Bishop Brian Noble, amid rising repair and maintenance costs.

Bishop Davies partially reopened the church in March, introducing a weekly Friday Mass in a side chapel. Last month it was announced that a traditionalist order of priests, the Institute of Christ the King, will take over the church and turn it into a centre for Eucharistic devotion.

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Farm Street says parking fees will deter worshippers

BY ED WEST

A GROUP of central London churches are under threat from a plan by Westminster Council to charge for Sunday parking.

The churches include the Jesuit Farm Street church and St George’s Anglican church in Hanover Square, and are based in Mayfair, Soho and Marylebone, the districts that the council plans to start charging for later in the year.

Church representatives met council leaders at Westminster City Hall last week after the consultation period ended on June 23. The council cabinet will vote on August 1.

Some churches say they could lose up to half of their congregation, with parking costing £4 an hour in Mayfair and £3 an hour in Marylebone.

Fr William Pearsall, parish priest at Farm Street, said: “The churches will be extremely damaged. Some will lose considerable number of congregations. Our representation was very serious.”

Fr Pearsall said the council was being sympathetic but that “the churches are not being considered as special cases, Sunday is not being treated as a special day.

“They don’t seem to take into account the churches’ social capital or civic value or their role in social cohesion. This is going to damage the congregations and work of the church. It comes at the same time as the Coalition White

Paper on localism and the sharing of civic responsibility.

“The Church is the largest voluntary body in the country. Every point raised in the meeting, from the Catholics, Anglicans and Methodists, emphasised that we serve the community. We teach the Gospel love of neighbour and self-sacrifice, and we train children in their values.”

Sunday trading was introduced in 1994 and since then there has been a large increase in traffic. “We understand why the council has to do something,” Fr Pearsall said, “but to quote one Salvationist: ‘The heart of our church community will be ripped out.’”

He added: “Like most city centre churches, our congregations will come outside our parish boundaries. Disabled people, those who don’t want to deal with British weather, or those with families, will find it a struggle.”

A spokesman for Churches Together in Westminster, an organisation representing the parish churches affected, said: “Every culture has a day set aside for rest and for freedom from the claims of commerce and the state. This is a necessary space for any healthy society. For historic reasons, Sunday is the day set aside in our country, and people consider this to be part of their way of life. On that day there is freedom to rest, to visit friends and family – and to support a church community.”

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