Obituary Bishop Michael Evans
immediate reaction was one of astonishment. Yet he had excellent credentials that made him an obvious candidate, culminating in seven and a half years as parish priest at St Augustine’s, Tunbridge Wells, one of the Southwark Archdiocese’s most active parishes. Realising the importance of young people to the future of the Church, Bishop Michael lost no time in directly addressing the youth of his new diocese. In a pastoral letter deliv- ered on Youth Sunday 2003, he acknowledged that the Church had often ignored the needs of teenagers, failing to make them welcome and valued. Commenting “it’s cool to be Catholic”, he acknowledged that his ministry as a youth leader had been his greatest love as a parish priest. Like the diocese’s first bishop, Alan Clark,
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Michael Evans was a dedicated ecumenist who brought with him a wealth of experience. Since 1991 he had been a member of the Methodist/Roman Catholic Committee, and in 1997 he was appointed to the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. This made him one of the eight Catholic members of the International Joint Commission for Dialogue between the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church. In January 2006, Bishop Michael became one of four Christian presidents of the newly launched Christian Muslim Forum, set up to deal with conflict between the two faith communities. In spite of strained relations the Catholic
between and
Anglican Churches over such mat- ters as women priests, he remained optimistic, encouraging Catholics to appreciate the steady work of Arcic (the Anglican- Roman Catholic International Commission). He made an annual retreat with the ecumenical Taizé community in France.
HEN MICHAEL EVANS was appointed third Bishop of East Anglia in February 2003, his
for Boys in Canterbury. He went directly from there to Wonersh seminary. Having an uncle who was a priest influenced his decision. After ordination, on 22 June 1975, Bishop Michael spent two years as an assistant priest in Richmond, Surrey. From 1977 to 1979 he studied for a Master of Theology degree at Heythrop College, London. He then returned to Wonersh to lecture in Christian doctrine, becoming vice rector in 1985. The rector was Mgr Peter Smith, who later preceded him as Bishop of East Anglia. In 1987, he became a chaplain at the South London Universities Chaplaincy. It gave him a grounding in prac- tical ecumenism, as he worked closely with his Anglican counterparts. In 1993, he again became vice rector at
Commenting ‘it’s cool to be Catholic’, he acknowledged that his
Visits abroad also became a fea- ture of Bishop Michael’s ministry. A link with Cambodia established when he was at Tunbridge Wells led him to twin the East Anglia Diocese with the Cambodian Diocese of Battambang. Thanks to one of his priests, Fr Paul Maddison, who had important links with the Holy Land, Bishop Michael also twinned East Anglia with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Michael Evans was born in south London but the family moved to Whitstable, in Kent, when he was five. He was educated locally and then at Simon Langton Grammar School
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ministry as a youth leader had been his greatest love
Wonersh. In an interview at the time, he told me, “It was like going into a time warp, I even had my old room back, and some former stu- dents were now fellow lecturers.” In 1996, he became canon theologian of the Southwark Archdiocese. He wrote widely on theological issues. Probably the most controversial episode in Bishop Michael’s time at East Anglia was his decision, in 2007, to leave Amnesty International (AI) after 31 years as a member, over its stance on abortion. Hitherto the organisation had been neutral, but it then backed abortion for women whose health or human rights were in danger. It was a painful decision for the bishop, who had sat for two years on the council of AI’s British section. In private life, Bishop Michael enjoyed classical music, especially the works of Shostakovich. He also had a lifelong love of football and was an ardent Leeds United sup- porter. When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, in 2006, he vowed to fulfil his episcopal com- mitments until the end. Told in January 2011 that he did not have long to live, he wrote to his dio- cese: “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.”
Christopher Ralls
Michael Charles Evans, Bishop of East Anglia: born 10 August 1951, south London, died 11 July 2011, East Anglia.
■Christopher Ralls is a freelance journalist.
FROM THE ARCHIVE 50 YEARS AGO
The invitation of the British Government to meet the members of the European Economic Community on 1 August in Paris comes before the British Government is quite ready, and the talks will only be exploratory. In the last few days, the exodus from East Berlin has risen to 1,000 a day, as the East German Government has begun to turn the heat on those who live under it, but earn their livings in West Berlin. They are now carefully checked, in a way that suggests they are now for- bidden to move. The Berlin crisis has, in fact, moved steadily forward over the last two months, with N. Krushchev working up the pres- sure. He so plainly believes what he has stated more than once, that the balance of power has shifted, and that all the Western powers can do is recognise the present phase is one of Russian superiority all along the armaments line. Nobody should underestimate the big
place made in Soviet thinking for the pos- sibility of the Germans seeking the forcible overthrow of the East German Republic. The Russians know very well what a com- pletely insubstantial affair it is, something that would not last a week without the brooding presence of Russian military might, and think, if it went, a reunited Germany, moving its capital back to Berlin, would begin unpicking the work of 1945, as Hitler unpicked the work of 1919. The Tablet, 15 July 1961
100 YEARS AGO
The curtain went down this week on another act of the Portuguese tragedy when Queen Maria Pia died in the Castle of Stupinigi … [She] was the god-daughter of Pius IX, and that Pontiff had always shown a deep interest in her career, even when it came to be generally believed that her influence in Portugal was exercised in favour of the enemies of religion. Last November, on returning to Italy, she gave an interview … in which, speaking of cler- icalism and anti-clericalism, she is reported to have said: “I do not trouble myself about priests; I do not go to Mass; I do not speak of religion, and I do not like people to speak to me of it …” There is every reason to believe that when the unhappy Queen uttered these words her reason had been impaired, but it is painful to have to add that though a priest had been sent for when her last illness took a really serious turn, and though he was kept waiting for hours in an ante-chamber, he was not called to administer the consolations of religion until the royal patient lost consciousness and was in her agony – thanks to the orders of the doctors …
The Tablet, 15 July 1911
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