My Dad's funeral was held on Friday 21st December and was a wonderful celebration of a committed life lived in service of God.
Simon Cake spoke about being one of many "waifs and strays" that Dad and Mum accepted into their family and have supported in many different ways. Ian Inness described the divide in Oxford between town and gown and spoke of the way in which Dad overcame initial suspicion and scepticism on the Barton Estate at someone coming from the academic life of Oxford to begin community work there.
Keith Sinclair, in his sermon based on 2 Corinthians 5. 1-10, spoke of the way in which this passage did not just describe what had happened to Dad since death but also described the pattern of his life. Dad, once he had entered social work, quickly climbed the social and professional ladder but then found his career destroyed when the funding for the Barton Project was cut. Returning to Somerset and starting all over again by retraining for a new career seemed to involve the destruction of all that he had worked for in the first half of his life but without it he would not have had the ministry in the Church of England that he enjoyed in the latter half of his life. Without that destruction there would have been no Aston Community Youth Project, no Voice of the People Trust, no application of Celtic Christianity to urban ministry and none of the ministry that he shared at Aston Parish Church and St Edmund's Tyseley. That rebirth and resurrection prefigures that which Dad now enjoys in the presence of his Lord and Saviour who has welcomed him with the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
Dad's obituary is as follows:
Revd. Philip Evens, 1936 - 2007
Revd. Philip Evens, who died aged 71 on 12th December, was a pioneer of community work in the UK who, in later life, applied this knowledge and experience in urban ministry.
Born in 1936, into a North Somerset working class family, he grew up in membership of the Open Brethren. Coming to Higher Education as a mature student, he gained a special honours degree in Sociology at Leicester University and began work as a Social Worker in Somerset. A rapid process of social mobility began when, in 1965, he became the youngest Deputy Children's Officer in the country helping set up a new Children's Department and experimental family advice work projects in Luton.
In 1970 he entered Social Work education by becoming a Lecturer in Applied Social Studies at Oxford University. There he discovered that he did not fit into the rather exclusive network of 'North Oxbridge Society' and so, moved nearer to his ideological 'home' and working class identity, by setting up an Applied Action Research Community Work Project in 1973. Called The Barton Project, after the council estate on which it was based, his experiences and other contributions to the development of community work were published in two books, Community Work: Theory and Practice (1974) and The Barton Project (1976). Both books applied his Christian faith to his work and called for the active involvement of Christians in community work and other public services.
In 1976 this Project lost funding and his job was re-structured away. He returned, somewhat disillusioned, to his roots in Somerset where he became self employed as a landscape gardener setting up his own business. During this major mid-life crisis he, and his family, began worshipping for the first time in the Church of England and he continued, as he had done for many years, to set up and run Christian youth clubs. Involvement in wider aspects of local Anglican ministry led to his 'call' to train for the ordained ministry.
During training at Trinity College Bristol he set up The Voice of the People Trust to sponsor Christian ministry in Urban Priority Areas through community work projects linked to parishes. Work on the Trust was carried out in conjunction with his church ministry firstly, as a curate at Aston Parish Church and then as vicar of St Edmund's Tyesley. The Trust was involved in developing and restructuring several community and youth projects and published Phil’s third book, Despair and Hope in the City, which explored the relevance of community work to urban ministry. The Aston and Newtown Community Youth Project, set up during his curacy, was particularly successful in reaching out to young people on the streets and steering them away from criminal and anti-social activities towards further education, training, employment and faith.
Phil also began to explore and utilise in ministry the riches of the UK’s Celtic Christian heritage. This discovery complemented and assisted the exploration of spirituality already underway at St Edmund's, Tyesley. Celtic-based materials seemed to communicate well in an urban context and a project to study the use of such materials in an urban setting developed, resulting in an M.Phil that was completed during his retirement. He undertook two personal pilgrimages, first, to the island of Lismore and second, a six week ‘pilgrimage of discovery’ which started at Iona, finished at Holy Island and involved travelling and camping in a small diesel van. The Woven Cord programme that he introduced in Tysley saw people respond positively to the principles and practice of Celtic Christianity and transfer to their life style much of its approach to spirituality.
In retirement, he faced periods of ill-health combined with the death of his son Nick when a UN-commissioned plane carrying relief workers crashed in Kosovo. He is survived by his wife Pauline, son Jonathan and daughter Rachel. Throughout his life and ministry he has inspired friends and family members to share his commitment to community work and urban ministry and, as a result, his legacy lives on in many who have entered church, social and youth work as a direct result of his inspiration and support.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Annie Lennox - Into The West.
No comments:
Post a Comment