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THE RT REVD JOHN MICHAEL AUSTIN

12 September 2007

The Rt Revd Mark Santer writes:

Urban concerns: Bishop Austin

THE Rt Revd John Austin, who died on 17 August, aged 68, was Bishop of Aston from 1992 to 2005, and Assistant Bishop of Leicester from 2005 to 2007.

The bare bones of the story of his life and ministry themselves give an indication of the range of his interests and commitments.

He was educated at Worksop College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he read Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, and was trained for the priesthood at St Stephen’s House, Oxford. Ordained deacon in 1964, and priest in 1965, he served as assistant curate for three years (1964-68) in the parish of St John the Evangelist, East Dulwich. Then came a year in Chicago, as an assistant priest at St James’s Cathedral, while also following a course at the Urban Training Center there.

This was the beginning of his deep involvement with issues of poverty and deprivation, which were at the heart of the rest of his ministry. Returning to the diocese of Southwark in 1969, he was for seven years Warden of the Pembroke College Mission in Walworth, just off the Old Kent Road. During this time he met Rosemary King, whom he married in 1971. She survives him, together with two sons and a daughter.

In 1976, John Austin became Social Responsibility Adviser for the diocese of St Albans, whose Bishop at that time was Robert Runcie. He was deeply involved in the formation of Church Action on Poverty (1981), whose first chairman he was. In 1984, he became director of the London diocesan board for social responsibility, which entailed oversight of more than 60 social, community, and residential staff. In the wake of the publication of Faith in the City (1985), he was appointed as member of the Archbishops’ Advisory Group for Urban Priority Areas.

All of this experience made him eminently suitable for appointment as Suffragan Bishop of Aston in 1992. Appropriately, he was consecrated in St Martin-in-the-Bull-Ring, Birmingham, emerging from the church with the Archbishop into the immediate company of market traders and shoppers. During his years as Bishop of Aston, he had particular responsibility for the care of junior clergy and for the support of clergy in the inner city and in outer estates.

His urban experience and his personal qualities were also recognised when, soon after his arrival in Birmingham, he was appointed chairman of one of the City Challenge Companies set up and funded by the then government for the regeneration of run-down inner-city areas (perhaps an unacknowledged response to the concerns raised by the Church in Faith in the City). He did this with an aplomb and unpretentious graciousness that earned the respect and affection of tough and not easily biddable businessmen and politicians. For six years (1999-2005), he chaired St Basil’s, which seeks to meet the needs of homeless young people in Birmingham.

During his years in Birmingham, the issue of relations between the churches and people of other faiths came more and more to the fore, exacerbated by events such as 9/11 and the outbreak of the two Gulf Wars. He was at the forefront in developing relations of personal trust with leaders of other faith communities, and in the support of the Bishop of Birmingham’s successive Advisers for Relations with People of Other Faiths.

At the national level, he became convener (1995) of the Interfaith Consultative Group of the Church of England, and a member (2003) of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s team of bishops providing support for relations with Muslims.

John Austin visited China three times (1995, 1997, 2000) as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s link with the China Christian Council. As well as meeting church leaders, he visited local congregations. He also made it his business to meet Roman Catholic bishops, somewhat to the bewilderment of his Protestant hosts. From 1995, he was appointed a member of the Urban Bishops Panel, and a Trustee of the Church Urban Fund. Another and more hidden side of his ministry was to be seen in his work as Warden of the Community of St Mary the Virgin from 1998 to 2007.

As a man and as a priest, John Austin showed a great capacity for enjoying the world and other people. Free of any need or desire to control or dominate, he exercised authority with a rare freedom of spirit. He was a listener, able to put people of all kinds at their ease. He had the capacity to cross barriers of language and of social and religious difference, as in his dealings with people of other faiths and in his visits to China. He was passionate for justice, but always courteous and never dismissive of those who disagreed with him. Those who knew him valued his intelligence, wisdom, and good judgement of people and situations. He was perceptive, not fooled by pretence, but never judgemental. He was firm and supportive of those who worked under this leadership.

Wherever he went, he carried with him a profound sense of the presence of God. This showed in the way he led prayers. To be present in a room or chapel where he was praying was to be drawn into a sense of the holy. He exemplified the fact that true holiness does not diminish a person’s humanity, but enhances it. He was a wonderful friend and colleague, a true gift from God to all who knew him.

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