The Revd Robert Stanier writes:
THAT he was the vicar of the same parish for 27 years until his untimely death from Covid-19 on 26 April could mask the wide-ranging nature of the Revd Peter Holmes’s ministry. It included deep engagement with diverse areas: youth and children’s work, support for Christian work in Uganda and the creation of a permanent night shelter for people in Kingston-upon-Thames.
Peter Anthony Holmes was born in Zambia in 1955, and spent his early childhood in Blantyre (Malawi), where his father was a health inspector for the government of what was then Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was heavily involved in a Pentecostal church. The family returned to England when Peter was eight, and Peter’s secondary education was at Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone.
From there, he went to study social work at Bangor University, but he was unable to reconcile what he saw as the atheistic foundations of the curriculum that he was being taught with his own Christian faith, and so, after Bangor, he switched to teacher training, and for most of the 1980s, he taught maths and geography at a secondary school in Bath.
By this time, he was married to Carol, and they became strongly involved first at St Swithin’s, Walcot, and then St John’s, Lower Weston. It was at this time that Peter felt called to full-time ministry, and, in 1987, he started training at Trinity College, Bristol. He did this by commuting from Bath on a motorbike bought for him by the congregation of St John’s.
He served his title at Christ Church, West Croydon, and arrived at St Peter’s, Norbiton, in 1993, now with three, soon to be four, young children. There happened already to be several Ugandans in the congregation, and so developing this link was a natural development, given Peter’s own passion for Africa. Peter was actively involved in work there for more than a decade, in particular with the rehabilitation of children from the so-called Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda.
More locally, he was passionate about the inclusion of children into the liturgical life of the church, and enthusiastically embraced the move in the wider Church to admit children to communion. He always loved being with children, headed numerous holiday clubs, and led the games at his own children’s birthday parties.
Another project that grew up organically was his work on homelessness. Around 2008, Peter’s response to the number of homeless people who gathered in the church garden was to open up the church, initially through a meal — the Great Feast — on a Wednesday, but ultimately with greater ambition.
While there was already a roving night shelter operating among local churches for six weeks each year, Peter felt strongly that more could be done; so he set about converting St Peter’s church hall into a permanent night shelter with 14 beds. People would be invited in to live there as they rebuilt an independent life: the Joel Community Night Shelter was born. In some ways, through this project, Peter was reconnecting Christianity with social work, which he had found separated during his university education.
On 25 March, he developed Covid-19 related symptoms, and he died on 26 April, aged 64, just months before retirement. He was a loving father, husband, and grandfather, and a generous, warm colleague. He leaves behind his wife, Carol, four children, Lucie, Thomas, Eleanor, and Olivia, and two grandchildren.
