The Revd Dr Andrew Atherstone writes:
THE Revd John T. C. B. Collins was a leading pioneer of Charismatic Renewal within the Church of England, and, as Vicar of Holy Trinity, Brompton, in the early 1980s, he helped to establish that congregation as a global centre of evangelism and revitalisation.
His influence extended to Lambeth Palace, where Archbishop Welby describes Collins as “one of the most profound influences on my own life — my own mentor”. The Archbishop awarded him the Canterbury Cross in 2018, “for his outstanding record in growing churches and training evangelists and leaders”.
Collins was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, in 1925 and home-schooled by his clergyman father, who taught him Greek from the age of six. The family moved to Fulbourn, near Cambridge, in 1935, to live in the rambling house of a maiden aunt, and Collins was sent to Haileybury School, in Hertfordshire, during the early years of the Second World War. He became a Christian at the Bash Camps for public schoolboys at Iwerne Minster, which provided an early training in personal evangelism and Bible teaching.
After two terms at Clare College, Cambridge, Collins joined the Royal Air Force in 1943 to train as a pilot. He found that living for three years in a tin hut with other RAF recruits, from every walk of life, was excellent preparation for parish ministry. He returned to Cambridge to finish his degree and to train for ordination at Ridley Hall, serving as president of the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union for 1950-51. Gifted as an evangelist, Collins helped many people towards Christian faith, including the Cambridge undergraduates David Sheppard (later Bishop of Liverpool) and David Watson (later Rector of St Michael-le-Belfrey, York).
Ordained in 1951, Collins served for six years as an assistant curate of All Souls’, Langham Place, in central London. His training incumbent was John Stott, the pre-eminent leader of post-war Anglican Evangelicalism. Collins focused especially on ministry for families, and launched an innovative family service that filled St Peter’s, Vere Street, in the All Souls’ parish.
In 1955, he married Diana Kimpton, niece of Baron Hazlerigg. She was a student at Ridgelands Bible College, and the couple met when helping at Billy Graham’s Harringay crusade in 1954.
Collins’s first incumbency was a huge cultural leap from the elite circles of Cambridge and All Souls’, Langham Place. In 1957, he became Vicar of St Mark’s, Gillingham, a dockland parish on the Medway, with 14,000 inhabitants, including many Cockneys from the East End. Here, he embraced Charismatic Renewal and the congregation grew. St Mark’s was viewed as a “model” Charismatic parish, integrating renewal within Anglicanism rather than outside it. Next, Collins moved, in 1971, to the Dorset village of Canford Magna, attracted by ministry to the huge new housing estate in the parish. He was in demand as a trainer of leaders — his curates included David MacInnes, David Watson, and John Mumford, all of whom became prominent evangelists and church-planters.
With strong credentials in both Evangelicalism and Renewal, Collins was the obvious choice for Vicar of Holy Trinity, Brompton, in 1980 — although it was rumoured that the Bishop of London agreed to his appointment only on the mistaken assumption that he was “the other John Collins”, the radical canon of St Paul’s. Holy Trinity had been famous for its Prayer Book traditions and choral music, but had only a few hundred people at its main service, with room for 1200. Collins’s dream was to fill the building. He believed that growth should be the experience of every Christian community, because “God multiplies. . . God wants his family to grow.”
Central to Collins’s strategy was “supper-party evangelism”, modelled by the Alpha Course. He also welcomed the Vineyard leader John Wimber to Holy Trinity in 1982, with his distinctive Californian brand of “power evangelism”. Wimber urged a new church-planting strategy for England. To secure these gains, continuity of leadership was essential; so Collins swapped places in 1985 with his assistant curate, Sandy Millar, to protect the HTB line of succession. He continued to mentor many younger leaders, including Justin and Caroline Welby, lay worshippers at the church from 1983 to 1989.
Collins was predeceased by Diana in 2013, and is survived by their children, Dominic and Richenda.
The Revd John Collins died on 8 December 2022, aged 97.
