A correspondent writes:
MARY BINKS, who was an adviser on children’s work in the diocese of Blackburn, has died, aged 74, after a short illness.
Mary was the fourth daughter of the Revd G. A. P. Thomson and Marion Thomson (née Kerby), and trained as a teacher at St Hild College, Durham, where she met her husband, John Binks. After a year teaching in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and living with her uncle there, she and John were married. She then taught at several schools in Chepstow, London, and Lancashire.
In 1977, after the birth of her second child, she began her work in the Lancashire Reading and Language Service, where she completed her MA in Reading Studies. She went to work for Blackburn diocese in 1990, developing a new training course for adults working with children in parishes.
With her colleagues, she organised and ran many diocesan events for children and young people, and those who worked with them. She also worked with parish clergy to improve the quality and quantity of provision for young people in churches. She was played an active part in the introduction of the diocesan policy of admission to communion before confirmation.
Mary also helped to develop the link between Blackburn diocese and the diocese of the Free State (previously Bloemfontein). She made several trips with staff and volunteers to develop both a children’s work programme for all the parishes in the diocese and a training course for adults working there.
Mary also helped to build up the networks of children’s advisers across the Northern Province, developing new materials and approaches for work with children and young people with various organisations.
She retired in 2005, but remained active with Christian Aid, the Fairtrade Foundation, and the Mothers’ Union (MU), of which she was a proud supporter. She was also a churchwarden of her home parish of St Peter’s, Laneside, Haslingden.
Moving to Yorkshire to be close to family, she became branch leader of the MU at St Oswald’s, Guiseley, and was involved in pastoral and environmental work in the parish.
More than 200 people attended Mary’s requiem mass at St Oswald’s on 21 June, indicating the affection and admiration that so many people had for her. She was someone who lived out her faith in any way that she could find. This resonated with many she met and worked with.
She is survived by John, their children, Alexandra and Dominic, and their partners, Andrew and Victoria, and two grandchildren, Laila and Daniel.
