Peace in the Face of War

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Father Alex (George Alexander) Brighouse Postulant CSWG 2 March 1946 - 23 May 2016 Admitted as a Postulant 7 th December 2014 Homily given at his funeral on 7 June 2016 Job 19:23-27; Romans 5:1-11; John 6:27-40 ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ (John 6:29) When Alex came to the Monastery, he didn’t bring much – clothes, books and a briefcase of personal papers. Amongst these was a card received at his Confirmation at St Paul’s, Hatton Hill, Litherland, in Liverpool, then his parish church. It was on 13 March 1960. He was fourteen. The picture (reproduced on the inside cover of the service booklet) shows a young man steering his boat. He grasps the tiller firmly with both hands, his head and face, indeed his whole body, firmly set in the direction he wishes the boat to go. Standing behind him is the Lord, depicted in a slightly ethereal way, to indicate to us, looking at the picture, that he is invisible to the man in the boat. Yet to the eyes of faith, he is pointing, clearly indicating the direction the man should take. His hand is barely touching the tiller. He indicates the direction. It is the man who steers the boat. This seems a suitable image to hold in our minds as we gather to commend Alex to the love and mercy of God, the God he has endeavoured to serve in his life. Even if, like me, you have little experience of steering a boat, the image remains a potent one of what our life is like. We endeavour to follow the directions of the Lord. Sometimes we choose not to notice, being too occupied with our own ideas. Sometimes we deliberately choose another course, with the inevitable storms that ensue and maybe even shipwreck. Yet even when we do our best to set our course in the way the Lord indicates, life is not by all means ‘plain sailing’. There are storms, squalls, heavy headwinds, as well as some smooth seas with vast horizons before us. What is important is that we are going the right way. Like the men in Psalm 107, the Lord calms the storm to a silence, the waves of the sea are stilled and he brings us to the haven we have longed for. Life has lots of little havens, places of peace which we find after perseverance and prayer, a sense that, amidst 48
the ups and downs – ‘up to the sky and down again to the depths’ – our lives are on the right course. Alex had his share of the storms of life. He seems to have been involved in the church from a young age. After leaving school and working for a few years, he started on the path towards ordination, first trying to get some academic qualifications that he’d not managed to do at school. It didn’t work out and after a year he gave it up. Marriage and family life followed, with various jobs, including looking after the home full time. He trained and was licensed as a Reader. After twenty years, the marriage came to an end, with the inevitable wounds, hurt and grief for all concerned. This was something he never spoke about. At about the same time, he’d been training for ordination and was ordained deacon in 1990 and priest in 1991. This 30 June would have been the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, something I was hoping we would celebrate with him. He ministered, as a self-supporting priest, in two parishes, and then in October 1992 went to St Wilfrid’s, Lidget Green in Bradford, to assist Father Paul Bilton, who’d been recently widowed and had a young family. He remained there until he came to the Monastery in October 2014. He endeared himself to the people at St Wilfrid’s with his quiet, unassuming and kindly ways. To Paul he was a loyal and faithful colleague, willing to do what was needed, whilst remaining something of a mystery because of his reticence and self-effacement. He began visiting us and became an Associate and then asked, completely out of the blue – I was stunned – if he could come and join us. After some discussion, we decided to give him the opportunity. He continued with his quiet, unfussy ways amongst us, reluctant to say almost anything about himself – not a bad virtue for a monk, would that the rest of us had some of it – and getting on gently with the basics of life – prayer, reading and work. He was happy here. Indeed, he said to several people that it was the best thing he’d ever done. Unknown to us, almost a lifetime of smoking had done its damage and after various investigations, very speedily done, incurable cancer was diagnosed in the middle of February. In some ways he seemed reluctant to engage with this but there were also some signs of acceptance that this was it, and he needed to get on with it. It was the final storm of life. As the illness progressed and he needed full-time care, there was evidence that an internal struggle was going on, but by this stage he was unable to articulate it. As often happens in such circumstances, it was the love and prayers of others that kept him going in the right direction. A place at the College of St Barnabas couldn’t have been better, surrounded as he was by a community of prayer, all seeking to steer their own little boats in attentiveness to 49
Page 1 and 2: Winds From the East Pursuing Peace
Page 3 and 4: Journal of the Community of the Ser
Page 5 and 6: who was married to Ruth, the Rector
Page 7 and 8: Our Associate, Caroline Walton, pro
Page 9 and 10: peace is easy. To the contrary, it
Page 11 and 12: heart reaches the limits of our phy
Page 13 and 14: has now become beyond their strengt
Page 15 and 16: establishment of this border allows
Page 17 and 18: Performers received slightly higher
Page 19 and 20: Never in my life, whether before th
Page 21 and 22: theatre halls. There was a strong s
Page 23 and 24: An eschatological understanding of
Page 25 and 26: and relish the cruel punishments to
Page 27 and 28: with a messianic consciousness, wit
Page 29 and 30: Eschatological Creativity The disti
Page 31 and 32: grim endlessness. 1 The End of the
Page 33 and 34: one concerned with women, religion
Page 35 and 36: the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Ro
Page 37 and 38: embassies need to know how these pr
Page 39 and 40: - regrettably, for security reasons
Page 41 and 42: need to ‘strengthen the moderate
Page 43 and 44: Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
Page 45 and 46: Wilson, had warned against it. Prob
Page 47 and 48: Brother John of the Cross CSWG 6 Ap
Page 49: He came to monastic life having ful
Page 53 and 54: and it lifted high the waves of the
Page 55 and 56: Are religious conflicts today then
Page 57 and 58: And here, in order for the descript
Page 59 and 60: Alex (above) steps out into the lig

Peace in the Face of War

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