The Right Reverend Michael Perham
Bishop of Gloucester and writer on liturgy whose ministry was blighted by unfounded accusations
THE RT REV MICHAEL PERHAM, who has died aged 69, was the Bishop of Gloucester from 2004 to 2014. Known within the Church as a practical, pastoral liturgist, he was a member of the Church of England Liturgical Commission for nearly 20 years and a significant contributor to the service books of Common Worship.
He attracted wider public notice when, three months before his scheduled retirement date, it was announced that he had “stepped back from his ministry” while allegations against him of sexual assault, dating back to the early 1980s, were investigated. Although interviewed under caution, Perham was never arrested or charged, and in October 2014 the Metropolitan Police concluded that there were no grounds for action.
It took the Church of England safeguarding authorities a further seven months, however, formally to approve Perham continuing in ministry. The process was widely regarded as unnecessarily slow, hurtful and unjust for him and his family. Many, both inside and outside the Church, had given him support and affirmation.
Having been denied an official farewell upon his retirement date, Perham was invited to join a group of friends and former staff for a service of Evensong in Gloucester Cathedral. He arrived to find a congregation of 1,000 assembled to celebrate and give thanks for his ministry.
It was powerful testimony to an episcopacy in which Bishop Perham had drawn on his gifts as a pastor and teacher, combined with his political astuteness, to build relationships with a wide range of individuals and institutions, both within and beyond Church circles.
Michael Francis Perham was born in Dorset on November 8 1947. From Hardye’s School, Dorchester, Perham read Theology at Keble College, Oxford, where, distracted by centreLeft student politics, he took a solid Third. He remained a member of the Labour Party until 1981, when he joined the newly founded SDP.
In the meantime he discovered a new interest in and aptitude for liturgiology – the study and practice of Christian worship – stimulated by the late Dr Geoffrey Cuming, Tutor in Liturgy at Cuddesdon Theological College, where Perham trained for Holy Orders.
It was not long before Perham produced the first of many publications, a booklet on celebrating the Eucharist published by the Alcuin Club, the organisation devoted to the study of liturgy.
In 1976 he was ordained to a curacy at St Mary’s, Addington, at that time in the diocese of Canterbury, where his training incumbent was the Very Rev Dick Norburn, a wise and profound former Dean of Gaborone, Botswana. Such was the mutual respect in the partnership that Perham happily remained as curate at Addington for a full five years, during which time he became secretary to the Church of England Doctrine Commission.
It was perhaps no surprise in 1981 when its chairman, Bishop John Vernon Taylor, invited him to become his Chaplain in the diocese of Winchester, where Perham met and married his wife, Alison, a palliative care consultant.
In 1984 Perham became Team Rector of Oakdale, Poole, in the diocese of Salisbury, having relinquished his role on the Doctrine Commission but already, since 1982, a member of the Church of England Liturgical Commission. It was during his eight years in Poole that he published two significant handbooks, Liturgy Pastoral and Parochial (1984),
and Lively Sacrifice – The Eucharist in the Church of England today (1992). The former was revised and republished as a New Handbook of Pastoral Liturgy to coincide with the introduction of Common Worship in 2000.
Both books communicated Perham’s conviction that corporate worship, when thoughtfully structured, properly prepared and carefully presented, could enable the participants to “grasp the heel of heaven” and be a vital tool of pastoralia and evangelism.
There was some astonishment when in 1992 he was appointed Precentor and Canon Residentiary at Norwich Cathedral. Traditionally a precentor (or first singer) has oversight of the musical services where there is a choral foundation; and Perham was not renowned for his vocal talent. But this was a time when precentors were beginning to be appointed as much for their liturgical imagination as for their ability to manage choirs and organists.
Although not a performer himself, Perham possessed an appreciative knowledge of music, and served on the Archbishops’ Commission on Church Music, contributing to its key report, “In tune with heaven” (1992). At Norwich Perham had opportunity to combine this experience with his aptitude for producing creative worship of high quality and theological integrity. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music in 2002.
When deciding to accept the appointment at Norwich, he also expressed to friends a clear sense of how he thought his vocation might progress from residential canonry to a deanery and thence to a mitre. And so it transpired that, after six years in Norwich, he became Provost of Derby in 1998, retitled as the Dean of Derby following the Cathedrals’ Measure of 2000.
At Derby Perham set about the task of transforming what was essentially a city centre parish church into a welcoming cathedral for the diocese as a whole. He took seriously the role of a dean as the senior priest of the diocese, working closely with the Bishop, Jonathan Bailey, in formulating the strategic direction of the diocese. Perham ensured that he and his cathedral colleagues were out and about in the parishes on at least one Sunday a month.
In 2004 he was consecrated Bishop of Gloucester, in succession to the Right Reverend David Bentley, who had had the unenviable task of reuniting the diocese after the child abuse scandal surrounding his predecessor, Bishop Peter Hall.
There was an immediate visible contrast in that, while the grey-haired Bentley, standing several inches over six feet tall, presented a dignified and outwardly dry demeanour, the diminutive Perham, with his curly locks, jovial visage and seemingly boundless energy, represented a cross between a small terrier and Tigger.
As a committed liberal catholic and President of Affirming Catholicism, Perham immediately set about building relationships with the more conservative evangelical churches in the diocese.
A formidably hard worker, he continued to find time to write, publishing at least five books during his tenure at Gloucester, while also serving as chairman of the Hospital Chaplaincies’ Council; Bishop Protector of the European Province of the Society of St Francis (2005-14); and chairman of the governors of Ripon College, Cuddesdon, during a time of expansion, including the inclusion of a community of Anglican nuns and the building of the Bishop Edward King Chapel, the runner-up for the Stirling Prize in 2013.
His chairmanship of the Society for the Promoting of Christian Knowledge (2007-11) coincided with troubled times for the religious publishing house. The SPCK’s book shops were sold to the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust, continuing to trade under the SPCK name by licence. That licence was withdrawn shortly thereafter, and SPCK no longer owns any shops, a matter of regret to many who relied on them for theological books and ecclesiastical supplies.
Within his own diocese, Perham was Pro-Chancellor and Vice-Chair of the Council of the University of Gloucester and patron or president of numerous organisations. He inaugurated a quarterly Bishop’s Breakfast, bringing together civic leaders. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy by the University in 2007 and was made Freeman of the City of Gloucester in 2007.
He retired to Somerset and, at last cleared of the allegations that blighted his final months in Gloucester, continued ministry as an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the diocese of Salisbury. He was president of the Alcuin Club in his later years and, passionately committed to the ordination of women, continued as a vice-president of Women and the Church. He was delighted when Rachel Treweek was consecrated to succeed him as Bishop of Gloucester.
Nevertheless, Perham admitted that the long process of investigation into the abuse allegations had exacted a great toll. He remained firm in his faith and the certainty that he would be cleared, but his health was undoubtedly undermined. Through it all he was greatly supported by many friends, if not the ecclesiastical establishment; and especially by his wife, Alison, who survives him together with their four daughters.