The Very Reverend John Allen
Provost of Wakefield Cathedral who transformed his community with his open-minded vision
THE VERY REVEREND JOHN ALLEN, who has died aged 83, was Provost of Wakefield Cathedral from 1982 to 1997. A strong personality, combined with a wide vision of what a modern cathedral ought to be, enabled him to make a lasting impact on a church that had become introverted in the Anglo-Catholic tradition and less accessible to its diocese and West Riding community.
He succeeded by opening the cathedral to a wide variety of events, secular as well as religious, and by involving himself deeply in the civic life of Wakefield. He was assisted in this by earlier experience in the Colonial Service and industry and, although he did not suffer fools gladly, he was able to get on with people of every sort.
A particular concern was for the National Health Service and he was for a time director of the Wakefield Area Health Authority as well as chairman of the local hospice.
Within the Church, Allen was among those elected by the cathedral deans and provosts to serve on the General Synod, and he was vicechairman of the national Partnership in Mission project, designed to foster links between English dioceses and other areas of the worldwide Anglican communion. He strongly supported women priests and employed one as the cathedral chaplain.
During his early years as Provost he encountered some stiff opposition from its conservative congregation. Inevitably he made some enemies, but he was a tough, determined character who stayed at Wakefield long enough for the conflicts to become a distant memory.
A not untypical example of his imaginative, open-window approach involved the enthronement of David Hope (later Bishop of London, then Archbishop of York) as Bishop of Wakefield. After the necessary pomp and ceremony inside the cathedral, the service moved to the shopping centre and the lunch was held out of doors in the cathedral precincts.
These precincts were considerably enhanced during his time when the busy streets that isolated the cathedral were pedestrianised, facilitating access to the building.
John Edward Allen was born on June 9 1932 at Rusholme in Manchester; his father was the vicar at Withington. John went from Rugby School to University College, Oxford, and in 1957 joined the Colonial Service in Kenya. After Independence he left and started work in commercial sales and marketing.
This proved to be unsatisfying and in 1966 he went to Westcott House, Cambridge, and followed his father into Holy Orders. While there he read Theology at Fitzwilliam College.
Allen was ordained in Canterbury Cathedral in 1968 and spent the next three years as a curate at St Leonard’s Church in Deal. Now approaching his forties, he was appointed to the dual role of priest-in-charge of St Paul’s Church, Clifton, Bristol and Anglican chaplain of Bristol University. This was a demanding assignment which he carried out with considerable success – the parish appreciating his pastoral gifts and the students his outspoken views on political and religious issues.
Next came appointment, in 1978, as vicar of St Andrew’s church, Chippenham, where this large medieval parish, standing in the market place, suited him well. He played a full part in the life of the town and built up the congregation with dignified worship, thoughtful preaching and sensitive pastoral work.
It was on the strength of this that after only four years he was appointed to Wakefield. Although he did not always see eye to eye with his bishops, he was a valued member of the diocesan leadership team and made the cathedral a place where the parishes could feel at home. He was for a time a religious programmes adviser to Yorkshire Television.
In retirement at Sawdon, near Scarborough, he was chairman of the North East Yorkshire NHS Trust from 1997 to 2001, became involved in Rotary affairs and assisted in local parishes.
He is survived by his wife Eleanor and by a son and three daughters.
The Very Reverend John Allen, born June 9 1932, died September 9 2015