The Very Rev Peter Berry
Devoted himself to community relations in the West Midlands
THE VERY REVEREND PETER BERRY, who has died aged 83, was Provost of Birmingham Cathedral from 1986 to 1999 and before that spent 13 years as a Canon, then Vice-provost, of Coventry Cathedral. He was one of the Church of England’s foremost practitioners in inter-race, inter-faith relations and in both Midlands cities exercised an influential ministry, earning wide respect.
He was helped in this by a warm, slightly camp personality, wide interests, a liberal outlook, a fund of new ideas – the pouring out of which sometimes left him breathless – and a mischievous sense of humour.
But there was an intense seriousness about his concern that men and women of differing race, culture and religion should live harmoniously and that society should be ordered so as to facilitate rather than hinder this.
Peter Austin Berry was born on April 27 1935 in Olton on the edge of the city of Birmingham. He went from Solihull Grammar School to Keble College, Oxford, where he read English and Theology and imbibed much of Oxford’s broad culture.
National Service led to a commission in the Army’s Intelligence Corps, where he specialised in the interpretation of maps and the location of enemy tanks.
On demobilisation in 1959 he returned to Oxford to prepare for Holy Orders at the high church St Stephen’s House. Three years later he became the first cleric to be ordained in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral.
From 1962 to 1966 Berry was a curate at St Mark’s Church in the city, then began what proved to be a long association with the cathedral. This was at a time when Coventry was pioneering a new, dynamic form of cathedral life.
Reconciliation was its primary motif, and Berry was entrusted with responsibility for its relations with people from overseas who were settling in the city. At the same time he acted as chaplain to the extrovert, highly popular Bishop Cuthbert Bardsley.
By 1970 his work among immigrants was recognised by his appointment as Midlands regional officer of the Racial Equality Commission. This was relinquished in 1973, when he became a Canon Residentiary of Coventry cathedral, succeeding to the Vice-provostship in 1977.
The combination of this with continuing community relations work was a heavy responsibility, which he carried out until the year before his appointment in 1986 as Provost of Birmingham Cathedral.
This was an ideal appointment, inasmuch as the smaller Birmingham Cathedral is less demanding of its leader than are most of the ancient major cathedrals. Berry was therefore able to devote time to reconciliation work in Britain’s second city, where community conflict was near crisis point.
He was chairman of the Birmingham International Council, vice-chairman of the Birmingham/pakistan Friends Association and chairman of the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education in schools. Besides which he was active in promoting collaboration between churches, mosques and Hindu temples.
In contrast he was vice-president of the Birmingham Pre-raphaelite Society, having an interest in the work of Burne-jones, and was sustained by a love of music and the theatre.
None of this stood in the way of his responsibility for the daily life of the cathedral, where his lively preaching always aroused interest. The organising of a Royal Maundy Service, attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, gave him pleasure, as did the opportunity to meet Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
He was also a member of the General Synod and a Church Commissioner.
Berry’s important ministry was recognised by the award of a Birmingham University DD and a Life-fellowship of Coventry University.
He was unmarried.