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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/7158633/Father-Michael-Harper.html

Father Michael Harper

Father Michael Harper, who died on January 6 aged 78, was for 30 years leader
of the Charismatic movement in the Church of England, and his influence
extended to many other parts of the world and to several other Churches.

Published: 5:47PM GMT 04 Feb 2010
Father Michael Harper

He left the Anglican Church in 1995 however after its decision to ordain women
priests. Received into the Antiochian Orthodox Church, he became Dean of its
communities in the United Kingdom and Ireland and held the office of
archpriest.

Harper embraced the Anglican evangelical tradition following an intense
conversion experience while attending a service in the chapel of King's
College, Cambridge during his first undergraduate year at the university. He
decided to seek Holy Orders, and spent six years as a curate at All Souls,
Langham Place, in London's West End; the rector there, John Stott, was leading
the revival of evangelicalism in the Church of England.

Between 1958 and 1964 Harper was chaplain to the Oxford Street stores, and in
1962 he had another dramatic experience while reading the Epistle to the
Ephesians. "It was earth-shattering," he said, "everything leapt off the
page." As a result he concluded that he had received "Baptism in the Spirit",
which linked him with the so-called neo-Pentecostal movement that was then
spreading rapidly in North America. This involved "speaking in tongues",
healings, casting out demons and other unusual events.

John Stott was unhappy about this development in a member of his staff, as he
regarded the movement as "unbalanced and unhealthy", and Harper was asked not
to preach on the subject in All Souls. Their personal relationship was
affected for a time, but harmony was eventually restored.

Meanwhile, Harper was instrumental in setting up the Fountain Trust as a means
of propagating the Charismatic movement, as it came to be called, and his
efforts met with considerable success. A humble, gentle man, he was none the
less a powerful, dynamic speaker.

Meetings were held and conferences convened up and down the country, and the
magazine Renewal achieved a wide circulation. Later a song-book, Sound of
Living Waters e_SEmD which he co-edited with his wife, Jeanne, a musician �
became an important feature of Charismatic worship. It remains so today.

"Baptism in the Spirit" was soon widely experienced in Anglican evangelical
parishes, in many Free Churches and among some Roman Catholic congregations. A
conference held in Guildford attracted 700 participants from 20 countries and
14 different denominations. Harper was soon an international figure and,
besides frequent visits to America, addressed meetings and conferences in many
other parts of the world. Some 50,000 people heard him speak at South Bend,
Indiana, and at Rimini in Italy.

Michael Claude Harper was born on March 12 1931 in Welbeck Street in the West
End of London, and was introduced to evangelicalism early when his nanny took
him to local Baptist churches. He won a scholarship to Gresham's School, Holt,
and went from there to Emmanuel College, where he read Law and Theology.

He then prepared for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and from 1955 to
1958 was a curate at St Barnabas church, Clapham Common in south London. While
there he established contact with the developments at All Souls, Langham
Place, which led to his joining its staff.

Although the Charismatic movement became sharply divisive in evangelical
circles, Harper was himself always seeking to build bridges between those of
differing beliefs.

He was highly regarded in many parts of the Anglican Communion, was appointed
a canon of Chichester Cathedral, collaborated with the World Council of
Churches, and was leader of two international bodies propagating mission and
renewal.

He was not, however, tolerant of what he regarded as false doctrine, and was
distressed to discover too much of this in the liberal attitudes of the Church
of England. The ordination of women to the priesthood proved to be more than
he could bear and, whereas most of the other opponents of this move became
Roman Catholics, he decided to join the Orthodox Church, explaining the reason
for this in his book The True Light.

The Antiochian Orthodox Church, into which he was ordained, is an independent
part of the Greek Orthodox Church claiming to be the successor to the
Christian community founded in Antioch by the Apostles Peter and Paul.

With its headquarters in Damascus, most of its adherents, numbering between
750,000 and one million, are located in the Middle East, but it also has
communities in several Western countries, including Britain.

Harper was initially attached to an Arabic-speaking cathedral in London and
was appointed head of a newly-formed Orthodox deanery for this country. He
also founded St Botolph's parish, near Liverpool Street station, which has an
English-language liturgy and a thriving congregation.

He continued to regard himself as a Charismatic while seeking to make the life
of the Orthodox Church more widely known and appreciated. He was the author of
18 books.

Michael Harper's wife survives him.


-- 
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
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