Canon Frank Wright

Pastor with a bold vision for the Church

Frank Sidney Wright, priest: born Orrell, Lancashire 7 April 1922; ordained deacon 1949, priest 1950; Rector of Stretford, Manchester 1955-66; Canon Residentiary, Manchester Cathedral 1966-74, Sub-Dean 1972-74, Honorary Canon 1974-83; Religious Adviser, Granada Television 1968-85; Honorary Lecturer in Pastoral Theology, Manchester University 1974-83; married (two sons, one daughter); died Carlisle, Cumbria 10 December 2002.

Frank Wright devoted his ministry to rethinking Christian teaching and reanimating the life style of Christian communities, especially in the north of England. As Sub-Dean of Manchester Cathedral, adviser to Granada Television and an extra-mural lecturer at Manchester University, he was influential with the leaders of the churches in Lancashire and had a bold vision of what the Church might be in British society.

As a keynote speaker at conferences and producer of ITV religious programmes he insisted, despite protests from those who wanted to press the traditional religion of standards and law, that the love of God was unconditional. He urged a fresh philosophy for Christian communication.

Frank Wright was born at Orrell, near Wigan, in 1922 and educated at Upholland Grammar School. He remained loyal to Lancashire, including Lancashire cricket at Old Trafford. From Upholland he went to St Peter's Hall, Oxford, to study Modern History, and on to Second World War service in the RAF. As a Beaufighter navigator, sent to attack a ship in Preveza harbour in Greece, his mission ended with two years as a POW at Mulhberg.

He discovered his inner resources, which enabled survival at the heights and depths of cut-throat selfishness (well described in his Invisible Network: the story of air care, 1989). From his prison he could see the contrast between his camp and a chaotic prison 30 yards away for Russian and Poles and the nearby German town, whose citizens seemed wholly indifferent. His powers of attention as friend or pastor, lecturer and television producer were learnt in this tough school. He always gave you the whole of his attention.

After training at Westcott House, Cambridge, with other ex-service students, he was ordained at Durham. Curacies at Sunderland and Barnard Castle showed he was determined to change the old order so that parish churches might be agents of "unconditional caring in the community", to quote a favourite phrase. He was highly original as Rector of Stretford, Manchester (1955-66), forming a 24-strong group of lay carers concerned for people whether churchgoers or not; he was critical of many stewardship campaigns which suggested to outsiders that the Church's motives were financial and statistical. He opposed (obstinately, some of his fellow clergy thought) all forms of institutional publicity and self-concern. In his sermons and later broadcasts he liked to remind people of the early church which turned the world upside down, when its possessions and buildings were almost nil and all its members were highly vulnerable.

From 1966 he worked from Manchester Cathedral, but was also Honorary Lecturer in Pastoral Theology at Manchester University, and religious adviser to Granada Television in Lancashire. Wright published six books on pastoral care much valued by clergy of different denominations. Of these The Pastoral Nature of Ministry (1980) and The Pastoral Nature of Healing (1985) were particularly appreciated. He visited Toulouse (twinned with Manchester), as well as New York and Canada, in search of good practice in pastoral care. His Exploration into Goodness (1988) revealed the breadth of his reading and his admiration for those who searched for truth without being members of the church, particularly Iris Murdoch, Simone Weil and Albert Camus. Despite his many commitments Wright had the gift of staying in touch with those he taught. I discovered members of St Paul's Cathedral congregation who were still in correspondence with him years after the retreat when they first met Wright.

Granada Television, encouraged by their chairman Sir Denis Forman, gave Wright exceptional opportunities by asking him to produce hour-long meditations, which were networked. His programmes drew on the experience of joy and hope, failure and guilt, the approach of death, the diminishment of poverty and unemployment. Wright insisted that there was no short cut to goodness. He introduced some of the most challenging contemporary theologians and writers: David Jenkins, Monica Furlong, Don Cupitt, as well as poets and novelists. Moments of silence, visits to beautiful places of prayer such as Taizé and a Roman Catholic retreat centre, with meticulously chosen music created compelling meditations. Counsellors were available on the telephone and to reply to letters.

Wright's individualistic grittiness, and the ill-health he suffered following his POW days, led him to say no to efforts to appoint him Bishop of Manchester. His constantly supportive wife, Peggy, made their home, latterly at Brampton, near Carlisle, a honeypot for visitors and enquirers. He was able to share with so many his humour, love of music and literature and his pride in his three children and their achievements, but he never lost the private and reserved elements in his character.

Even when seriously lame and unable to drive he would find his way to celebrate Holy Communion in a parish church. He remained a pattern pastor, empathetic to what was vulnerable in the faith lives of others, much respected for his independence of mind and integrity.

Alan Webster