Obituary: The Rev Alan Ecclestone
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.I WAS A C2 worker in 1961 when I began WEA classes with Alan Ecclestone, writes Jack Brown (further to the obituary by the Very Rev Alan Webster, 16 December). He used English literature as an introduction to social history and his delight in the former illuminated his bleak anecdotes of personal experience.
Recalling his time in Frizington, he stated firmly that he had conducted burials of parishioners whose death certificates claimed they had died from various causes, but: 'They died of starvation; I watched them starve.'
Those experiences brought him to a cold and draughty classroom in Barnsley where he began the process of redeeming a deeply embittered miner's son whose hatreds were rooted in the same TB and poverty.
Who can say what is the effect of one self-effacing man on history? Yet I am sure his Popular Catholicism, his leading of his church into the world of work and his brand of Communism, Gramscian and rooted like Gramsci's in Peguy, were simply visionary. We shall catch up slowly. He taught well.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments