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Obituary:THE RT REVD DR GEORGE NOAKES
by The Revd Dr Patrick Thomas
%231%23.jpg) Pastor and cricketer: Dr Noakes |
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ON MY first day as George Noakes’s curate in Aberystwyth in 1979, he gave me three instructions. First, I was to help him paint the railings around St Michael’s Church, where a flower festival was imminent. Then I was to visit a long list of parishioners in the streets around my flat. Finally, as a Welsh learner, I was to be in charge of Eglwys St Mair, the Welsh-language church, where the congregation had been firmly ordered not to speak a word of English to me. The commands encapsulated some of their author’s many qualities: a practical, down-to-earth approach to parish life, a deep concern for pastoral ministry, and a desire to safeguard and strengthen the bilingual nature of the Church in Wales. George Noakes’s father, an English-speaker from the “Little England beyond Wales” of South Pembrokeshire, settled in the Welsh-speaking Cardiganshire village of Bwlch-llan, and married a local girl. Their son, born in 1924, was a fluent and gifted communicator in both languages. He was particularly skilful in the difficult craft of preaching bilingual sermons, slipping effortlessly from Welsh into English and back again without losing the attention and interest of any of his listeners. He was educated at Tregaron Grammar School, served as aircrew in the Royal Air Force during the closing months of the Second World War, and graduated in philosophy at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, before training for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. A curacy at Lampeter was followed by a first incumbency at Eglwyswrw, in North Pembrokeshire. He then returned to Cardiganshire as Vicar of Tregaron, where he was particularly involved with Cymry’r Groes, the Church in Wales youth movement. His enthusiasms included football, fishing, and cricket, and he played a leading part in diocesan attempts to win the Church Times cricket cup.In 1967, George Noakes moved to Eglwys Dewi Sant, the Welsh-language church in Cardiff. During his time there, he established a reputation as a highly effective broadcaster on television and radio, and was chaplain to the Welsh-speaking prisoners in Cardiff Gaol. He returned to the diocese of St Davids as Rector of Aberystwyth in 1976, was made a Canon of the Cathedral in 1977, and appointed Archdeacon of Cardigan two years later. His election as Bishop of St Davids in 1982 was welcomed by clergy and laity alike. |
 The Church Times cricket cup final, 1956, was a draw between St Davids and Sheffield. George Noakes is second to the left of David Sheppard, who was presenting the cup SPORT AND GENERAL |
| Bishop Noakes was a kindly Evangelical by nature and conviction, with a deep concern for both mission and ecumenism. His ecumenical impulse stemmed from the Sundays of his childhood, when he would attend Nantcwnlle parish church in the morning and Bwlch-llan Calvinistic Methodist chapel in the evening. This led him not only to respect Christians of other traditions deeply, but also to try to break down the old denominational prejudices that had done so much to damage Welsh religious life. He initiated a Diocesan Mission, culminating in an enthusiastically received open-air service at Stradey Park rugby ground in Llanelli, which greatly boosted the morale of the diocese. In 1987, he became Archbishop of Wales, proving an acceptable and valued spokesman for the whole spectrum of Welsh Christianity. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Wales in 1989. During his time as Archbishop, he helped to pave the way for the eventual ordination of women to the priesthood in the Church in Wales, as well as playing an important part in the negotiations that led to the passing of the Welsh Language Act. One of his most significant actions was to persuade a young Welsh theologian, Professor Rowan Williams, to allow his name to go forward as a candidate for the vacant see of Monmouth. Throughout his ministry, George Noakes had the quietly faithful support of his wife Jean, a shrewd judge of character. By 1990, however, the toll of conscientiously running a large rural diocese and an Anglican province began to have a disastrous effect on his health, and he retired the following year. He unobtrusively continued to be a wise counsellor to a great many clergy in the diocese and beyond. All church leaders are criticised, some are respected, and a few are deeply and sincerely loved. George Noakes, a gifted man of genuine humility, fell into that third category. He died on 14 July, aged 83. |
