Visited by God: The story of Michael Harper's
48-year-long ministry
Jeanne Harper
Aquila £12.50
(978-1-872897-15-8)
Church Times Bookshop £11.25 (Use code
CT639 )
AT THE start of his biography of the former Archbishop of
Canterbury Lord Williams, Rupert Shortt tells a delightful anecdote
about Michael Harper, the subject of this book. Harper, who had
left Anglicanism for Russian Orthodoxy, and now sported a bushy
beard, was strolling along the south bank ofthe Thames in London.
As he approached Lambeth Palace, a passer-by asked him whether he
was the Archbishop. Harper quickly denied the charge. A few minutes
later, he met the real Archbishop and told him of his recent
encounter. "Rowan Williams grinned, pointed towards the palace gate
and said: 'Do go ahead.'"
The previously clean-shaven Harper might now look like an
archbishop, but he could also have played the part, as he was a
priest of exceptional talent. His special concern was the ministry
of Charismatic renewal in the Church, of which he was a leading
light for many years both in Britain and overseas (until 1995 as an
Anglican). In 1965, he founded the Fountain Trust, and was later
executive director of SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad) and
chairman of the International Charismatic Consultation. The
Charismatic Movement enjoyed considerable success in England from
the 1960s onwards, cutting across boundaries of theology and
churchmanship; and its growth was due in no small measure to
Harper's enthusiasm in promoting it.
His early ministry had included a six-year curacy at All Souls',
Langham Place, under John Stott; and from 1984 to 1995 he was a
canon of Chichester Cathedral. His later ministry was spent as an
Orthodox priest in London; his decision to switch Churches was a
consequence of the GeneralSynod vote in favour of women
priests.
Harper was a prolific author, his 21 books including Equal
and Different, in the course of which he argued that the
ordination of women was against nature. Most of his books were
published by Hodder & Stoughton, whose religiouseditor, Edward
England, thought so highly of them that he told Harper: "You raised
the whole level of Christian publishing to a level of excellence
which it never possessed before."
Harper died in 2010. His widow's decision to write about him
herself was because, we are told in the foreword, "there seemed no
one else available to write the book that had to be written." This
seems surprising in view of Harper's outstanding success in
promoting the ministry of renewal. Jeanne Harper is a talented
musician, but she is not a born writer; moreover, her admiration
for her late husband inevitably robs her book of the objectivity
that an account of his ministry requires.
The book is described as a "memoir", but there are virtually no
domestic details about their family life together. Instead, we are
treated to lengthy accounts of Charismatic conferences and the
like, which are bound to be of more interest to specialists in the
field than to the general reader. This is a pity, as one would like
to know more about Harper as a person. Of Jeanne Harper's dedicated
sincerity, there can, of course, be no doubt whatever; and maybe
her book will inspire a church historian to take up the cudgels
less subjectively on her late husband's behalf.
Dr Palmer is a former editor of the Church
Times.