Canon Michael West writes:
BRIAN CORDINGLEY’s long and distinguished ministry fell into two very different halves. But they can be connected until the title of his monograph Spiritualty in the Search for Peace and Justice (William Temple Foundation, 1990).
He was ordained in Sheffield Cathedral in 1957 to serve in St James’s, Rotherham. Here, he linked with Sheffield Industrial Mission, then led by E. R. (Ted) Wickham. From 1959 to 1964, he was a full-time member of the Sheffield Industrial Mission staff. Industrial Mission was a significant form of outreach by the British Churches in the second half of the 20th century. In 1986, there were about 200 full- and half-time members of Industrial Mission teams, based in most large industrial cities.
In 1964, Brian moved to be Rector of St Cuthbert’s, Trafford Park, and leader of the Greater Manchester Industrial Mission (GMIM), which had been launched in 1956. At that time, chaplains convened small discussion groups during or immediately after working hours: Brian records holding up to 50 meetings a week at times. The workplace “catch as catch can” theology was based on inductive theological models derived from Paul Tillich.
In 1981, Brian became Vicar of Hamer, in Rochdale. He responded to rising unemployment by launching the CHANCE project for unemployed people who lived on marginalised estates. At the same time, he used his contacts with other Industrial Mission (IM) teams, through their national association, to begin a national programme for training newly appointed Industrial Chaplains. It was delivered in three five-day residential modules spread over a year. In collaboration with Malcolm Brown of the William Temple Foundation, Brian designed, planned, and led the programme for eight years. Through this course, Brian left his mark on the thinking and practice of more than IM staff from all over Britain.
In 1989, he took sabbatical leave to visit the US, to study the spiritual underpinning of Christian community work. At the last minute, a week in El Salvador was added to his itinerary. In his monograph, he concludes: “I cannot just walk away from El Salvador. God is patiently at work there and therefore from now on I have to find some way of being present to that reality.”
His chosen way was to create a small charity, Wellsprings El Tular, which Brian led into his retirement and until his health began to fail in 2019. On the basis of his experience in El Salvador, Brian believed that a carefully focused programme of development and friendship would benefit people at both ends of the link.
Wellsprings sends about £10,000 every year to El Tular, a subsistence-farming community north-west of San Salvador. It has enabled the local school to develop academic and technical post-16 courses, a credit union, and ways to improve their agriculture. There have been regular visits from and to El Tular; the next is planned for 2022.
Throughout the first 20 years of the programme, Brian’s energy and wisdom have been the single most important element in its success in transforming the lives of the 300 families in that community. Equally, his emphasis on the spirituality underpinning the work has influenced many church members in the north-west.
Canon Brian Cordingley died on 15 August, aged 90.