The Revd Richard Kirker writes:

WITHIN an easy walk of each other, two City of London churches were home to two remarkable, mould-breaking Anglican clergy in the second half of the 20th century.

Prebendary Chad Varah founded the Samaritans at St Stephen Walbrook, and the Revd Malcolm Johnson offered sanctuary to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) at St Botolph’s, Aldgate. Both made enduring decisions that have made life more liveable, tolerable, and compassionate. The suicidal, the ostracised, and the shunned found succour and acceptance in the ministry of two distinctly humane priests.

Malcolm, who died on 24 February, aged 89, embodied a ministry of graceful resilience and patient persistence, spent for the most part amid the wealth of the City and the poverty of its neighbours in Bethnal Green, Stepney, and Whitechapel. The East End and the Mansion House were equally his domain. Where the need was greatest, he went.

Born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, an only child, educated at Framlingham College, in Suffolk, and serving in Cyprus with the Royal Anglian Regiment during his National Service, he studied theology at Durham. The path to ordination began at Cuddesdon, when Robert Runcie was Principal. Malcom was ordained in 1962.

The rest of his life was spent being an energetic pastor, a ministry that he carried out with unflinching panache and gusto, despite the hostility directed at him from the mid-1980s.

A curacy (1962-67) at St Mark’s, Portsmouth, followed by a chaplaincy at Queen Mary College, University of London, on Mile End Road, led, in 1974, to an incumbency at St Botolph’s, where he spent almost 20 years. His remaining years before his retirement in 1997 were at the Royal Foundation of St Katharine, in Wapping, where he was Master.

In a satisfying turn of history, this was the site — on the first Saturday after the Royal Assent for the Sexual Offences Act in 1967 — that Malcolm had chosen to host the first non-commercial public and legal social gathering of gay people after our partial decriminalisation. The Community of the Resurrection, which ran the retreat and community centre, found no reason to refuse.

Along the way, his marriage was annulled, both parties recognising their mutual incompatibilities. This was followed by an enduring relationship with Robert Wilson, his surviving civil partner of 57 years.

This deep bonding sustained Malcolm through all the years when he struggled to find resources for the Crypt, where the homeless gathered in ever increasing numbers, requiring a combination of trained workers, funds to build hostels, counselling that soon required dedicated professional paid staff, and — throughout the AIDS pandemic — a resolute determination to care for victims, their friends, and families.

On top of this, he was a governor of the adjacent Sir John Cass [now Aldgate] Primary School, a trustee of Sir John Cass Secondary School, an active supporter of Toynbee Hall, Providence Row Shelter, Haggerston Priory (the Society of St Margaret), and a vocal supporter of the ordination of women. In his retirement, he served as Bishop’s Adviser on Pastoral Care at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.

Although it was never his intention, his work among lesbian, gay, and bisexual people became the perceived defining feature of his life. It was the price that he paid for his principles. Once LGCM’s profile became nationally recognised, the diocese of London (and, if truth be told, also the Lord Mayor at the time, since they worked in unison) sought its eviction from the church by all the means at its disposal. The Church of England, or at least part of it, wanted a symbolic victory and obtained it. Ultimately, it was pyrrhic and futile.

Malcolm was ensnared by rising overt homophobia and laws that bound him by a Consistory Court ruling to evict the very organisation that he, as a founder, believed had every right to continue to have its office in St Botolph’s. That was also the unanimous view of the PCC

By good fortune, one of Malcolm’s many connections in the City and East End provided yet another sanctuary, this time beyond the reach of the diocese. He secured premises, ironically, in the Tractarian Oxford House in Bethnal Green, founded by Keble College, where the LGCM was able to flourish once more, with a beautiful Blomfield chapel on site. Malcolm’s determination that it would not be hounded or bankrupted out of existence paid off. His conscience and integrity saw to that.

Malcolm, who in later life gained a doctorate in church history, was the author of several books, including a biography of Bishop Blomfeld; Crypts of London; a history of St Martin-in-the-Fields; and an account of his own life, Diary of a Gay Priest.

The Revd Dr Malcolm Johnson’s funeral will be held at 3 p.m. on Monday 11 May, in St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, in London.