The Rt Revd Bob Evens writes:

JOHN MAYBURY grew up within the story of God’s love made visible by those who loved him. He was born in the Solomon Islands, one of four sons of medical-missionary parents. Aged 16, he committed himself more fully to Jesus. Despite what he called “ups and downs” in his faith journey, John was committed to Jesus until his final breath.

As my training incumbent in Southsea, John taught me much. He spoke frequently of grace, knowing that God loved him and always would love him, even when he let God down. Aware of his own frailty and his need for forgiveness, John used to say: “I need to be converted each day and nudged back into line.”

Nudged was a word that John often used to describe how God gently kept drawing him closer: nudged back into the divine story by the Spirit of God each day, nudged to see others as God saw them, nudged to go on loving even when it costs.

John was an effective leader. He didn’t put people down, rather, he humbly pulled them up to be more than they thought they could be. He helped ordinary people to glimpse the extraordinary love of God and discover how they could become part of God’s story.

John showed that being a disciple was not about being perfect enough to impress God, but about being honest enough to be forgiven and humble enough to be loved into a deeper story that could be written in people’s lives.

After studying at Cambridge University, and training at Ridley Hall, John was ordained in Liverpool to serve his title at All Hallows’, Allerton, the year he married Beverley. From here, he moved to Portsmouth diocese, where he served in a series of parishes, and was made an honorary canon of the cathedral. He was a well-known and valued priest in the diocese.

John and Beverley’s 70 years in ministry included coping with large, cold vicarages, but they made them into both happy homes for their four daughters as they grew up and places of joyful hospitality for many, including their expanding family, which gave them pride, pleasure, and delight.

John’s funeral was held on the 70th anniversary of his ordination to the diaconate. The church was almost overflowing with friends celebrating the beginning of his ministry and marking an ending with the joyful promise of another beginning in eternity.

On the coffin was his stole and preaching Bible, in which was placed a palm cross symbolising the story behind John’s story: palm branches laid to welcome Jesus entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey, creating a pathway for a King who comes in humility and serves by washing his disciples’ feet.

This was the pattern that won John Maybury’s heart and mind all those years ago and that he lived before our eyes. Thanks be to God.

Canon John Maybury died on 11 September, aged 95.