Michael James Jackson, MA (1925 - 1995)

Ordained 1957, Chaplain to the Sheffield Industrial Mission 1957 -1969, Vicar of St. George's Church, Doncaster 1969 - 1973

Vicar of St. Mary's Church, Nottingham 1973 - 1991

Michael was baptised on Michaelmas Day, 1925, in St. Michael's Church, Somerton, where his father was vicar. A chandelier there bears the dedication "To the Glory of God and the Honour of the Church of England." Michael approved of this.

National Service took him to India from 1945 - 7, and a commission in the Indian Army. It was at this time he decided to seek ordination. At Trinity Hall, Cambridge, from 1947 - 50, he read Philosophy (then called Moral Sciences) and Medieval History.

A stay in France introduced him to new ideas on mission in industry, and the priest-worker movement. Before beginning theological training at Wells, he worked for a year as a labourer in a Sheffield steel works, in close contact with the Sheffield Industrial Mission. On completing training, he returned to Sheffield for a further three and a half years as a labourer, working out what Christianity meant in that context. His later deafness was probably attributable in part to these eight hour shifts, around the clock, in a great steel melting shop. In 1955 his shop steward visited the formidable Bishop of Sheffield to persuade him to ordain Michael deacon, to continue as a labourer but as a member of the Sheffield Industrial Mission.

In 1957 he was ordained priest, became a full-time chaplain with the Mission, and from 1959 - 69 was Senior Chaplain.

He returned to parochial ministry in 1969, serving for four years as Vicar of Doncaster before coming to St. Mary's, Nottingham. The years in industry had convinced him of the enduring place of parish church and ministry; but also gave him a vision of the place of a great civic church in the life of town or city. The beauty of the building, and its music, were to serve to reach out to those who came to the church. The success of the restoration appeal, and the building up of the musical tradition, were part of this vision.

In Nottingham, Michael chaired the Council of Christians and Jews, the City Centre Council of Churches, and for some years, was Chairman of the Governors of the Bluecoat School. He spent 6 weeks visiting churches in the Caribbean, the better to understand and befriend the local 'black-led' churches. Further afield, he was a chairman of the Advisory Council for the Church's Ministry selection conferences. He was one of eight members of a Joint Committee of the Churches who prepared a report on Hospital Chaplaincy. He served on the national Youth Employment Council.

He was awarded an M.Phil. from Nottingham University for a paper on Marcel Proust, and wrote articles on Jane Austen, Rastafarianism, English Theologians, sociology, and more.

Retirement gave him time to improve his water-colour painting, and drawing, and write the life of a relative who had served in the Colonial Service. Friends, family, and especially grandchildren, gave him great happiness. He faced the impairments of his final months with uncomplaining good humour. Those who nursed him during his last weeks in hospital sensed that in Michael there was something, as they put it, "special".

Janet Jackson

The Clergy