Again, with Bishop David's strong support, the Churches set up the CARE project - Churches' Action for Racial Equality - to tackle the injustices experienced by the Liverpool Black Community in Toxteth. COMPASS - Counselling on Merseyside and Pastoral Support Service - was another joint Churches' venture. Counselling Centres were created across the region, led by professional counsellors and staffed by church volunteers. These centres, already much used, became extraordinarily significant after the Hillsborough football tragedy, when so many local people were desperate for counselling and support.
In all this united Christian action, Bishop David played a notable leadership role. He was as outstanding as a church leader as he had once been as an England cricketer. He never boasted about his cricketing career, though others did. Bishop David, Archbishop Derek and myself as Free Church Moderator for Merseyside, were joint Presidents of our Ecumenical Assembly. As such we were often asked to speak in various cities about the Churches' action together on Merseyside. One evening, in Bradford City Hall, we were each down to speak for ten minutes. The chairman, the Bishop of Bradford, recalled Bishop David's cricketing prowess, as Captain of Cambridge, Captain of Sussex, Captain of England; and then, with a flourish, announced, "I now call on Bishop David to open the batting". David responded: "Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for that word about my cricketing past; but I've been cut down to size recently, when I was staying in a local vicarage. The vicar's young son said to me, "Didn't you use to play cricket?" I acknowledged that was so. To which the little boy replied, "I thought so; my Grandad's always on about you!"
That modesty was typical of the man, as was his courage and his commitment to his Christian calling. I count it as a rich privilege to have known him as a friend and colleague.
John A. Newton (Chair of the Liverpool District, 1986-95, and Free Church Moderator for Merseyside Ecumenical Assembly, 1987-95).
Bishop David Sheppard
David Sheppard was an outstanding Bishop of Liverpool from 1972 to 1997, a crucial period in the city's history. Liverpool, which once rivalled London for wealth and prestige, had suffered acute loss of population and economic decline. In the 1980s, the extreme Left-wing faction, the Militant Tendency, led by Derek Hatton, seized control of the City Council, refused to set a legal rate, and deliberately sought confrontation with the Conservative government.
Against this background, David Sheppard worked tirelessly for the unity of the Christian Churches and the common good of the city and its people. His partnership with Derek Worlock, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, became legendary, a central part of the "Mersey Miracle", whereby the city's historic sectarianism was transformed into growing Christian unity. The two leaders, with their Free Church colleagues in the Merseyside Churches' Ecumenical Assembly, were committed to deeper Christian unity - in worship, mission and service. That unity was sought not only for the enrichment of the churches and in obedience to the Lord's prayer "That they may all be one". It was also directed towards united action for the welfare of a hurt city and the Merseyside region.
Bishop David was Vice-chairman of the Anglican Synod's working party that produced the 1985 report on "Faith in the City", which called on the Church to take radical action to address the needs of the Urban Priority Areas. Ultimately £30 million was raised for inner city projects. On Merseyside the Churches together initiated a whole series of social and economic projects in the spirit of "Faith in the City". These included Liverpool Alternative Technology (LAT), which involved the conversion of a large part of a Methodist church into engineering workshops, to equip young people from Liverpool 8, where unemployment was appallingly high, with skills which could take them on to apprenticeships or jobs. Money was obtained from the European Social Fund, but the Churches themselves played a major part in financing the project.
