Letter - The Very Reverend Alan Webster

The Very Reverend Alan Webster

The Editor

The Very Reverend Alan Webster's obituaries(Guardian and Telegraph) mention his years as vicar of Barnard Castle.

As vicar of St mary's Barnard Castle, Alan Webster was highly regarded by local people. My own experience of his influence was gained through membership of the St Mary's Guild. The Guild essentially a church youth club was a lively focal point for young people living in a small and relatively isolated market town.

In the fifties Barnard Castle was a garrison town. The Glosters returned to the town after their harrowing experiences in the Korean War. A number of the young soldiers found their way to St Mary's where the they benefitted from the pastoral care in the church community as well as a lightening of their harrowing experience through activities that St Mary's Guild offered.

In later years I became aware of the Reverend and Mrs Websters involvment with the Movement for the Ordination of Women. Their stance was courageous for by then Alan Webster was Dean of St Paul's and useful as it might be to argue the cause of women's ordination from one of the most prominent appointments in the Church of England at the heart of the City of London it cannot have been easy for Alan or Margaret Webster to stand up to the entrenched conservatism that had for so long kept women out of the priesthood. The success of women as priest's in the Church of England owes much to the Reverend Webster and Mrs Margaret Webster's courage.