Michael Jackson (priest)

For other people named Michael Jackson, see Michael Jackson (disambiguation).

Michael James Jackson was a priest and canon in the Church of England. He was born in 1925 and died in 1995.

Jackson was baptised on Michaelmas Day in 1925 in St. Michael's Church, Somerton where his father was the vicar.

National Service took him to India from 1945 to 1947 and a commission in the Indian Army. It was at this time that he decided to seek ordination. At Trinity Hall, Cambridge, from 1947 to 1950, he studied 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. When he finished his 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 steel melting shop. In 1955 his shop steward persuaded the Bishop of Sheffield to ordain him as a deacon, to continue as a labourer but as a member of the Sheffield Industrial Mission.

In 1957 he was ordained as a priest and became a full-time chaplain with the mission. From 1959 to 1969 he was the senior chaplain. He returned to parish ministry in 1969, serving four years as the vicar of St George's Doncaster before moving to St. Mary's Church, Nottingham.

In Nottingham, he chaired the Council of Christians and Jews, the City Centre Council of Churches and, for some years, was the chairman of the governors of the Bluecoat School. He spent six weeks visiting churches in the Caribbean, to better 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.

Jackson was awarded a M.Phil. degree from the University of Nottingham for a paper on Marcel Proust and wrote articles on Jane Austen, Rastafari movement, English Theologians, sociology and more.^[1]

References

1. ^ www.nottinghamchurches.org "Michael James Jackson, MA (1925 - 1995)"

Religious titles
Preceded by Douglas Russell Feaver	Vicar of St.Mary's Church, Nottingham 1973–1991	Succeeded by James Edward McKenzie Neale

Persondata
Name	Jackson, Michael James
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1925
Place of birth
Date of death	1995
Place of death