Donald Reeves‚ who passed away on oct 31st at ninety years-old was a ground-breaking Anglican priest who changed how people saw church life in London. During his time at St Jamesʼs Piccadilly (back in the 80s and 90s) he turned an almost-empty building into a packed spiritual center
His way of doing things wasnt usual for that time: he mixed traditional church stuff with new-age ideas and made space for all kinds of people (including LGBT Christians and peace activists). The church became super-busy with about 250 people coming to sunday services‚ which was quite different from its empty-pew days
It felt like a natural title
Born in chichester on may 18th 1934 Reeves did these things at his church:
- Made a market in the churchyard
- Started east-west political talks
- Kept doing fancy weddings
- Run a cafe for everyone
- Mixed different spiritual styles
After working as a British Council teacher in beirut Reeves felt Godʼs call and became a priest in ʼ63. He worked in different places but his biggest job came when he got St Jamesʼs in 1980 - the bishop told him “just keep it open“ and he did way more than that
When he retired in the late-90s Reeves didnt stop working; he started “Soul of Europe“ with his partner Peter Pelz. They worked on getting Muslims and Christians to rebuild stuff together in Bosnia - which was pretty new back then. The government liked this idea so much they gave him an MBE around 15 years ago
Even though some people thought he was just looking for attention (and jilly cooper called him a dishy vicar)‚ Reeves really cared about helping people who needed it. He spent lots of time talking to people with problems and fighting for what he thought was right - even when it made important people mad at him