My father, Alan Gawith, who has died aged 92, was an Anglican priest and a lifelong advocate for social justice and equality. His charm and quick wit won him both friends and debates.
From 1974 until his retirement in 1989, Alan was chair of the Church of England Board for Social Responsibility in Manchester, a charitable organisation that managed a specialist adoption agency and employed community workers to improve inner-city lives through training initiatives and support groups. He embraced liberation theology and challenged thinking on sexuality. Alan became the bishop of Manchester’s adviser on HIV and Aids, and was made a canon of the city’s cathedral in 1982. He was a supporter of gay clergy, a proponent of women priests, and was especially proud when his daughter Laurie was ordained in 2015.
He was born in Kendal, Cumbria, the third of four children of Samuel Gawith, a snuff manufacturer, and his wife, Emily (nee Nelson). Alan followed his two brothers to Ackworth, a Quaker boarding school near Pontefract, West Yorkshire. The second world war interrupted his education at Manchester University; as a conscientious objector he joined the Friends Ambulance Unit (1944-46).
At the end of the war, he spent time in Germany working with displaced people. This period had a profound effect on Alan’s future: on coming home, he enrolled on a youth and community course at Newbattle Abbey in Midlothian, a college for adults returning to education. He married Kate Baxter, a fellow student, in 1951. I was born the following year, and our family moved to Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham. Alan worked in a paper factory while deciding what to do next: Anglican priest or pig farmer? Choosing the former, he attended Lichfield Theological College, Staffordshire.
Alan served curacies in Appleby, where Laurie was born, and Newton Aycliffe, where another daughter, Hilary, was born, before taking his next post at St James, Owton Manor, Hartlepool – serving a large new housing estate affected by the closure of shipyards and a decline in steel and manufacturing industries. In 1967 he became vicar at St George’s, Kendal, and after seven years moved to Manchester.
In retirement, he supported local organisations working with homeless people and refugees, and indulged his love of art and poetry. He enjoyed family holidays; walks were enhanced by Alan’s knowledge of birds and flowers. He was a great supporter to his grandchildren, playing football with them into his 70s.
He is survived by Kate and their children, four grandchildren, Ben, Tom, Kate and Joy, and his sister, Nancy.
