My father Canon Tony Williamson, died on 12 February last
year. To mark the first anniversary of his death, I’m sharing an address he
gave many years ago, in 1961, three years after he became a worker priest in a car
factory in Oxford.
Tony travelled to London to give the speech, to the Southwark
Diocesan Conference on 2 November 1961.
Reading Tony in his own words brings to life in a vivid way
what it meant to him to be a worker priest. He was 28 years old at the time, full
of determination and passion for the path he thought best to live out his faith
in a way meaningful to him.
Many themes of his worker priest life were already present in
this early speech. He speaks about the “hard world” of factory work. “There is
the noise of machinery and the smell of oil, but the pressure of production is
the most devastating item” he says.
He feels for the “youngsters operating fly-presses, just
pulling a handle all day” to make “those completely useless fins you see on the
back of many new cars”. It’s hardly surprising they let off steam at the
weekend, he says. “I have every sympathy with them if they go a little wild at
night”.
He shows his frustration with the “self-centred” Church, so preoccupied
with “narrow-minded” religious activities and so distant from the secular world
he is committed to being part of.
He explains to the audience his approach to being a worker
priest, an approach he would pursue for many more years. He says he was firmly established
as a manual worker, and had bought a house on a housing estate. “From this base
I (have) used my abilities as seemed best, partly in the church, partly as a
trade unionist and as a labour party secretary”.
In a later passage he answers a rhetorical question he poses
to himself, and to the - possibly startled - audience. “Why in addition to being a priest
and manual worker should I be a socialist politician?”. He runs through several
reasons, then declares boldly: “I hope I have given you an idea of why I am a
socialist”.
He ends the address in this way: “My own conclusion is
simply that to live out the Christian faith and to explain the Christian faith
to others, we must put our faith into action in the life of the society, the
country and the world in which we live. This is one reason why I, for one, have
become a worker priest”.
Remembering Tony, and all he stood for.
*The attached address is a scan of the original Tony
delivered on 2 November 1961, complete with his hand-written edits.