The Very Revd Geoff Miller writes:
“IN THE end it is all about relationships,” Peter Kenney told me in the last few days of his life. “For so much, being present is enough,” he continued. He was still offering shaman-like wisdom from his sick bed. And I was listening and learning.
It is a rare thing, I think, to find a good, wise friend and colleague who stretches not only your thinking but the very way you understand yourself. For many, Peter was such a person.
Peter was a Walker lad, born and bred among the gritty life of shipbuilding workers and their families. He never gave up his Geordie warmth. From a young age, he was inspired by his parish priest and determined to become a priest himself. From the moment he borrowed the six pounds from his reluctant dad to buy a copy of Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, his fate was sealed. He read theology at Edinburgh University and continued his ministerial formation at New College, Edinburgh. He was ordained deacon in Newcastle Cathedral in 1976 to serve his title at St George’s, Cullercoates.
A distinguished and well-respected parish ministry followed around Newcastle and Gosforth: the Newbiggin Hall Estate, north Gosforth, St John’s, Newcastle, St Hugh’s Newcastle, and the Chapel House Estate. He was thoughtful, without doubt introvert, but patient and disciplined, and, above all, he loved his parishioners almost as much as they loved him. But, as he walked the talk of faithful parish ministry, a second vocation beckoned.
It began with training at Durham University as a counsellor, followed by training as an analyst at the Jungian Institute in Zurich. This was no self-indulgent adventure. It came out of a simple but profound desire to be of use to others. It led to his leading the diocesan pastoral-care and counselling scheme, offering support and spiritual direction to countless individuals and groups throughout the region and beyond.
He saw his priestly ministry as a vocation, and his growing work as an analyst was an “extension and enlargement of what it means to be a priest”. He wrote: “For me, they are clearly not the same thing, though there are some similarities. Jung declares that ultimately the true vocation is the development of personality. But the religious dimension does not have a monopoly on the concept or experience of vocation. I have, over the years, become more clear in my own mind and heart that the basic call, the call of God if you like, is a call to life and fullness of personhood.”
The remarkable thing about Peter’s journey is that so many of us have been beneficiaries. His gentleness, modesty, and honesty were hallmarks of a faithful ministry. A friend wrote that he was “full of God’s searching and love”, and that was evident to many; but this was no self-indulgent self-searching: rather, a gracious gift to all with whom he came into contact.
Peter’s slow release into the next life felt quiet, deliberate, contemplative, knowledgeable, empathic, loving, human. and deeply faithful.
Thank God for his ministry, his priesthood, and for his love for so many of us. May he rest in peace and rise to Easter glory.
Canon Peter Kenney died on 1 April, aged 74.
