The Rev Michael Jackson obituary

The Guardian

02-04-2025

My father, the Rev Michael Jackson, who has died aged 88, was a minister with the United Reformed Church in Winsford, Cheshire, and later in Reading, Berkshire, where he also served as padre to the Arborfield Garrison of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Corps.
He worked hard to deliver worship plus pastoral care not only to church members but also to the thousands of users of the church buildings.
Born in Greasbrough, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Michael was the elder son of Cecil Jackson, who worked in telecommunications, and his wife, Frances (nee Robinson). From Rotherham grammar school, he went into ministerial training at Northern Congregational College, Manchester, in 1961. He also studied for a BA degree in theology at the University of Manchester, where he met Elizabeth Smith, then a trainee teacher, who was later ordained as one of the first female Anglican priests. They married in 1967, and went on to have three children, Simon, Ruth and me.
In 1966, Michael was appointed minister at Over Congregational Church, Winsford, which became Over URC Church in 1972 when the United Reformed Church was founded from a union of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches. He moved to Park URC Church in Reading in 1978.
My father would always find it funny to deliver the assembly at the school Simon and I attended in Reading without telling us in advance. As he was walking up to the stage in the hall, he would look at us and smile, followed by hundreds of our schoolmates turning around to say: 'That's your dad.' Even worse, he did not even give us a lift – we had to walk to school as usual.
Often we tried to pretend we weren't with him. Once, when distracted on a holiday in France, he walked into a gumball machine outside a cafe, tipping it over and spilling a river of multicoloured sweets down the cobbled street. Although the locals, and even the cafe owner, laughed, as teenagers, my brother and I were mortified.
My father loved helping with the training of student ministers from Mansfield College, Oxford, who came on placements to work alongside him in order to gain practical experience of ministry. Outside the church setting, he was an advocate for social justice and religious equality, working with the Berkshire branch of the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education, and with the Council of Christians and Jews and the Family Planning Association. He was also an enthusiastic Rotarian and had the gift of listening and caring, which, when coupled with his charisma, made everyone he spoke to feel special.
Five years ago he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and dementia, and Ruth became his primary carer.
He is survived by Elizabeth, Simon, Ruth and me, and eight grandchildren.