Philip Hacking of Christ Church, Fulwood, Sheffield, has stood for biblical evangelicalism within the Church of England for more years than he would care to remember. As he approaches retirement, we asked him to look back over the years and, with the light of experience, to assess the future.
'Forty years on', thus ran my grammar school song back in Blackburn, plagiarised from Harrow, I believe. Now I look back at rather more than those 40 years of ministry. The Editor asked me to focus on some of the highlights of my ministry. It would not be difficult to pinpoint a number.
It is always an enormous privilege to preach at the Keswick Convention or Word Alive in front of thousands of expectant people. To be in the chair when Billy Graham came to Sheffield for those stirring days in 1985 was a privilege I shall never forget. Travelling in many parts of the world encouraging Christians both expatriate and local, and even standing in front of well over 100,000 people in a great convention in South India at Maramon is a staggering memory.
