A well-known evangelical who moved into charismatic renewal, John T.C.B. Collins, has died.
Ordained in 1951, John served for six years as an assistant curate at All Souls’ Langham Place, in central London. His training incumbent was John Stott, the pre-eminent leader of post-war Anglican Evangelicalism. John Collins focused especially on ministry for families, and launched an innovative family service that filled St Peter’s, Vere Street, in the All Souls’ parish.
In 1955, he married Diana Kimpton, niece of Baron Hazlerigg. She was a student at Ridgelands Bible College, and the couple met when helping at Billy Graham’s Harringay crusade in 1954.
John’s first incumbency was a huge cultural leap from the elite circles of Cambridge and All Souls’ Langham Place. In 1957, he became vicar of St Mark’s, Gillingham, a dockland parish on the Medway, with 14,000 inhabitants including many Cockneys from the East End. Here, he embraced charismatic renewal, and the congregation grew. St Mark’s was viewed as a ‘model’ charismatic parish, integrating renewal within Anglicanism rather than outside it. Next, John and Diana moved, in 1971, to the Dorset village of Canford Magna, attracted by ministry to the huge new housing estate in the parish.
John was in demand as a trainer of leaders – his curates included David MacInnes, David Watson and John Mumford, all of whom became prominent evangelists and church-planters. With strong credentials in both evangelicalism and renewal, Collins was the obvious choice for vicar of Holy Trinity, Brompton (HTB) in 1980 – although it was rumoured that the Bishop of London agreed to his appointment only on the mistaken assumption that he was ‘the other John Collins’, the radical canon of St Paul’s.
Holy Trinity had been famous for its Prayer Book traditions and choral music, but had only a few hundred people at its main service, with room for 1,200. John’s dream was to fill the building. He believed that growth should be the experience of every Christian community, because ‘God multiplies … God wants His family to grow’.
John swapped places in 1985 with his assistant curate, Sandy Millar, to protect the HTB line of succession. He continued to mentor many younger leaders, including Justin and Caroline Welby, lay worshippers at the church from 1983 to 1989.
John was predeceased by Diana in 2013, and is survived by their children, Dominic and Richenda.
He died on 8 December 2022, aged 97.
