I was going to write an obituary to our former District President Allan Dyer, who died on 14 September 2008 aged 79. Allan was a distinguished District President from 1988 to 2000.
His funeral service was held on Monday 22 September at Boston Spa and there were a large number of BB officers present. As an obituary I have obtained a copy the address from Revd Michael Townsend, one of our Company Chaplains in Grimsby, who as a great personal friend of Allan, conducted the thanksgiving service. This is reproduced here. We remember Allan's wife Joan and her family in our prayers and give thanks to God for all the Allan did for us in the District.
Address given at the Thanksgiving Service for
Joseph Allen Dyer, JP
at Boston Spa Methodist Church on 22nd September 2008
by the Revd Michael J Townsend
John Wesley told his followers: ‘Do all the good you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can’ – Allan did just that.
We are here in church today because we have gratitude in our hearts for what God gave us and to so many others through Allan. There are many people who share this gratitude but cannot be here, and we stand for them too. Allan combined a deep love of God with a deep love of people and both of those things shone through everything he was and did. Not entirely jokingly, he would say that he used his expertise during his working life in pensions at Legal and General to ensure that he could retire early and then do all the other things he really wanted to do. Of course, the truth of the matter is that he started doing most of them well before he retired; retirement just meant more of it! Allan would not want this occasion to become a recital of his achievements, but in order to give God thanks for his life and work we do need to remind ourselves of some of his numerous involvements.
There was, of course, his commitment to the Boys’ Brigade; joining as a Lifeboy before he was officially old enough to do so, serving the movement in all sorts of ways, unfailingly supporting it, and its officers for so long with wisdom and encouragement, eventually becoming President of the Yorkshire and Humber Boys’ Brigade.
There was his work as a Local Preacher – 55 years of unstinting service. Marked by thorough and meticulous preparation, always undergirded with prayer, his sermons were always based on the Lectionary with all the demands that makes, ever seeking to make the Bible relevant to today, and succeeding. Not surprisingly Allan was in great demand as a preacher. And his worship: nothing was ever shoddy or second-rate. Only the best was good enough for God, or indeed for a congregation of God’s people, whether it was large or small.
And arising out of his work as a preacher, his commitment to what was for most of his life Local Preachers’ Mutual Aid, now the Worship Leaders and Preachers’ Trust. Allan was always on hand with wise counsel but never shirked the routine tasks which needed to be done and he was, as always, fully supportive to colleagues. There was much rejoicing when his tireless work for LPMA was recognized by his appointment as National President in 1992.
There was Allan’s work for the Methodist Church at national level where he was trusted and valued. At one time he served on the President’s Council and his financial acumen and expertise was greatly appreciated on the Central Board of Finance, of which he was still a member at the time of his death.
He held numerous posts in the Leeds Methodist District where he was a powerful advocate for Home Missions concerns and he became the District Resourcing Mission Grants Officer. I still recall his sheer glee when he received a letter out of the blue, from a most unexpected source, telling him that District Home Missions had been left a substantial legacy. Allan knew at once that God intended it to be used for a District Evangelism Enabler’s post. Within days he had (of course) worked out how the rest of the funding might be secured and we had a scheme to run with.
Sometimes Methodists only feel comfortable inside the life of the Church. Not so Allan; his faith demanded to be put to work outside the Church as well. He became a highly-respected Justice of the Peace in 1977 and the work brought him great satisfaction. As invariably happened when Allan got involved in anything, other people at once recognised his qualities and he was appointed as Chairman of the Bench. His work as a magistrate, particularly in the family courts, enabled him to express his lifelong commitment to the welfare of young people by working with the West Yorkshire Probation Service. Inevitably, as we might think, he became Chair of the West Yorkshire Probation Committee and indeed a member of the National Committee of Probation Committees.
Nor was Allan’s involvement in things confined to this country. He fully supported Joan in the Gambia project, the Brikama School. He went with her the the Gambia every year for the past nine years and had the joy of seeing the solid achievements of that project and the progress which was being made.
However did he manage all these things, and others too numerous to mention, and where did it all come from? Anybody who didn’t know Allan and who just looked at the list of his activities might have thought that he must have been a dry old stick, always at a boring committee. Well, he was the exact opposite of a dry old stick; he was a warm and open-hearted human being with a wonderful sense of humour. Nothing delighted him more than to see other people grow and achieve their potential. He was quite prepared to be at sometimes boring committees, and indeed to give them his utmost attention, if by doing that he could achieve results and make life better for others.
Some people are busy people in our busy world because they are running away from some inner spiritual emptiness. Allan was the absolute opposite of that: if he was busy it was because his heart was full of the love of God, because the God he served sent his Son that all might have fullness of life, and it was therefore his work to do all the good he could in all the ways he could, in order that this fullness of life might be shared, with young people, with old people, indeed with all. And it showed.
Chair of the West Yorkshire Probation Service Committee? How little that title reveals of how Allan carried out that role. I recall that hosting my first Presidential Visit to the Leeds District in 1994 I was desperate to find things for the President to do. I appealed to Allan. Within a very short time he had produced a day’s programme of visits to projects in and around Wakefield. It was a hugely enjoyable day. But what was really impressive was that as we went round the projects it became evident that Allan personally knew all the people who were involved with them and what they were doing, and he also knew not a few of the offending youngsters the projects were designed to help. He talked with them and, above all, he listened to them.
National President of LPMA? Yes, and also for 15 years the ‘Inspector’ of the retirement home at Grange-Over-Sands where he made regular visits, including one in the week before he died and where he would spend significant time with every resident. Those residents knew that Allan was genuinely interested in their welfare and quality of life. He listened to them and would get something done if there was a problem. What was true of his Probation work and of LPMA was true for everything else too. Allan occupied some influential and powerful positions down the years, but he never used them to create influence or reputation for himself. God’s love for people flowed through and from him.
Some people in our busy world are busy because they are escaping from unhappy relationships or home life. Exactly the opposite was true of Allan. He could be busy in all these ways because he had a family life that was rich in love and which gave him the security without which he could not have done a fraction of what he did do.
Allan and Joan first met when he went to preach at Silver Royd Methodist Church and it was Joan’s turn to read the lesson! Don’t you just love that? And one thing led, as they say, to another, and to more than 53 years of creative, stimulating and deeply rewarding marriage. They were soul-mates in the sense that for both of them the Lord came first and that enabled them to affirm and support each other’s particular avenues of service. They learned the wisdom of giving each other space and opportunity to do, I was going to say ‘their own thing’, but really it was the thing that God had gifted for each of them. And there was huge mutual support which meant so much to both of them.
The arrival of Alarna and then Jonathan two years later almost filled a cup of happiness. Allan was born to be a Dad and he gave significant quality time to both of them, listening and encouraging. In due course Stephen was welcomed into the family circle and when Jonathan eventually got round to holy matrimony, so was Tina. The arrival first of Claire and Stuart and then some years later of Jack and Rosie were very special events. Allan was not one for talking about himself, but you were very unwise to ask him about his grandchildren if you didn’t have some time to spare. Indeed, you would almost have thought that nobody had ever been a Granddad before. And that love was fully reciprocated. Family life was precious and it was given quality time. Allan loved going on holiday, not least because he could, and usually did, make new friends. Those who shared holidays with Allan and Joan saw much of this warm, funny, committed man who lived life to the full.
I have a horrible suspicion that if Allan could have heard this address he would have been quite cross with me. Being Allan, he would have rebuked me very gently and lovingly, though I would have known I had been rebuked! This modest, self-effacing man would have reminded me that it shouldn’t be all about him, that he couldn’t have done any of it without the Lord he served and that he couldn’t have done any of it without other people, Joan especially. And, of course, he would have been right! But this is a service of thanksgiving and it is well for us, however inadequately, to remember some of those things for which those of us who are here today are thankful.
In the Methodist Worship Book the Intercessions in the Order for Holy Communion for Pentecost and Times of Renewal conclude with these words:
Receive our thanks and praise
for all who have served you faithfully here on
earth,
and especially those who have revealed to us
your grace in Christ…
Allan Dyer, who did all the good he could in all the ways he could, served God faithfully here on earth and revealed to us much of God’s grace. Thanks be to God.
