Canon John Hester

Feb 14 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

THE neatly bearded priest was seen visiting gay clubs in London’s Soho, incognito wearing neither cassock nor dog collar. But this wasn’t an attempt to evade detection. More that, in his line of work, as rector of Soho, such apparel meant that he was mistaken for appearing “in drag”.

Canon John Hester, who has died, aged 80, was a prime example of just what a broad church the Anglican community embraces. From childhood, Hester was attracted to the theatre and while a curate in the City of London, he edited a magazine called Christian Drama. This led to being appointed secretary of the Actors’ Church Union, tending the spiritual needs of those working in UK theatres. Such was his range, he combined this with chaplaincy to a community of nuns. He instinctively empathised with actors who led gipsy-like and impoverished existences, their lives poised between fantasy and reality.

Unsurprisingly, he was chosen in 1963 to be vicar of Soho, a parish which included film studios, theatres, 50 strip clubs, numerous pornography shops, gay bars and clubs, plus a phalanx of prostitutes.

Of the blitzed parish church, only its tower, small chapel and meeting room remained. Hester took an overwhelmingly tolerant (truly Christian, one could say) attitude to the gaudy and often vulnerable members of his flock. Of strip clubs, he said: “A striptease performance is a display of beauty sipped, and its bouquet savoured, as one might do with a rare and delightful wine.”

He branded opponents of such cultural enrichment as “puritans”. About pornography, he opined: “It caters for areas of inadequacy and repression which are present in us all.”

One regret was being unable to appear at the Old Bailey to defend the novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn, which was charged with obscenity. A leading prosecution witness in the case was David Sheppard, later Bishop of Liverpool.

However, Hester was equally aware of the serious social problems caused by the area’s criminal and more outrageous elements, and chaired the Soho Project, which brought police, medical and social workers together. An inveterate traveller, he was also well known in Las Vegas.

After this, he became vicar of Brighton and later a canon residentiary of Chichester Cathedral. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had three sons.

Canon John Hester, priest; born, January 21, 1927, died, February 10, 2008