Issue Nr 52, February 2009

Newsletter

Tribute to Peter Burton

by Michelle Moran

I guess like most people I read the familiar words “stay awake, be ready…” at the start of Advent this year.  These words seemed to have a particular poignancy when only a few days later I heard about the unexpected and sudden death of Peter.  Indeed as the gospel solemnly warns us we never know the hour!

In my shock at hearing such sad news, I was gradually led to recall so many memories of Peter.  He entered Community in 1997. As he had worked in a variety of ways in his Parish and Diocese he had a lot of experience to bring to Parish Ministry.  I had the privilege of working alongside Peter doing pre-Mission for many years.  For me one of his greatest strengths was his ability to strike up a relationship with the Parish priest and he was usually good at relating with the Mission Co-ordinator and team.  I remember the time when Peter participated in our Leadership course, whilst completing one of the revealing questionnaires he remarked quite casually “Oh I scored zero for spontaneity!”   This meant that we were actually quite a ‘dynamic duo’ – as he used to say because I was able to deal with the “unexpected and unpredictable” things which so often arise in Parish Mission planning.

Whilst Peter may have lacked spontaneity he certainly had a fidelity to regular prayer which I think was a strong foundation for his life.   He also was  regular with his intake of food …. Here a number of his sayings spring to mind such as “at my hosts home I always negotiate fridge visiting rights!” and “I’ll tell the Parish Priest that we’ll need feeding, so he should have nose bags at the ready”.   And of course when all the work was over he had to go and ‘lie down in a darkened room’ and eat Pontefract cakes. 

From my travels with Peter I learnt some important lessons, such as, never let him drive unless you are 110% sure he knows the way.   Be ready for him to have forgotten or misplaced some important piece of mission information despite the fact that he liked all his I’s dotted and t’s crossed.  Then legislate for the fact that without 2 cups of tea every few hours, his blood sugar would be low and anything could happen!

On a more serious note, I learnt from Peter how to be compassionate especially to those who are hurting or have lost their way, ‘Gods special people’  I saw him invest quality time in building strong friendships with so many people.  There was a child like simplicity in some aspects of Peter’s life and yet I know, like all of us he also struggled with some things and there were many personal challenges that he had to face.

It was very touching at his funeral to see a Church packed with people.  Many of whom Peters life had touched at a very deep level.  As many of you know Peter had no close family.  Indeed Peter Moran journeyed with Peter through the loss of his mother then a few years later his father died so as we stood at the same graveside for the third time everything seemed complete and now our prayer is that they will all be united together in heaven. 

May they all rest in peace.