Alan Butler
Alan John Butler, a Director of the Kuruman
Early training and ministry in South Africa
Butler was trained at
He was ordained priest in Bloemfontein in 1957. In 1960 he transferred to the
Butler commenced his ministry amongst the Tswana of the Northern Cape when Bishop
Botswana
Butler was sent by his Bishop in 1965 to Bechuanaland Protectorate (still within the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman) to the yet-to-be-built Gaborone, a capital city for the anticipated independent state of Botswana. There he was to found and build Trinity Church, an ecumenical venture, as well as being involved in such projects as starting up a Co-op food store and initiating the start of a multi-national school. He was also at one time deputy mayor of Gaborone.[2] Fr Butler remained there until 1970, a historic period when the protectorate became independent as Botswana (1966) and when church jurisdiction was transferred to the Diocese of Matabeleland (also from 1966).[1]
Butler subsequently returned for a time to England to serve as vicar at St James, Fletchampstead, Diocese of Coventry.
Kuruman Moffat Mission
In 1979 Butler volunteered to work once again in "his beloved Kalahari", South Africa. Bishop
Previously the notorious Apartheid Group Areas Act had decreed the historic Kuruman Mission site to be in a whites only area. This effectively divided the people from their church, with the latter falling into disuse. Butler's predecessor, the Revd Humphrey Thompson, ran the mission for fifty years (as had Moffat) – and did what he could to maintain mission activities during these troubled times.[3]
Upon Butler's appointment and through the 1980s the Moffat Mission was transformed into being, as he put it, "a focus for new hope in a disturbing age." One priority was to restore and conserve the buildings and their setting, promoting tourism to help generate an income and awareness about the work of the Mission. He developed a retreat and the Maphakela conference centre, cultivating a Moffat Mission Community which included a network of helpers from near and far. Fr Butler, who wore a beard "every bit as dramatic as Moffat's," as was often said, wrote and published extensively on the mission and its history. He also amassed a collection of memorabilia, artefacts, paintings, photographs, documents and books associated with the history of the Mission, and he was responsible for developing a museum within the 4 hectare precinct.[3]
A crowning achievement in 1996 was the return of Moffat's printing press, from the Africana Library in Kimberley, for which he had campaigned tirelessly since taking up Directorship of the Mission.
In 1994, in South Africa's first democratic elections, Butler was asked to be an Electoral Officer for the Northern Cape. He had always been interested in politics and this was, as his wife has put it, "the cherry on the cake."[2]
Retirement at Wimborne
Fr Butler was made a Canon of Kimberley Cathedral before he and his wife Hilda retired to Wimborne in the south of England in 1995. There he became part of the Minster staff, where he was also an enthusiastic
References
- ^ ISBN 0-19-200009-8.
- ^ a b c d e "Obituary – Canon Alan Butler". This is Dorset. 21 January 2011. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
- ^ a b Rogers, David (1 September 1995). "Kuruman's Moffat Mission in the Northern Cape". Getaway. Archived from the original on 2 October 2011.
- ^ "In Memoriam". Ancient Society of College Youths. Archived from the original on 9 January 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2020.