By Andrew Carey
We’ve sadly lost a succession of editors of the CEN in the last few years, beginning with Colin Blakely, who tragically died on the job in 2022. Philip Crowe and John King – editors from the 1960s followed and now John Martin, who edited the CEN from 1988 to 1995 and left his mark on religious affairs journalism and church communications.
I declare an interest because it was John Martin who employed me as a Journalist with Responsibility for Futures, in 1989 – one of my first jobs out of University. On the newsdesk was Colin Blakely and with this small staff he took the CEN through a confident phase of development.
Evangelical luminary, Prebendary John Pearce, wrote in the Churchman: “John Martin was the best editor the Church of England Newspaper ever had. During his time it became a real newspaper.”
This is probably true in that John brought a level of professionalism and journalistic savvy to the CEN which had often previously been a hobby-horse for untrained clergy. He was a proud layman who felt called to communications in the C of E and the Anglican Communion.
He was born in Sydney in 1950 and his early years were in rural New South Wales, Tullamore and Bogangate. Part of his early education was by correspondence and radio. At age 15 his parents sent him to St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney. He then gained a degree in History from Macquarrie University, and began an MA in theology in Melbourne which he discontinued in favour of work. From 1973-5 he was a staffworker for the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students; from 1975 to 77, training Officer for the Association of Youth Organisations of New South Wales. It was his third job, as Information Officer with Sydney Diocese (1977-9) which was pivotal. Sydney had a reputation as a conservative evangelical centre of worldwide Anglicanism which has lasted up to today. But it was also a centre for excellence in terms of communications, ahead of the game in getting its message out in Australia and indeed around the world.
John’s restlessness, yearning for travel and his rather more open-evangelical tendences saw him trading this role to become first communications Officer for the Anglican Communion Office based in London. He helped move the communications from Gestetner productions to email. But he became acquainted first hand with many of the churches of the Anglican Communion through staffing meetings of the Anglican Consultative Council, the Primates Meeting and the inaugural meeting of CAPA (Council of the Anglican Provinces of Africa). He attended the 1983 WCC assembly in Vancouver.
He married his love of the worldwide Anglican Communion, communications and writing when he applied successfully for the editorship of The Church of England Newspaper in 1988. The CEN was at that time backed by a group of evangelical businessmen led by Tim Royle and Mark Birchall. As a group they were happy with the stability and progress that John brought to the title including modest growth in publication and the diversification of the title, but they also wanted out. John secured many years of breathing space by initiating a partnership with Parliamentary Communications, led by Keith Young which owned the highly successful House Magazine and a range of other titles. Keith Young became publisher and a group of Trustees continued to own the title until the 2010s when Keith Young became owner of the title.
John also brought his love of sports to the job of Editor. As an Aussie his passion was cricket – having been a leg break bowler in his schooldays – and was understandably frustrated by the fact that the Church Times had cornered the market with a diocesan cricket league. During his editorship CEN sponsored a football league and for a short time a national C of E cricket team. Andrew Wingfield-Digby of Christians in Sport wrote a regular column for CEN for some time.
The CEN also co-sponsored a Parliamentary newsletter with the Evangelical Alliance. John Martin strongly promoted an open evangelical identity through the CEN, though he was highly collegial and related with affection to all the evangelical tribes. But his interests lay outside evangelical politics and rather more in the mission of the church in the world.
His career post-CEN included regular journalism for many publications, consultancy with the Christian Medical Fellowship and Bible Lands which became Embrace the Middle East during his time.
He was also head of communications for the National Evangelical Anglican Congress in 2003 and also one of the founders of Fulcrum, an open evangelical grouping that grew out of some frustration that CEEC and other bodies were less open to other Anglican traditions than they should be.
He also worked closely with Premier Radio in the early years. Premier stalwart, Cindy Kent, remembers him when she was religious affairs producer at Capital Radio, John became the great ‘go to’ guy for a quote in accessible language.
“I continued to have the same relationship in my days at Premier Christian Radio and he was with CMS again brilliantly unpacking a complex situation,” she added
John married Deirdre in September 1991. Deirdre and John had both worked together at the Anglican Consultative Office where Deidre with her organising skills was responsible for keeping the show on the road. They initially lived together in Paddington moving eventually to the east end of London where John Martin pursued lay ministry as a reader.
Sadly, far too early in life at the age of 70, John was diagnosed with Vascular Parkinsons affecting his lower body in 2020. The quality of his life went downhill. He and Deirdre moved to Salisbury to a home more suitable for his condition. Deirdre told me: “Since then we have been regular attenders at the Cathedral and he said not long ago that it seemed his real spiritual life had begun (St Andrew’s Sydney) and ended in a Cathedral.”
