Celebrating the life of a vicar with a heart for community: The Revd Dawn Ingham
She would have hated being the centre of attention, but last week over 250 people gathered in St Andrew’s Church, Wakefield to do just that when they celebrated the life of the Revd Dawn Ingham and laid her to rest.
For while Dawn, the vicar of St Andrew and St Mary and St Swithun, Wakefield, was an extremely private person, she believed that her ministry was grounded in community and she worked hard to put the church firmly at the heart of that.
Her most ambitious project was Your Space – a church and community café project to create a safe, friendly space for people to meet. And in January 2011 she achieved just that after members of the church raised over £120,000 in grants and community donations to create the modern, cosy, new environment and meeting places, which includes a state-of-art kitchen selling home-made bread, cakes and soup.
The official opening was typical Dawn – it included young and old, businesses and residents from right across the community of Eastmoor. They all stood shoulder to shoulder to cut the huge, long red ribbon that wound all the way through St Andrew’s Church to officially open the church and community café project. The ribbon cutting was followed by a community sing song and personal testimony from those gathered there.
At the time, Dawn said: “I have always believed every community needs a heart and that the church should try to be just that, whatever that might mean to you, the church should be somewhere you can connect with.”
It was this vision that inspired Dawn to organize a torchlit procession through the Eastmoor estate one very rainy Christmas evening which brought together schools, local brass band and different user groups from St Swithun’s Centre which was the daughter church in the parish.
It was the same vision which saw her set up a toddler group, Little Fishes, work with those suffering dementia, those with learning difficulties and ex offenders in partnership with Langley House – a charity working to help people live crime free lives. A letter was read out thanking Dawn for her commitment and support from Langley House at her funeral service.
The service at St Andrew’s on March 5 was led by the Revd Neal Owen and had been designed by Dawn. It included her favourite hymns and writings including Water Bugs and Dragon Flies– a graceful fable written by Doris Stickney who sought a meaningful way to explain death and the after life to children after the death of a five-year-old friend.
Dawn came to ordination after a successful printing business in Birmingham. She had been very active in the United Reformed Church and Salvation Army during her time there and was ordained deacon in the Church of England in 2004 and priest in 2005. Her first curacy was at St Saviours in Brownhill, in the former historic diocese of Wakefield and she became priest in charge at St Andrew’s and St Mary’s in Wakefield in 2007.
She died, aged 67, in Wakefield Hospice in February after a short illness. She leaves much loved children and grandchildren.