Tributes paid to rector who had an 'absolutely unique' personality
A warm tribute was paid by the Archbishop of Armagh, Most Rev John McDowell, at the funeral of the Rev William (Bill) Atkins, Rector of Killylea, Caledon and Brantry who died suddenly late October.
The Archbishop told mourners in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, that Bill was ‘a watchman, herald and steward of the Lord’.
In his homily, he said the late Rector had an absolutely unique personality – open, attractive and straightforward. The Archbishop added: “There was a kind of innocence about him, but he was not at all naive.
"It was a singlemindedness, what the New Testament calls purity of heart. And you might say that his method of evangelising was to draw people to Jesus by pointing to the abundant life that was in Him and by reflecting that abundant life in himself.”
Archbishop John talked about the breadth of Bill’s sympathies and learning. “What Bill said carried conviction because I don’t think he ever said anything which he didn’t mean. No platitudes or dreary pleasantries, just the heartfelt truth.
"He was talkative in his own way but never noisy. I don’t suppose anybody would accuse him of being particularly well-organised but he was focused to the last degree on the glory of the Gospel.”
Archbishop John talked about Bill’s Pakistan-born wife, Jamilla. Through Jamilla’s family, Bill had been introduced to Bishop Azad Marshal who, in effect, was Primate of the Anglican Church in Pakistan.
“Like Azad, Bill was concerned about the very difficult and uncertain circumstances which Christian communities face in Pakistan and in other places.
"Once, when I had issued a statement about racist and anti-Muslim behaviour here in Northern Ireland, Bill very kindly emailed me to say that‘the statement was timely and may have prevented the deaths of Christians in other countries,’ a thing which otherwise would never have dawned on me. He was great encourager.”
Archbishop John told a packed St Patrick’s Cathedral that Bill’s life revolved around two poles – God and his family, particularly Jamilla and son Mark.
The Archbishop added: “You might say of Bill and Jamilla that when God made them, he matched them. And if ever there was a testimony to the inscrutable outworking of Providence it was that, coming from such different parts of the world, they met at all, and that each recognised the other as a soul partner.
"Bill had a tender and, at times, a turbulent soul and Jamilla’s love was as balm in Gilead and a source of the deepest pleasure and stability to Bill.
“And of course Bill took great pride in Mark, wanting only the best for you and striving always to show you what is the best that this world can offer and that God can give - the love of His only Son.”
Concluding, Archbishop John declared: “For now we leave Bill in God’s keeping until the day of our common perfecting when the nations will stand like flocks before their Great Shepherd and Judge.
We do so in the confidence of the Gospel and in the knowledge of a life lived with purity of heart and with the depth of love.”
Bill is also survived by siblings, Shaun, Libby and Mary.