Around 400 people attended the Requiem Mass for Mgr David Manson at Brentwood Cathedral last week. They came from the many parishes he had nurtured to join family, friends and priests of the diocese in celebrating the life of someone described as “the kindest, most loving man” and “a wonderful, welcoming soul”.
Bishop Alan Williams presided but it was Mgr David’s friend Mgr Paul McPartlan, who gave the homily. Mgr Paul, who is Rector of Mater Ecclesiae College and Professor of Theology at St Mary’s University, and Mgr David had been firm friends since seminary. And he stepped into the breach at the Braintree parish of Our Lady Queen of Peace on the sudden death of his friend on 18 December, covering all the Christmas Masses and more. The affection in which Fr Paul is held by parishioners there was obvious to all as he embraced them after the funeral.
In his homily, Fr Paul talked about Fr David’s empathy and humanity, his liturgical knowledge, his powers as a preacher and his ability to make his parishes a family. “Fr David loved the Word of God and he wanted his people to be fed and fired by it. Time after time come Sunday, he brought the Word of God alive for them.”
He began his ministry as assistant priest at Hornchurch, before coming to the newly opened cathedral as assistant priest in 1991. Within a year he was appointed pro-administrator and then full administrator in 1993. “After the tensions of the building project he revitalised this cathedral parish. Mass attendance tripled in his 10 years here,” said Fr Paul.
Fr David was also Director of Liturgical Formation in the diocese and chairman of the Liturgical Commission under Bishop Thomas. “Well aware of his remarkable talents, Bishop Thomas appointed Fr David as Vicar General in 2001, looking after the Essex part of the diocese, a responsibility he exercised with great skill and sensitivity into the early months of Bishop Alan’s tenure in 2014. Bishop Alan himself kept Fr David as a trusted advisor on the appointments board right up to the present.”
Meanwhile, Fr David went from the Cathedral to be parish priest at Colchester till 2005 and then at Ingatestone until 2016. “Then to his great delight, he returned to Braintree, to the very church where he discerned his vocation,” said Fr Paul.
Fr David, who practised as a solicitor prior to his ordination, had an extraordinary mind and a wide range of talents and interests, he said. “He loved Handel, Bach and Mozart. He could recite and sing great chunks of Gilbert and Sullivan from memory. Poetry likewise. He had a vivid sense of humour, a great fund of hilarious anecdotes and loved nature and birds. He loved words and was so very adept in his use of them.”
Most of all, though, he said, Fr David loved being a priest and he was generous and gentle in his ministry. “In the Book of Remembrance someone wrote so beautifully: ‘Your life was a blessing. Your memory is a treasure.’”
He concluded: “May we love your holy Word as he did, cling to your promise of eternal life, especially in Mass, as he did, and know as he did, that whatever trials may come, we are more than conquerors with your unfailing love.”
After the Requiem, parishioners talked about their much loved parish priest. Ann-Marie Read, a catechist at Our Lady Queen of Peace, said: “He was so down to earth, humorous and caring, easy to talk to. There was no judgement and he always had time for people. He brought us all together and even teenagers had begun to return to the parish.”
As someone who worked at St Francis Primary School, she witnessed his monthly masses there. “He engaged with all the children in a way that made them feel validated,” she said. “He valued everyone and made them feel special. He was quite a unique parish priest who will be sorely missed.”
The parish Mass for Fr David is available here, courtesy of Richard Nott: Richard Nott – Fr David Manson Reception Mass