Rev Lawrence Lister RIP
It is with great sadness that the Diocese of Leeds announces the death of Fr Lawrence (Lawrie) Lister on the evening of Sunday 6 September, aged eighty-eight. Fr Lawrie died peacefully having been fortified with the Rites of the Church. He had been hospitalised in recent weeks due to a serious deterioration in his health.
Please pray for the repose of Fr Lawrie’s soul and remember his family and his friends in your prayers at this time.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
Fr Lister’s body will be received into St Mary’s Church, Halifax at 7pm on Monday, 28th September, followed by Mass. The Funeral Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Marcus andl take place at 11am on Tuesday, 29th September at St Mary’s Halifax. This will be followed by Fr Lister’s burial at Stanley Royd Cemetery, Halifax.
Bearing in mind the Government’s restriction of only 30 people allowed at funerals, attendance at the funeral liturgies is limited to Fr Lister’s relatives and close friends. The Funeral Mass will be live streamed on the day and can be accessed through the link on the St Mary’s, Halifax parish website: www.stmaryshalifax.com
Rev Lawrence Lister 1932-2020
Fr Lawrie Lister was born in Bradford on 2 June 1932. He attended St Patrick’s School, Bradford before joining the junior seminary at St Cuthbert’s College, Ushaw at the age of thirteen. He progressed to the senior seminary at Ushaw and was ordained at St Anne’s Cathedral in Leeds on 19 July 1959 by Bishop George Patrick Dwyer.
Fr Lawrie’s first appointment in the Diocese of Leeds was as Assistant Priest in the parish of St Mary’s, Halifax. In 1963 he moved from there to St Anthony’s at Beeston in Leeds and three years later he was appointed to St Theresa’s parish Sheffield (at that time part of the Leeds diocese). In 1971 he returned to Bradford and became Assistant Priest at St John’s, Buttershaw.
Fr Lawrie became a Parish Priest for the first time in 1974 when he was appointed to St Theresa’s, Queensbury by Bishop Wheeler. In 1978 he was appointed to the parish of St Urban, at Headingley in Leeds. In 1986 he left St Urban’s to become Parish Priest of St Joseph’s, Pontefract where he remained for the next thirteen years. For three of those years his assistant was the then newly-ordained Fr John Wilson, the present Archbishop of Southwark. In 1999 Fr Lister once again returned to Bradford as Parish Priest of St Cuthbert’s.
Fr Lawrie retired from active ministry in 2006 and moved to Halifax to take up residence in St Alban’s presbytery. In retirement he marked both the golden and diamond jubilees of his ordination. The latter was marked in August 2019 by a Mass at St Mary’s, Halifax, celebrated on the Feast of St Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr. In October of the same year he concelebrated at the Mass for the re-opening of St Patrick’s Church, Bradford. This was an occasion which brought back many fond memories for Fr Lawrie as this was the church where he was baptised and confirmed and where he had said his First Mass following his ordination in 1959.
Fr Lister was a much-loved and respected priest and a loyal servant of the Bishops and lay faithful of the Diocese of Leeds for over sixty years. The news of his death will be a cause of great sadness to his brother priests and his former parishioners across the Diocese and his life will be remembered by them with affection and with gratitude.
Recent Comments