Janet Davies obituary

Original article by Gwyneth Boswell

My sister, Janet Davies, who has died aged 89, dedicated most of her adult life to international development, ecumenical partnership and social justice.

From 1968 to 1986 she worked for Christian Aid in Merseyside and the north-west, and later became regional organiser. Based in Liverpool, and supported by Edward Patey, then dean of the city, Janet used her formidable communicating, networking and nurturing skills to forge grassroots alliances across denominations to deliver and celebrate the practical demonstration of ecumenism that was Christian Aid Week.

Her work in the establishment of the Merseyside Churches Ecumenical Council also helped to lay the foundation for the “Better Together” partnership of Bishop David Sheppard and Archbishop Derek Worlock.

Born and raised in Formby, Lancashire, to Margot (nee Rose) and Philip Crisall, a civil engineer, Janet went to Streatham House school, Crosby, and later trained and worked as a secretary.

Janet was a gifted pianist and choral singer. At the Southport Gramophone Society in 1968, she met and later married Alan Davies, an occupational therapist at Moss Side high security hospital in Maghull, Merseyside. He was a great supporter of her Christian Aid work. His death from cancer 11 years later was a great loss.

In her overseas work on behalf of Christian Aid, Janet became transformed by encountering and standing with those in dire poverty. She told of being up to her knees in filth and excrement in the shantytowns of Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1975, of the horrors of racial segregation in apartheid South Africa in the late 1970s and early 80s, and how deeply this had affected her spiritually.

A great motivational speaker, never using notes, Janet was undaunted by addressing an audience of 1,500 at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall where, in 1985, she publicly received a cheque for Christian Aid’s appeal for the Ethiopian famine, the proceeds of a concert featuring Paul Tortelier playing the Elgar cello concerto.

A classic late developer, Janet studied for and gained a certificate in theology from Birmingham University in 1994. Returning from the first of many visits to Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian Territories in 1982, she wrote movingly about her “alternative pilgrimage” in They Came and They Saw: Western Christian Experiences of the Holy Land (2000), edited by Michael Prior, in which she catalogued the need for peace and justice in those tormented lands.

Becoming a driving force in Middle East peace advocacy, she led related programmes for USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) from the mid-80s to the early 90s and the United Reformed Church (1992-95), and in retirement established Sabeel-Kairos UK (formerly Friends of Sabeel-UK), a charity committed to solidarity with the Palestinian Christian community.

She is survived by me, and nine nieces and nephews. Our older brother, Chris, predeceased her.