My friend John Hopkins, who has died of cancer aged 76, was the personification of Christian socialism. His motives fused faith with political awareness and he was deeply committed to social action.
John was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, the son of Welsh parents, Arthur and Doris, who settled in Newport, Gwent, when he was a child. Leaving school in Newport at 15, he worked in a local gents' outfitters while attending theological colleges. He was inducted as a Baptist pastor in 1963, but ill-health prevented his full appointment as a minister. Soon afterwards he met Ann Seaman, a teacher, and they married in 1968.
Continue reading...