The End of an Era

On Friday 25th June Terry and Janet Durose visited Lionel Cook and his daughter Shirley at their home in Denton.

Lionel, at age 90, felt it was time to retire from active duty as Hospital Chaplain at Tameside Hospital bringing to an end some 58 years of association with Manchester City Mission. Terry reports; "Our time together passed very quickly as Lionel reminisced about chaplaincy work at the docks, Smithfield Market, amongst taxi drivers, in Strangeways Prison and, latterly, at Tameside Hospital.”

As well as pastoring his own flock, Lionel and his wife Dorothy also took responsibility for some of MCM’s annual Children’s Camps and took frequent ministry trips up to Cumbria, where he is well loved to this day.

On hearing about Lionel’s retirement MCM Chairman, Richard Haworth, said, "Lionel has been such a faithful ambassador for MCM through the years. The 'last man standing' amongst the veteran pastor/evangelists that had such an effective ministry for decades.”