Michael Claude Harper (1931-03-122010-01-06) was an English

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

. Originally a priest in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

, he became a priest of the

Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch ( el, Ελληνορθόδοξο Πατριαρχείο Αντιοχείας), also known as the Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East ( ar ...

. He was a key leader of the British charismatic movement from the 1960s to the 1980s. Harper won a scholarship to Gresham's School, Holt, then attended Emmanuel College,

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, where he read law and theology. Harper was a curate at All Souls Church, Langham Place (

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

), when he received what

Pentecostals Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

and charismatics refer to as the

Baptism of the Holy Spirit In Christian theology, baptism with the Holy Spirit, also called baptism in the Holy Spirit or baptism in the Holy Ghost, has been interpreted by different Christian denominations and traditions in a variety of ways due to differences in the doctr ...

, a

religious experience A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense ...

accompanied by

speaking in tongues Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of sp ...

. This put him at odds with the church's

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

rector,

John Stott John Robert Walmsley Stott (27 April 1921 – 27 July 2011) was an English Anglican cleric and theologian who was noted as a leader of the worldwide evangelical movement. He was one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974. In ...

, and Harper left All Souls in 1964 to found the

Fountain Trust The Fountain Trust was an ecumenical agency formed in the UK in 1964 to promote the charismatic renewal. The trust operated on the principle that it was the purpose of the Holy Spirit to "renew the historic churches". D. Eryl Davies, principal ...

, an organisation dedicated to spreading the charismatic message. In his days as an Anglican charismatic leader, he wrote at least 35 books, including ''As at the Beginning'' (1965), a narrative of the growth of Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement in the 20th century. His most popular book, ''A Love Affair'' (1982), discussed the necessity to distinguish between material love (''eros'') and spiritual love (''agape''). Harper left Anglicanism in 1995 because of what he saw as the Church of England's increasing

doctrinal Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief system ...

laxity, particularly with regard to the ordination of women. He and his wife, Jeanne, joined the

Orthodox Church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church * Oriental Orthodox Churches * Orthodox Presbyterian Church * Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand * State church of the Roman Empire * True Orthodox church See also * Orthodox (di ...

. He was ordained and made the first dean of the then newly established Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of the British Isles and Ireland. He wrote about his views on female ordination in the 1994 book ''Equal and Different'' and related his journey to Orthodoxy in ''The True Light'' (1994). He was subsequently made an archpriest by Metropolitan Gabriel of Western and Central Europe in 2005. He was senior priest of the Orthodox Parish of Saint Botolph in London that worships in St Botolph's without Bishopsgate. His full biography, ''Visited by God'', was published by his wife Jeanne in late 2013.

References

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Michael 1931 births 2010 deaths 20th-century Eastern Orthodox priests 20th-century English Anglican priests 21st-century Eastern Orthodox priests Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Anglicanism English Charismatics English Eastern Orthodox Christians Members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch