On Thursday 4 and Friday 5 January, we celebrated Winter Congregation 2024. Graduating St John’s students were joined by a number of graduates from 50 years ago, including alumnus Geoff Blurton. Here Geoff shares his story.
My story is that I was in Kenya as Headteacher of The Salvation Army’s Kibos School for Blind Children. Though a qualified teacher and qualified teacher of blind children I did not have a degree. A good friend in Kenya who was a Durham Graduate urged me to apply. I wrote to the Registrar, Mr Graham who passed my letter to Canon James Hickinbotham, Principal of St Johns. I was accepted in 1970 on the BA General course reading Theology, Sociology and Anthropology. The Rev John Cockerton became Principal before I arrived and I maintained contact with him over the years. After the first year I was offered transfer to each of the Honours Courses and chose Anthropology. The graduation ceremony took place in the Castle. After graduating I went to SOAS in London to complete my MA.
I have very fond memories of Durham which will always be a special place for me, and for my late wife. The ecumenical experience of being an Officer of The Salvation Army interacting with Church of England ordinands at Cranmer Hall was wonderful. It has been great to see how St John’s has developed the impressive ecumenical outreach. I like to think my experience was the beginning of that. Although not an ordinand, I joined in with the pastoral training activities with my fellow students and was very much a part of their ordinand experience.
I have had a lifetime of service in The Salvation Army, in UK, Ireland, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi with post retirement service in Indonesia following the 2004 tsunami. There is still within me the feeling that I could have been an ordained Anglican but that privilege has surely passed me by. I am still a Hospital Chaplain and am working alongside colleagues from many different traditions. I’ve also had the same experiences in Military, University and Prison chaplaincies. In all of these I have felt a close affinity to my Church of England colleagues.
I was able to attend Winter Congregation 2024 in Durham Cathedral, and joined formal dinner with graduating students at St John’s in the evening. It was my first visit back after 50 years and the whole day was just wonderful. It was an emotional and spiritual journey back to somewhere very special. I have always known that St John’s and Cranmer Hall were important on my life’s journey but I now have an even deeper understanding of just how much those three years equipped me for the years that followed. My debt to St John’s is enormous.
Geoff Blurton, 1970-1973
John's Chronicle 
I was at Cranmer 1968-1972 and remember Geoff Blurton’s name. By 1970 I was living out, having been the first ordinand to marry one of the women students (Daphne Matthews) while still at the college, and also not so much in evidence as I, like John Saxbee, later Bishop of Lincoln, was engaged on a PhD. But it stirs memories to find myself in both of those photos from 1971/72. Having completed a curacy in Sheffield, I joined the staff of Ridley Hall and spent twelve years there, as Director of Studies and tutor in liturgy and doctrine, then also as vice-principal before moving to St Albans as Director of Ordinands and residentiary canon, where we stayed until retirement fourteen years ago to Bovey Tracey on the edge of Dartmoor. In the meantime, Daphne and I had two children and now have four grandchildren as well – and a great deal to be grateful for, not least to Bruce Kaye, on the front row of those photographs, who, when Daphne and I broke up before we eventually married, was responsible for bringing us back together. Seeing all those faces in the photos, especially of Cranmer, brings back a further host of memories, of names, and of reminders of some we are still in touch with. Thanks be to God for such a rich heritage.
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