The Reverend Walter Lewis, who has died, was a former rector of St Thomas’ Parish Church in Belfast, a Canon of Belfast Cathedral and a former Rural Dean of South Belfast.
For 20 years he was a regular contributor to the Belfast Telegraph’s religion page on Saturday, and his insightful Thought for the Weekend was greatly appreciated by his readership.
He was a member of the Connor Diocesan Council and the General Synod of the Church of Ireland. Canon Lewis also served on the Belfast Education and Library Board as a Church of Ireland representative, and he was heavily involved with the Church’s link to Linkoping in Sweden.
Walter Arnold Lewis was born in Kilkenny in 1945, and was the second of four children of his parents Thomas and Susan. He graduated from University College Dublin in 1968 with a BA Honours degree, and three years later he graduated in Div. Testimonial from Trinity College Dublin. He also graduated from Trinity in 1991 with an M. Phil in Peace Studies.
Walter Lewis came to Belfast by choice in 1971, in his own words, to “get stuck in” with helping during the Troubles, and he made a valuable contribution to several parishes in the Connor Diocese where he served during his entire ministry. He was ordained a Deacon in 1971 and as a Priest a year later.
He was curate in St Columba’s, Whiterock, from 1971 to 1973, and later became Bishop’s curate in St Andrew’s, Duncairn, and curate of St Mark’s, Ballysillan from 1973 until 1982. He was Rector of St Andrew’s, Glencairn from 1982-84, and then became Rector of St Thomas’s, Belfast where he served for 27 years until his retirement in 2012.
Paying tribute to her late husband, Evelyn Lewis said: “In Glencairn, he was a very bright light shining through the Troubles, and he certainly did get ‘stuck in’, making a difference to people’s lives.
“With the support of parishioners, a much-needed supermarket and Post Office was opened, and Walter was the named post-master. This was an unpaid position, and unique to anyone in the ordained ministry.
“There was a lot of fun as well as sorrow during these years with bombs and bullets going off all around.”
Reverend Walter Lewis
It was “a quite different situation in St Thomas’, which had been established in 1870, and Walter was the fifth rector of the Church.
He established relationships with all denominations and schools in South Belfast. Getting to know the parishioners was important, and home visiting was a priority. He was very committed to peace, and he was highly organised, and fitted a lot into every day. He arranged student lunches every Friday, and he was the chief soup maker.
Due to Walter, St Thomas was a growing parish and it was used for many outside events. Under his direction St Thomas’ went through a large renovation, with a temporary church being erected in the rectory grounds.
“He thoroughly enjoyed his vocation and it was never a job,” his family said.
Canon Lewis is also survived by his daughter Talitha, son Christian, his grandchildren Sebastian, Daniel and Tara, sons-in-law Graham and Jonathan, and his brother Albert. He was predeceased by his sister Susan and brother Charles.