Rev. Ken Leech Obituary

  

Ken Leech in Whitechapel, east London, where he lived and worked as a ‘community theologian’. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian



Radical priest and theologian who founded the homelessness charity Centrepoint

Paul Oestreicher

Tuesday 22 September 2015 16.04 BST Last modified on Tuesday 13 October 2015 18.44 BST

 

KEN Leech, who has died aged 76 of cancer, stood firmly in the proud tradition of radical prophetic priests in the English Catholic, rather than Roman Catholic, tradition – one that comes closest to Latin America’s liberation theology. His commitment to allying prayer with political action led him to create the Centrepoint charity for young homeless people in central London, to work tirelessly on promoting good race relations, and to become an influential writer exploring the relationship between intimacy with God and compassionate political commitment to a more just and peaceful world.
As a curate in London in the 1960s, confronted by homeless young people in Hoxton and Soho, he characteristically put his faith into action by founding Centrepoint, still Britain’s principal charity in this field. Pointedly, and with his ever-present, sardonic sense of humour, he named the charity after the Centrepoint high-rise building that had been standing empty for years on the edge of Soho while people nearby lived on the streets. He spent his nights among his homeless parishioners, many of them drug dealers and prostitutes. Unsentimentally, he studied the youth drug scene in depth and wrote expertly on how to help its victims. No better-than-thou preacher, he had to fight his own demon, alcohol.


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'Letting it all hang out...' at Freedom

The letter below is a cute response to a report in the last edition of Private Eye No. 1403 about the goings on at the Freedom Press office and bookshop in Angel Alley, next to the Whitechapel Art Gallery in east London.

Freedom Liberties

Sir,

As a subscriber to Private Eye and an occupier of the building mentioned.   I was surprised at the unresearched article “Letting it all hang out...” (Street of Shame Eye 1403).

The Freedom building includes many active organisations, including mine, the Advisory Service for Squatters.  Between us we have kept the building going despite problems like the fascist firebombing two years ago.  Freedom is still published online and occasionally in in print, and the decision to change was taken after long and open discussion.

Your informant has clearly not bee near the building for many years, and bears a grudge.  The apoparent importance of the value of the building suggests monetary motivation.  You should not allow yourself to be used to print abuse.

We are not expecting “impromptu performance-art” in Angel Alley, but there are joint plans with the art gallery and local homeless hostel to improve the alley with furniture building, a library and plant growing.  Maybe you can send David Ziggy Greene to cover the opening.

We will not be stopping plugging your website on our website (www.squatter.org.uk).

MYK ZEITLIN

 

LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT ...

The article below was published on page 10 of the last edition of Private Eye:

 SINCE it was founded in 1886 by the Russian geographer Peter Kropotkin, the anarchist journal Freedom has included among its contributors and supporters George Orwell, Alex Comfort, Augustus John, Herbert Read, Benjamin Britten, and Cliff Harper.  For almost 50 years it has owned its own building, next to the Whitechapel Art Gallery in east London. 

However, after the death in 2001 of Vernon “Vero” Richards, who had presided since the days of the Spanish civil war, it was run into the ground:  first  under the editorship of Toby Crowe, who was more hardline Marxist  than anarchist and eventually packed it in to become an Anglican vicar; then under a young thruster called Simon Saunders, whose consuming passion is for computer games. 

Last October the paper closed down altogether, with a final edition that bizarrely boasted:  'Never mind, Kropotkin might have started it but we fucking finished it!' 

The build at Whitechapel High St, recently valued at £1.1m, is now occupied by a bunch of scribblers, activists and Class War enthusiasts who style it an 'anarcho-hang-out' and call themselves the Freedom Collective – though one veteran Freedom supporter tells the Eye it's less a collective than 'a bunch of oiks and morons' whose anarchism seems to consist largely of swearing a lot.  One denizen rejoices in the moniker Gawain 'the Cunt' Williams. 

Needless to say, there was much jubilation at Class War's '#fuckparade' assault  last month on a nearby hipster cafe selling breakfast cereal. 'The Cereal Killer cafe is a legitimate target,' the Freedom Collective's website declared.  'Yes hipster businesses aren't the actual problem  - capitalism and landlords are – but it is certainly a good thing that these people are made to feel unwelcome.' 

But will the oiks themselves be made unwelcome soon?  The building owned by a formerly constituted company, Friends of Freedom Press Ltd, and under its articles of association its board is obliged to sell if the magazine ceases regular publication, and to use the proceeds for other editorial ventures. 

The hitherto somnolent board of FFP Ltd – mostly old-style anarchists – will meet in London on 21 October to initiate formal eviction procedures.  Meanwhile, despite having spectacularly failed to publish a newspaper, the occupants of the anarcho hang-out refuse to recognise the board's authority and claim ownership of the building 'on behalf of the movement'. 

Regular visitors to Whitechapel Art Gallery can anticipate some lively impromptu performance-art next door in Angel Alley in the coming months. 
And, naturally, a lot of swearing.  

Private Eye ponders problems of 'Freedom'

THE demise last year of Freedom newspaper, founded in 1886 by the geographer Peter Kropotkin, has now reached the columns of Private Eye.  In a feature story in the H.P. SAUCE feature (page 10)  entitled 'LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT...',  the journal today reveals that:

'The hitherto somnolent board of FFP Ltd (Friends of Freedom Press) – mostly old-school anarchists – will meet in London on 21 October to initiate formal eviction procedures [against a group of failed anarchists in residence].  Meanwhile, despite having spectacularly failed to publish a newspaper, the occupants of the anarcho hang-out refuse to recognise the board's authority and claim ownership of the building “on behalf of the movement”.'

The current occupants of the building who closed down Freedom newspaper describe themselves as 'the Freedom Collective', and imagine themselves as representing the British anarchist movement.  

The building they occupy at Whitechapel High Street has been valued at £1.1 million, and the Eye says the collective is composed of 'a bunch of scribblers, activists and Class War enthusiasts who style it an “anarcho hang-out”.'   

The strategy of the Friends of Freedom who own the building, if the Eye is to be believed, now seems to be to sell the building over the heads of the layabouts on the Collective who have failed to produce a newspaper as required.  Next weekend is the London Anarchist Bookfair, and one wonders what 'the movement' will have to say about all this.  Meanwhile, the Eye's H.P. SAUCE feature urges regular visitors to the Whitechapel Art Gallery to keep a eye-out for 'some lively impromptu performance-art next door in Angel Alley' from the colourful crowd who form the Freedom Collective.

www.private-eye.co.uk