Rev. Peter Loveitt and South Aston URC

South Aston United Reformed Church is in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic area of inner city Birmingham, not far from the old H.P Sauce,  Aston Villa Football ground and Spaghetti Junction, so that will give you a rough idea of the location. It is an area where there has always been deprivation and many problems but also many possibilities and that is what Peter Loveitt saw when he came to South Aston with Janet and their young family – he saw the possibilities and not just the problems.

As part of a major redevelopment of the area all the old, substandard back to back houses had been demolished and the new church (a merger of two former Congregational Churches) was the first large building to be erected in the area, being completed and dedicated in 1973, with the new houses being developed round it later. 

In a document circulated in 1980, Peter wrote “When the old Aston was pulled down to make way for the new, the old neighbourhood was destroyed with it. Most of those who had lived in Aston for years were re-housed elsewhere in the city and into the new housing of the South Aston’s Council estate came 5,000 new residents – men, women and children – as comparative strangers” He realised immediately that there was great potential for the Church to be a living witness in the area, offering services, activities and support to our new neighbours and that is what he encouraged us to do.

Incidentally, when Peter and his family first arrived we didn’t even have a manse for them to live in and for some time they lived in a council house a short distance away, immediately becoming part of the local community, eventually moving into our newly built manse near to the church.

Peter joined us in 1975 when the new church was two years old and looking back now, I can hardly believe how quickly things developed. Within a year, in addition to all the typical church groups, we had baby clinics, Mother and Toddler Groups, Play Groups, and several children’s clubs and groups with friends from the church supporting the professionals. In 1976, Janet was instrumental in helping members to establish a Coffee Morning, Day Centre and Lunch club for older people with little more than a £10 donation and a loan plus a lot of goodwill. Incidentally, 34 years later, the Day Centre is still open on Wednesdays.

One of Peter’s greatest achievements was the development of the SAND project – SAND being South Aston Neighbourhood Development.  The aim of the project was to help us provide a whole range of services in the church and for the community and it was supported by a long line of, mainly, young people who came to us through the ‘Time for God’ volunteer scheme.

As part of the project, Peter persuaded the City Council to rent us a large three story Victorian house just round the corner, which was used for meetings and activities and also living accommodation for the volunteers.  The house was known affectionately in the church and in the area as ‘The Sandcastle’.

It was important to Peter that just because we were the only large building in the area able to offer space for all these vital services that we didn’t just become a social centre and he worked hard in the spiritual life of the church, leading two services of worship on Sundays and establishing Daily Prayer sessions at noon throughout the week.

He was an outstanding pastoral minister to the sick and troubled and he was inspirational at the special Christian Festivals, always finding a new way of presenting the traditional celebrations.  In fact there were occasions when we had sheep in church at Christmas and a donkey on Palm Sunday, fortunately he did give us some warning.

A few years into Peter’s Ministry our Church Secretary retired and Peter cajoled me into taking on the role. I won’t say he bullied me because that wasn’t his style but he was very persuasive and very persistent.  Having accepted the job, I have to say that Peter was every Church Secretary’s dream – his organisational and admin skills were exceptional, his paper work immaculate and his reports and statistics always on time.

Throughout their years at South Aston, Peter and Janet were a partnership - at home, at church and in the community. As she had supported him in the early years of his ministry, he in turn, supported her when she decided to train for the ministry herself. They were an active, busy couple, who enjoyed photography, art, craftwork and travel amongst many other things and were always involved in the lives of their children, Bridget, Simon and Clare. And then, and in the midst of all this activity, Peter redesigned and refurbished the old chapel here in All Stretton, which eventually became their family home.

It was inevitable that eventually Peter would move on and in 1988, after 13 years at South Aston he became Minister at Kensington URC. Naturally we were sad to lose him but always knew he was destined for greater things. He had been a vital cog in the works when the church was developing and growing, he saw the potential and encouraged and supported us in our hope of becoming a church at the heart of the community. The ideas that Peter had and the way he involved all of us was the foundation of all the work we’ve done, in and with our community in South Aston.

There is so much more that we could say about Peter and his time at South Aston, but I’m afraid we would be here all day. So, I would just like to say finally that when we think of Peter we shall always remember him as a tall, kind, shy, quiet man with a warm smile, but more than that, we shall all remember him as a man of vision and for that we are eternally grateful.

Jackie Hancox                                                      28.1.2010