Rev Norman Neil Steadman

He had a way with people and with words, did the Rev Norman Neil Steadman. A man of great tolerance and compassion, he could talk easily to people and draw them out of themselves.
This was probably why he was so much in demand when it came to conducting funeral services. Families often said that even though he might never have met the deceased, it seemed that he had known them personally.
Yet this man, a vicar in Brampton and a hospital chaplain in Carlisle, might not have become a minister of religion – the Bachelor of Science degree that he won was in physics.
However, he decided that a career in science was not for him and his future lay in the Anglican Church.
An Ulster man, born and brought up in Belfast and educated at a local primary school and a grammar school, popularly known as “the Inst,” he gained his BSc at Queen’s University in the city in 1961. But then he felt called to the Church and went on to study theology at Trinity College, Dublin.
Ordained deacon in 1963 and priest 12 months later he was back in Northern Ireland as curate at Newtonards before becoming a curate in the Diocese of Connor, which straddles the border with the Irish Republic.
Back at Queen’s University, he served as assistant dean of residences before crossing the Irish Sea and being given permission of officiate in the St Alban’s Diocese, in England. There he also became diocesan youth officer and then priest-in-charge at Hitchin.
He was team vicar at Hitchin from 1977 to 1984 and then he moved north to be Vicar of Brampton, before becoming Rector of Brampton with Farlam and Castle Carrock and Cumrew in 1993.
His final post was as chaplain to the Cumberland Infirmary and the Carleton Clinic in Carlisle and here he again made his mark. It was not just another job to him; it was the most important job in which he talked readily to everyone and to people of all faiths and of no faith at all.
It was said that he touched the lives of so many patients because his visits were frequent and lengthy. He never made fleeting trips to the wards.
At this time, until he retired five years ago, he was also attached to the Holy Trinity and St Barnabas churches in Carlisle. One of three children, he was the first member of his family to go to university and this was where his concern for marginalised groups began.
During his ministry in Cumbria he conducted Aids Day vigils every year in Carlisle Cathedral and during a sabbatical he produced a tract entitled Gay Voices, which dealt with attitudes to homosexuality.
He also organised a vigil highlighting international famine which he called ‘Hungry for Change’.
In addition to his duties as a minister, he served as chairman of the Brampton Junior School governors and as a governor of the town’s William Howard School.
He also studied for and gained his Maser of Arts degree in hospital chaplaincy, from Leeds University.
He married Myrtle Brown, a Belfast teacher whom he met when she was studying at Queen’s University in 1975. They both enjoyed ballroom dancing and danced at classes in the Crown and Mitre Hotel in Carlisle.
They were also both members of the University of the Third Age where they joined the walking group and where he studied French.
For several years, they lived in Carlisle.
Mr Steadman, who was 69 when he died, leaves his wife, two daughters and a son.