Obituary: Father Michael Harper

From The London Telegraph-

He left the Anglican Church in 1995 however after its decision to ordain women priests. Received into the Antiochian Orthodox Church, he became Dean of its communities in the United Kingdom and Ireland and held the office of archpriest.

Harper embraced the Anglican evangelical tradition following an intense conversion experience while attending a service in the chapel of King's College, Cambridge during his first undergraduate year at the university. He decided to seek Holy Orders, and spent six years as a curate at All Souls, Langham Place, in London's West End; the rector there, John Stott, was leading the revival of evangelicalism in the Church of England.

Between 1958 and 1964 Harper was chaplain to the Oxford Street stores, and in 1962 he had another dramatic experience while reading the Epistle to the Ephesians. "It was earth-shattering," he said, "everything leapt off the page." As a result he concluded that he had received "Baptism in the Spirit", which linked him with the so-called neo-Pentecostal movement that was then spreading rapidly in North America. This involved "speaking in tongues", healings, casting out demons and other unusual events.

John Stott was unhappy about this development in a member of his staff, as he regarded the movement as "unbalanced and unhealthy", and Harper was asked not to preach on the subject in All Souls. Their personal relationship was affected for a time, but harmony was eventually restored.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/7158633/Father-Michael-Harper.html