Janet Davies, who has died aged 89, spent most of her professional career engaged in international development work and religious partnership initiatives. From 1968 to 1986, she held positions with Christian Aid in the Merseyside and north-west regions, eventually becoming regional organiser. Based in Liverpool, she worked closely with Edward Patey, the cathedral dean at the time, to develop grassroots alliances among different Christian denominations to organize and promote Christian Aid Week activities.
Davies played a significant role in establishing the Merseyside Churches Ecumenical Council, contributing to what later became known as the “Better Together” partnership involving Bishop David Sheppard and Archbishop Derek Worlock. She was born in Formby, Lancashire, and trained as a secretary before meeting Alan Davies, an occupational therapist, whom she married in 1968. Her husband remained supportive of her Christian Aid work until his death from cancer approximately a decade later.
Through her overseas assignments with Christian Aid, Davies visited poverty-stricken areas including Kolkata in 1975 and South Africa during the apartheid era in the late 1970s and early 1980s, experiences she described as spiritually transformative. She gained recognition as a public speaker and was notably present in 1985 when a concert at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall raised funds for Christian Aid’s Ethiopian famine appeal, featuring cellist Paul Tortelier performing the Elgar cello concerto.
Later in her career, Davies pursued theological education, obtaining a certificate in theology from Birmingham University in 1994. She wrote contributions to published works on Western Christian experiences and became active in Middle East peace advocacy, leading programmes for USPG and the United Reformed Church during the 1980s and 1990s. In retirement, she helped establish Sabeel-Kairos UK, an organization supporting Palestinian Christian communities. She is survived by one sibling and nine nieces and nephews.
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