Mark Collier RIP

Mark Collier

Mark Collier, who resisted apartheid and later became a sought-after spiritual guide, died on 1 March in Cape Town. He was 87. Mark joined the Dominican order as a brother and served on the staff of the Christian Institute of Southern Africa, an ecumenical organization that offered penetrating Christian critiques of the apartheid regime. Its director Beyers Naude was placed under house arrest and finally in 1977 the organization was banned.

Mark left the Dominicans to marry Catherine in 1971, herself a former Carmelite nun. In 1976 they moved to England where they ran Centre Space, a retreat and conference centre in Kent. Before the Dominicans Mark trained as an accountant. Catherine was an empathetic manager. Using these skills they moved to Zimbabwe in 1984, where they lived at Cold Comfort Farm, and worked to encourage the development of co-operative farming in Zimbabwe and Zambia. They returned to South Africa in 1996, where their home in Simonstown became a base for teaching centering prayer. Catherine died in 2014.

As I can testify, Mark radiated peaceableness, but never in a passive way. Mark felt the world's injustices and sufferings and always wanted to do what he could to help. Most recently with others who were appalled at the violence in the notorious Pollsmoor Prison, he set up the Alternatives to Violence Programme which now has outreach into townships in Cape Town. Mark was a wonderful encourager, a good listener, a perceptive commentator. Many people sought his counsel. As a Catholic he was rooted in the faith while also open to wisdom and inspiration wherever it came from.