The rich and famous inevitably command more attention and publicity in life and in death than those whose life and work are exercised in more unobtrusive settings and ways. In the latter category was Canon Maurice Arthur Handy, who died on April 11th, aged 93. His mortal life spanned most of this century and included over 70 years of most consistent and faithful service as a pastor and priest in the ordained ministry of the Church of Ireland. He was ordained deacon by Archbishop J. A. F. Gregg in Christ Church Cathedral in 1927. Along with his late brother, Brian (who subsequently became Archdeacon of Kildare), Maurice was sent from his Rectory home in Co Meath to St Columba's College, at a period which incorporated events of sizeable national and international significance, the 1916 Rising and the Armistice to end the First World War.
Having successfully completed his studies in Trinity College, he then began his long service in the ordained ministry, which well merits recording. He was Curateassistant of St Stephen's Church, Mount Street, from 1927-36 and then moved north to be Head of the Trinity College Mission, Belfast, from 1936-39. It was there that he happily met Daphne Guy, a full-time trained Mission worker, from Laois, and whom he married. Daphne died in 1991. Their two sons, Denis and Roger, are now an architect and a chartered surveyor respectively. From 1939-41, Maurice was Curate-assistant of St Mary's, Donnybrook, after which he ministered in Whitechurch from 1941-65. At a stage when some might have considered withdrawing to quieter waters, he instead characteristically launched into the demanding post of Warden of the Church's Ministry of Healing from 196573. This necessitated continuous and long travelling all over the island. He retired in 1976, having served three further pastorally fulfilling years as Rector of Hacketstown, Co. Carlow.
Maurice was indeed small in stature but large in faith and moral courage. Right to the end of his life, he was constantly sought by young and old as a trusted counsellor and friend. In earlier life, he was one of those who had prophetically helped to establish the Marriage Counselling Service, a development initially that did not receive complete establishment approval at the time. For many years, he and Daphne were Samaritan volunteers, where their respective gifts as good and sensitive listeners must have been especially valuable. In retirement, Maurice devoted several hours a day to prayer - to his daily offices and to intercession for the sick, the poor and those in trouble. He was also unrelenting in his daily prayer for peace in Northern Ireland. It is hopefully of no little significance, therefore, that Maurice crossed over from this mortal existence to his eternal reward but a few hours before last Good Friday. He was buried in his beloved Whitechurch on Easter Eve, a day which appropriately symbolises that sense of expectant promise and hopeful anticipation that resurrection life is indeed nigh.