The Rev. Chad Varah, an outspoken, publicity-sly, sometimes cantankerous Anglican priest who started a telephone hot line for the suicidal after concluding that loneliness is the most heart-rending anguish, died Thursday in Basingstoke, England. He was 95.
His death was announced by Samaritans, the suicide-prevention charity he founded.
From his initial rush to the aid of a despairing mother in November 1953, Father Varah’s mission to give hope to the perhaps fatally depressed grew to 200 branches in Britain and Ireland and 200 more in 38 other countries. It became a model for crisis hot lines.
Father Varah’s vision began in 1935, when, as a 23-year-old deacon, he brooded bitterly after the first burial service he conducted for a girl, who, by varying accounts, was 13 or 14. She had killed herself because she wrongly feared that the onset of menstruation meant she had a venereal disease.
“Here was a life that could have been saved if only there had been an intelligent person she could bring herself to talk to,” he said in an interview with Church Illustrated magazine in 1959.
I’ve had email contact with the Samaritans, after my daughter died. They are good people.
I served as a Samaritan in Singapore. It was an incredible experience in many ways. While people were from all faiths and ethnic backgrounds, there were many Christians in the organization. The colorful personal life of Chad Varah was not reflected in the organization- only his commitment to be available to save lives and to be a listener.
Whatever other issues he may or may not have had, we can all agree that his efforts at suicide prevention have earned him lasting gratitude.