Son of a stone­ma­son, Park­er was in­flu­enced by Chart­ist Thom­as Coop­er and Liberationist Edward Miall, and was as­so­ci­at­ed with Jo­seph Cow­en in New­castle. A well known or­at­or, he spoke at Hay­don Bridge and Wall, and be­came a Con­gre­ga­tion­al min­is­ter, work­ing in Ban­bu­ry and Man­ches­ter. He was al­so one of the found­ers of the Ci­ty Tem­ple in Lon­don, which opened in 1874, and twice served as chair­man of the Lon­don Con­gre­ga­tion­al Board and twice chair­man of the Con­gre­ga­tion­al Un­ion of Eng­land and Wales. His writ­ings in­clude:

• Church Questions
• Ecce Deus, 1868
• Springdale Abbey, 1869
• City Temple Ser­mons, 1869-70
• The Inner Life of Christ, 1881
• Tyne Childe: My Life and Teach­ing, 1883
• Apostolic Life, 1884
• The People’s Bi­ble, 1885-95
• A Preacher’s Life, 1899

Lyrics

1. God Holds the Key