Jeremy’s Memorial service NZ

Jeremy…husband of Catherine, father of Ben, Simeon, Tom, Joshua & Lydia. Up until the end of April 2015, he was pastor/vicar of a group of churches on the edge of Exeter in Devon, UK. In early October 2014, aged 48, he was diagnosed with advanced cancer, a stage four malignant melanoma presenting as a tumour on his lungs. The usual life expectancy is 8-12 months. Then, in late December 2014, 23 year old Ben suffered a seizure. After prolonged medical care for what was most likely to have been a viral infection affecting his brain, Ben died in April 2015. Jeremy has up until recently seemed to have responded well to pioneering immunotherapy treatments that can extend life, but from September 2016 is now facing the fresh development of brain tumours and potentially now just months to live. On January 27th 2017 Jeremy took his last breath and went to be his Lord and Saviour. The family share their thoughts, feelings and reflections as they taJeremy…husband of Catherine, father of Ben, Simeon, Tom, Joshua & Lydia. Up until the end of April 2015, he was pastor/vicar of a group of churches on the edge of Exeter in Devon, UK. In early October 2014, aged 48, he was diagnosed with advanced cancer, a stage four malignant melanoma presenting as a tumour on his lungs. The usual life expectancy is 8-12 months. Then, in late December 2014, 23 year old Ben suffered a seizure. After prolonged medical care for what was most likely to have been a viral infection affecting his brain, Ben died in April 2015. Jeremy has up until recently seemed to have responded well to pioneering immunotherapy treatments that can extend life, but from September 2016 is now facing the fresh development of brain tumours and potentially now just months to live. On January 27th 2017 Jeremy took his last breath and went to be with his Lord and Saviour. The family share their thoughts, feelings and reflections as they take this painful and unexpected journey.

Jeremy’s Memorial service NZ

March 4, 2017

Written by Catherine

Can I bring to the attention of all those in NZ, that there will be a Memorial Service for Jeremy Clark on Friday March 10th at 11am. It will be held at St Barnabas Church, Fendalton, Christchurch.

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Comments on: "Jeremy’s Memorial service NZ" (3)

Kaye Saunders said:

March 5, 2017 at 1:37 am

Thank Catherine. Unfortunately we will not be able to attend.
We are coming to the UK from July to Nov and would like to catch up with you.
Could you please send your cell number and address via Messenger to us on my FACEBOOK account, if you would like you have us visit.
God bless you and your family. We are continuing to pray for you all. Kaye and Chris xxxxxx

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Elizabeth said:

March 5, 2017 at 2:48 am

Thank you Catherine, not going to work for me. Will be thinking of you all that day

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Steven Marshall said:

March 5, 2017 at 7:49 am

We WILL be there! As we told Jeremy via this blog we plan to be in SW England in July this year and were hoping to see you both then. Can we have an email to keep in touch, and perhaps visit if that works for you?
marshalls.chch@xtra.co.nz Steven and Diana Marshall

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We share something of my world. Our family's world.

It was on October 8th 2014 that I received my diagnosis. To read my first post 'Receiving the News', please click here.

We communicated the difficult news of Ben's sudden health deterioration on 27th December 2014 here and then the painful news of his death on April 28th here. But back in November 2014, Ben wrote an entry here on the blog that I found very moving, and which now brings us a lot of comfort and much to reflect on about his own faith in Christ. To read it, please click here.

Our son Joshua has written encouragingly also, firstly his own feelings about my diagnosis and then, an entry about his brother, words he delivered at Ben's Service of Thanksgiving. Both have lifted my spirits with the hope he too expresses.

Our other children have encouraged and bolstered me in innumerable and different ways, some of which I mention through the blog.

From the main page, you are able to scroll down through all other posts from Catherine and from me. To reach it, please click here.

Our blog's name is taken from a line in an old hymn "O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go". As we've all written, we've tried to provide an honest and open window into our hearts, minds and lives as we've struggled through these times. I hope that in reading, you'll feel encouraged and confident to "trace the rainbow through the rain" in your own particular circumstance, whatever it might be.

In the light of Dad's recent prognosis, I've been in a sobering state of mind realising, simply, that this is real life. And as much I'd like to, I can't stop the clocks or change the reality of it, it would be futile to even try. It's simply the hand that I've been dealt. Now, it may sound like I'm about to follow it with "but if I pray and truly believe then it will all change"... and unfortunately, many Christians will spout this but that's not what I'm going to accede. Yes, I believe in the mighty power of prayer but many Christians seemed to have embraced the notion that prayer is man's trump card against the will of God. This is not to say I have no hope in God doing a miracle. I would say in knowing God there is always hope, but I feel as though we become so sidetracked in removing the immediate discomforts of life that we become fine-weathered believers rather than looking to the eternal hope promised to us (the same that Paul talks about 1 Corinthians 15:19) I feel as though Romans 8:18 sums it up perfectly: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” How precious these words should be to us; the fact that what is to come is so beyond the suffering we face currently that it's not even worth the comparison is mind blowing. That even the worst in this life is totally outweighed by the joy in the next. Life will give us lemons and will continue to do so until the end, but God's promises go far beyond our day to day struggles to the point where we should always be doing a Philippians 4:4: "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”

Jeremy Clark

Husband of Catherine and father of Ben (who passed away in April 2015), Simeon, Tom, Joshua and Lydia. An often failing, but ever grateful disciple of Jesus Christ. Kiwi - Christchurch born and bred, ordained in 1994 in the now earthquake-ruined Cathedral. British by naturalisation in 2011. Having served in two previous parishes (St Stephen's Shirley in Christchurch NZ and then St Mary's Upton, Wirral, in north-west England) we moved to the south-west of England to Ilfracombe in Devon (within the Exeter Diocese) in 2001. After a difficult failure in my ministry there, I resigned in 2008 and we moved to Exeter for a period of rebuilding, wonderfully helped along by the amazing folk at St Michael's Alphington, Ide, Shillingford and Grace Church, Exeter. It was a time of discovering something more of the width of God's grace, forgiveness and renewal - and to depths I'd not been before. I was appointed team vicar of the Clyst Mission Community, a group of parishes in the north-east of Exeter in 2012 then a rural dean within the diocese in early 2014. Since my advanced melanoma diagnosis in late 2014, I've retired from parish ministry and am now appreciating informal opportunities to encourage others in their walk with Christ. Gardener and old Citroen aficionado.

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Tracing the Rainbow through the Rain