REVD PETER GUILDFORD NORTH

Revd Roger Hesketh took the funeral of the Revd Peter Guilford North at St John’s Launceston on Thursday 21 February 2013.  Roger writes:

Peter will be deeply missed by his wife Joan and family.

Peter was a faithful servant of Christ serving for years as a lay reader before being ordained after his retirement as a Mining Engineer at Mt Lyell on the West Coast.

For the past decade and a half Peter’s ministry, very often complimented by Joan’s keyboard skills, has radiated out from Launceston taking services from St Helens to Queenstown, from Georgetown to Ross and seemingly most country churches and Nursing Homes in between.  Peter was always cheerfully willing to help out with a service wherever he might be asked.

A heart attack and a two year battle with cancer did not daunt his spirit nor his tireless service, it was not at all uncommon for him to take a couple of services in the Fingal Valley or the Northern midlands and then turn up as a member of the congregation at the evening service at St Johns.  Just a few days before his passing he was agreeing to take an Ash Wednesday service at a local nursing home, only to be headed off by the wiser head of Joan as she realised what was happening.

Peter’s family chose the very apt words of St Paul for his funeral service, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

Well done good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of your master.