A RETIRED Pastor and Wallingford resident has died aged 75.

Bernard Thompson, who was a Pastor of Ridgeway Community Church in Wallingford for 24 years, died last month.

Mr Thompson was born on August 10, 1944, and died on January 17, 2020. He passed away whilst he was on holiday on a cruise in the Caribbean.

The cause of death is suspected to be a heart attack.

Mr Thompson leaves behind his three children called Kathy, Martin and Andy, nine grandchildren and his wife Christine.

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More than 400 people attended a thanksgiving service at the Kings Centre on Osney Mead in Oxford on Monday to pay their respects to the retired pastor.

That service was followed by a private family burial, which was conducted by senior pastor and Mr Thompson’s great friend, Gareth Lloyd-Jones.

Donations from the service were requested to be given to Kinetic Network, an organisation which holds conferences and training courses for pastors and church leaders.

Mr Thompson was born and raised in Ashton-under-Lyne in east Manchester.

When he was 17, he met Christine Holt, aged 15. The couple married in September 1967 in Mottram near Manchester.

As a teenager he felt a ‘call to ministry’ after training at Birmingham Bible Institute.

Mr Thompson and his wife took responsibility for the Railway Mission in Stoke, which was a Congregational Church and was mostly attended by young people.

After five years of service, Mr Thompson and his wife moved to Bridgnorth in Shropshire.

During the next 15 years the couple witnessed the church grow from around 30 to more than 200 people as many young people came to the faith.

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In 1987, Mr Thompson and his wife moved again, this time to Wallingford and the Ridgeway Community Church.

Mr Lloyd-Jones recalled Mr Thompson saying that on their first Sunday there were only 28 people at the service, but they soon saw attendance at the church increase.

In 1999 the church bought its present premises on St Mary’s Street in Wallingford from Pettit’s Department Store.

Then in 2008, Ridgeway established a sister congregation in Didcot.

In 2011, Bernard retired and was succeeded by his great friend Mr Lloyd-Jones.

Mr Thompson and his wife remained active members of Ridgeway in his retirement.

The couple also travelled and preached around the UK, Kenya, Zambia and India.

Mr Lloyd-Jones said: “I had the privilege of being Bernard’s friend for 20 years.

“Although Bernard will be much missed, I am thankful for the amazing legacy which he has left and for the many people whose lives were richer for knowing him. Those who knew Bernard seldom forgot him. He was a larger-than life character, whose love for God and for life was infectious.”

Mrs Thompson added: “He was good at making people laugh. He was passionate about God and he wanted to make it interesting.”