Pope’s Evangelical friend Bishop Tony Palmer dies in accident

Bishop Tony Palmer

Bishop Tony Palmer, the Evangelical friend of Pope Francis, who filmed a smartphone message from the Holy Father which went viral on the internet, calling on all Christians to set aside their differences, died on Sunday, 20 July in a motorcycle accident.

According to a statement from The Ark Community he founded, three teams of surgeons tried to save Bishop Palmer's life but he passed away in the evening, leaving behind his wife Emiliana and two teenaged children.

Bishop Palmer a charismatic preacher, and international ecumenical officer with the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, was in his early 50s.

In the video, (see link below) Pope Francis referred to Palmer as “my brother, a bishop-brother,” saying they had been friends for years. “Let us allow our longing to increase so that it propels us to find each other, embrace each other and to praise Jesus Christ as the only Lord of history,” Francis said.

Born in the UK and raised partly in South Africa, Palmer had served as the director of the South Africa office of Kenneth Copeland Ministries. He met Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires in 2008 when Palmer sought permission to work with charismatic Catholics in the city.

Bishop Palmer helped coordinate the Pope’s meeting with televangelists on 24 June this year at Casa Santa Marta.

Fr Dwight Longneker said the June meeting was remarkable, "since not too long ago conservative Evangelicals in North America were inclined to view the Catholic Church as the 'great whore of Babylon' and the Pope as the antichrist. The Evangelical leaders were not only impressed by the simplicity and warmth of Pope Francis's welcome, but they clearly had a fellowship in Christ that has been lacking in the past."

He said the real division in Christianity was not now between Catholics and Protestants but between those Christians who believe in a revealed religion and those who believe in a relative religion. "The real divide is between progressives who wish to alter the historic faith according to the spirit of the age, and those who believe the spirit of the age should be challenged by the eternal and unchanging truth of the Christian gospel."

World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) global ambassador Brian Stiller was among the leaders present at the meeting. He said: “Tony was a most remarkable young man. I so well remember his gracious and active leadership in bringing members of the World Evangelical Alliance together in conversation with Pope Francis late June.

“However, with his life and witness still fresh in our memory, I believe it is important that we carry on, as he would have desired, finding ways for our major Christian bodies to have friendship and to understand our respective communions,” said Stiller.

See also: ICN 24 February 2014 Pope Francis sends video message to conference of Evangelical Christians www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=24225

For information on the Ark community and a condolence page see: http://thearkcommunity.org/