The Reverend Dr. Marney Patterson
A letter from Bishop Charlie on the promotion to glory of Marney Patterson (1927-2022).
My dear friends of ANiC,
On February 24th, 2022, a mighty, faithful, courageous evangelist who, in his last 14 years, it was our great honour to have as a member of our ANiC clergy, was promoted to glory.
Isaiah wrote: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” (Isaiah 52:7)
Marney Patterson’s beautiful feet took him all around the world, urgent with the gospel.
Born in 1927, married in 1949, Marney and his wife Joan, had two sons, two daughters, 12 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. After 72 years together in marriage, Joan died last October.
Rev. Dr. Marney Patterson, a Wycliffe College graduate, was ordained in the diocese of Toronto in 1955 where he served as a parish priest for twelve years. He established Invitation to Live Ministries in 1966 and since that time has ministered in over five hundred Anglican Churches in ninety-three dioceses and thirty-three countries on all continents on the globe, an experience which prompted Primate Michael Peers to write, "Few Canadians have been able to reach as widely around the world as Marney Patterson."
It has to be said this is all the more amazing given that in 1966 when Marney discerned he was to leave parish ministry and become an evangelist full time, he received little encouragement from anyone and certainly not from his bishop at the time.
As an itinerant evangelist whose ministry had the endorsement of both the General Synod and the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Dr. Patterson conducted inter-denominational missions and conferences from coast to coast in Canada. His ministries outside Canada included: U.S.A, Japan, Liberia, Brazil, Philippine Islands, Uganda, Argentina, Republic of Singapore, Kenya, Uruguay, India, South Africa, Peru, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Ecuador, Pakistan, England, Fiji Islands, Malawi, Egypt, Australia, The Gambia, Malaysia, and Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
One man who rejoiced in Marney’s ministry in India said: “He is the best evangelist I have seen in my life. He genuinely led hundreds of people to Christ. He sponsored many Diakonia Institutes in India and trained hundreds of pastors in Evangelism. A powerful evangelist and mighty man of God.”
He is the author of seven books; "When the Sun Refused to Shine", "Dare to Share", "Alive and Free", "Who's That Knocking on my Door", "His Doings on Every Continent and Island", “His Ways” and “Suicide: The Decline and Fall of the Anglican Church of Canada?”
In March 2005 Dr. Patterson was welcomed by Archbishop Greg Venables as a licensed member of the clergy of the Diocese of Argentina and the Province of the Southern Cone. In his welcome letter Archbishop Venables said to him:
“For decades you have had a most distinguished ministry leading people to faith in Jesus Christ and helping church congregations come alive. Your experience has given you a remarkable point of view to understand the complexities of the crisis that has not only been afflicting the Anglican Church of Canada but is spilled over into the communion at large. In this painful time, your faithfulness and focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ has been not only an encouragement; they are exactly what is needed in this painful hour.”
What a joy it was for all of us in ANiC, who by 2008 were also under the Southern Cone, and for our Bishop Don Harvey, who had shared in his ministry in the past around the world, to welcome the Reverend Dr. Marney Patterson as a priest of ANiC.
In October 2010 Invitation to Live, after 44 years of powerful gospel ministry, had a celebration dinner to conclude with thanksgiving its ministry as an organization. At that dinner it was my honour to represent Bishop Don and all of ANiC in expressing our deep gratitude to God for Marney’s evangelism and ministry.
I have to say Marney had a big impact on my life personally. I certainly had heard of him for years but I met him when he took the initiative to contact me while I was rector of St. George’s in Milton, Ontario. He had been visiting a family member in the Milton area, met one of their neighbours and, naturally, shared the gospel with her. She came to Christ and so then he wanted to help her get connected to a local church. This was Marney, always preaching the gospel but also personally sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone.
From then on, from time to time we would meet for breakfast or coffee and he encouraged me greatly. I think he could tell I wanted to grow in my ability in gospel sharing too.
I could tell he just loved to lead people to Christ. In one of his books, which he called “His Ways”, he shares, I think, 40 simple stories of how people came to Christ, some very dramatic stories and others very simple and undramatic, such as a six year old child just kneeling beside her bed with her mother asking the Lord Jesus into her life. The point being: God uses all sorts of ways to bring people to himself. The way is interesting, but the fact of being brought into his kingdom and family is the important thing.
Rev. Dr. Marney Patterson and his wife Joan
Marney had a big impact on many parts of Canada and all around the world. I remember hearing Bishop Andrew Atagotaaluk, then Diocesan Bishop of the Arctic, at an Invitation to Live banquet, tell the story of how he committed his life to Christ as a young man, right in the middle of a service where he was translating for Marney. Suddenly, Bishop Andrew said he became aware that the message he was translating, the gospel, was for him and that Jesus was knocking at the door of his life right then. He said, “I was afraid if I waited even until the end of the talk I might not still feel the same way.” So right then he knelt at the prayer rail, I believe his wife joined him, Marney prayed with them and led them to the Lord and then he continued with the rest of his talk. And the impact for +Andrew and many, many more from him followed.
This was the way it was for Marney.
I discovered he was fun, very bold and very focused.
A few years ago I took one week for study. I had acquired from Marney 35 hours of video on DVDs of a series of lectures he had given at Wycliffe College, Toronto on Evangelism and World Evangelization. So that became my week, 35 wonderful hours of teaching and inspirational stories from Marney’s experiences of the power of the gospel to change everything.
Paul was not ashamed and Marney was not ashamed of the gospel.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16
We need to pray that in these needy days God will raise up more evangelists, more Marney Pattersons.
For now, we thank God for the Reverend Dr. Marwood (Marney) Francis Patterson.
“And I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.' 'Blessed indeed,' says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them!' Revelation 14:13
+Charlie
The Right Reverend Charlie Masters
Diocesan Bishop of the Anglican Network in Canada
There isn't currently a great deal of easily available videos of Dr. Patterson online, but you can watch on YouTube his sermon from Good Friday in 2014.