PARLE, Anthony Gerard (Tony), Rev (1959-2014)
Assembly memorial minute, 2014
Anthony Gerard Parle was born in 1959 and died on the 10th June, 2014, aged 55 years. Tony was brought up on the northern beaches side of Sydney, attended a Marist Brothers School, and so was brought up in a loyal Catholic family.
After University, and an extensive re-think, Tony relocated to Melbourne and trained for the ministry at the Presbyterian Theological College from 1991 to 1993 and was exited to The Leigh Parish.
Tony and Joyce served together in Presbyterian ministry in The Leigh Parish (Inverleigh, Teesdale, Shelford) from 1994 to 2003; until called to the Epping-Lalor Parish, 2003 until his demission in 2013. Tony served his two parishes well - with faithfulness, integrity and out of a deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is much admired and thanked at Epping for
guiding the Parish through a major property development and building program – such that their church premises today are the envy of many.
He also served the Presbytery of Melbourne North, for years, as its Clerk - with diligence and perseverance. He served this General Assembly with cheerfulness and loyalty - a valued member of the Church and Nation Committee and more recently,
the Business Committee. His insights: ran deep; his analysis of process:precise; his capacity for discussion was enormous.
Consistent with his coming to an understanding of reformed faith from his Catholic upbringing – by intense questioning, reflection and hard-fought for conviction, he brought all these to the table at the General Assembly … and this is what he gave to us.
We are grateful. We will miss his gentlemanly courtesy and broad smile, his fierce determination to explore concepts; we’ll even miss the furrowed brow when he insisted that we are doing something wrong here - in need of correction.
A loyal servant of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. A man of deep contemplative thought and scholarly input. In Presbytery or Assembly or committee, Tony Parle had that rare ability, after we’d talked ALL through an issue, and were approaching satisfaction that we’d answered the
question or solved the problem … to drop into the discussion a
ponderous question or exclamation – revealing a WHOLE aspect of the issue we’d not even thought about.
Tony was a man of huge compassion like his loving Saviour, a man who showed exemplary patience under trial. He reminded us of that Proverb (ch 18): “there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Tony Parle was THAT sort of friend … you could depend on Tony and always trust his word. We stand to learn much from him.
Gender
- Male