PARRY, Robert Foulkes, Rev (1874-1949)
Assembly memorial minute, 1950
Robert Parry was born on 27th January, 1874, at Denbigh, in Wales, where his father was a landscape gardener. Both parents died when Robert had just entered his teens, compelling the boy to seek employment at an early age. In the employ of a local grocer, he showed decided talent as a window dresser, an art probably inherited from his father, and one which manifested itself in later years in the gardens of the manse at Shelford and the home at Belmont.
Robert Parry heard the call to the ministry during the Great Welsh Revival, to which he so often referred. His employer was apparently sympathetic, for Robert worked at the store in the mornings and attended lectures during afternoons and evenings. He then attended the University College of Wales, in Bangor, for four years and, for three, the Hall of Divinity at Bala. In August of 1905 he received ordination within the Welsh Presbyterian Church and for five years was minister of the English Presbyterian Church of Avonwen Caerwys, in Denbighshire, Wales.
In 1911, accompanied by Mrs. Parry and their two children, he came to Australia and served as minister of the Welsh Presbyterian Church at Williamstown. In 1912 the General Assembly of Australia granted the plea of his petition to be received as a minister of our Church. Thereupon he was inducted into Penshurst in 1913, and into Carngham in 1917. Thereafter, on the last day of July, 1925, he was inducted into Shelford, where he laboured as a faithful and kindly pastor for twenty years. At the end of May, 1946, he resigned and became minister emeritus within the Presbytery of Geelong.
Three years of retirement were given graciously to the aid of his fellow ministers and the enrichment of the Church in Victoria. He supplied most efficiently the pulpit of St. Andrew’s, Geelong, during the moderatorial year of the Rev. W. W. Ingram. For some eighteen months he was the Presbyterian chaplain to hospitals in Geelong. He died in active service at Manifold Heights, where he had been in charge for twelve months.
Mr. Parry’s ministry was marked by high principles. He was jovial and friendly of manner, ever a pleasant companion and a welcome visitor to the homes of his people. The sudden death of his young son by drowning caused him, some years ago, to pass through deep sorrow. He emerged from that experience with a mellowed sympathy and understanding of his people in their sorrows and bereavements.
Mr. Parry enjoyed robust health and regarded it as a talent to be used in the activities of his district. However, first thoughts were always for his Church, thus maintaining throughout a long ministry of 44 years a keen desire to win souls for the kingdom of his Lord. Two of his young men at Shelford went forward to enter the ministry, the Revs. W. H. D. Wallace and D. I. Munro.
Mr. Parry was an excellent and painstaking preacher, possessing the gift of expressing profound thoughts in the simplest of language. His proclamation of the Gospel was ever fresh, for his mind never seemed to reach exhaustion. He revealed a soul strengthened and sustained by constant communion with his Lord. Most truly he was a servant of the Lord—a gracious Christian gentleman. He died most suddenly at his home in Belmont on Thursday, 30th June, 1949.
To Mrs. Parry and her family the Assembly tenders sincere sympathy.
Gender
- Male