VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service | Jul. 22, 2014
VATICAN CITY
The Pentecostal bishop who used his iPhone to film a video of Pope Francis addressing other Pentecostals died Sunday after a motorcycle accident.
Bishop Tony Palmer, whom Pope Francis referred to as his friend, was riding the motorcycle when he crashed head-on with a car traveling in the wrong lane, according to Ian Findlay, principal of Embassy Bible College in Bath, England.
Palmer, a member of the independent Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, “was airlifted to [the] hospital and was in [the operating] theater for 10 hours, but the doctors could not save him,” Findlay told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview Monday.
The bishop served as the dean of the Bible college and was “a very dear friend,” Findlay said. “I’m praying the fruits of his ministry,” particularly his promotion of ecumenical cooperation, will continue.
Findlay said the bishop was in his early 50s and leaves behind a wife and two teenage children. As of Monday, funeral arrangements were pending.
Palmer, who was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in South Africa, was co-founder of The Ark Community, which describes itself as “an internet-based, interdenominational” Christian community. Previously he served as the director of the South Africa office of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, a U.S.-based Pentecostal group offering mega-prayer meetings around the world.
Pope Francis’ iPhone video message, which Palmer filmed in January, was addressed to participants in a conference sponsored by Kenneth Copeland Ministries.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.