Rev Robert Kerr, 2 February 1954 – 3 August 2024
For those of us unable to view the service to our old Community Minister, Rev Robert Kerr, we thought you might like to read the tribute to him:
Robert was born in Coldstream, Scotland into a family with two older sisters, Elizabeth and Dorothy. It was in the border country where he developed his love of the countryside, farms and lambs in particular. This was also the beginning of his love for motor sport and his hero Jim Clark who came from the Borders. His family moved to central Scotland during his school years and he met Anne while at high school in Alloa. They were getting to know each other and then one day Robert came to school and said he had decided to study to be a minister when he left school. He had spent the evening with his minister in the local hospital when he got God’s Call. Ok, did Anne want to be a minister’s wife? Well, that worked itself out obviously. Robert was the first intake to New College, Edinburgh that did not require a first degree. Instead, the students did a four year Batchelor of Divinity program and then a two year diploma. Robert chose a Diploma in Pastoral Studies which probably explains his strong pastoral slant on ministry.
Robert and Anne were married in 1975 and after completing his studies, Robert became the assistant minister in Craigsbank Parish, Edinburgh. James was born in 1982. They came to Canada in 1983, following Anne’s family, and Robert was the minister at the two- point charge of Scottlea and St. Andrew’s Merritt Street in St Catharines, Ontario from 1983-1989. Philip was born in 1985.
In late 1988, Robert received a phone call from the PCC head office asking if he would be interested in a mission appointment in Parksville, BC. Where? The rest is history. One of Robert’s favourite singer/songwriters was John Denver, and he wrote of “coming home to a place he’d never been before”. That was how Robert felt about Vancouver Island.
Jena joined the family in 2008 and Richard in 2016. Robert was so proud of his ‘boys’ and who they have become, and so happy that they have found such wonderful life partners. Robert retired from ministry at St. Columba, Parksville in 2016, after 27 years.
Anne’s parents had followed Robert and Anne to Vancouver Island, and when they both died, Robert and Anne felt free to move to Campbell River, which they did in 2020. By this time Robert knew of his terminal illness and was determined that Anne would be settled in a suitable home and with a church family. With God’s guidance he got that goal achieved. His final goal was to attend the service at Rev. John Green’s retirement, and he did that too!
A number of years ago, a parishioner daily sent Robert a ‘Thought for Today’, to let him know that he was thinking of him. Unknown to the sender, this one was received at a difficult time in Robert’s illness and Anne & Robert had it posted on their fridge since then. It was written by Rev. Tom Gordon, a retired Church of Scotland minister, who coincidentally was a flatmate of Robert’s and a fellow student at New College, Edinburgh. Tom has kindly given us permission to use this. It is from his book “A Need for Living”
‘Perhaps the task, our need in communion with God and in reflective prayer, is to sit in the observation car at the rear of the train. There, we can see where we have come from, see this and that fall into its proper place, find a perspective, and believe and know that if our God has guided us thus far, we can trust him enough to take us on to the next stage.’
Robert hoped he will be remembered for how he lived.