Reverend Denise Cole: sad loss

I was very sad to hear last week about the death of the Reverend Denise Cole - she was until very recently assistant the priest at Whiteshill, Randwick and Paganhill - and covering lots of the work as Father Brian was completely laid up with a bad back - she joined many of the local Parish events and always had time for everyone. Below is the obituary from todays Citizen. She will be sorely missed. Condolences to the family and friends - the funeral will be Tuesday.

Reverend Denise Cole obituary: Saturday 13 September

HUMBLE servant of God and simply "the best" mum, the Reverend Denise Cole is to be mourned by clergy and laity at her funeral in Stroud. A wife and mother whose miraculous healing led to her becoming a priest, Mrs Cole, 66, will be remembered at a service at Whiteshill Parish Church on Tuesday afternoon. Mrs Cole, who only retired in the summer, died suddenly at her home in Whiteshill on September 7. Ordained in 2000, after she was earlier cured of multiple sclerosis in Jerusalem, Mrs Cole is survived by her husband of 44 years John, three children and eight grandchildren. "She was the best mum anybody could have," said Rev Cole's daughter Sharron. "We shared a lovely time the day before she died." Mrs Cole was until recently assistant priest at Whiteshill, Randwick and Paganhill. In an interview with Stroud Life three months ago she explained her healing in the Holy Land when she struggled on sticks to finish a walk along the path Christ is though to have taken to his death. When she reached the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was buried and rose again, her degenerative illness vanished. "That was my conversion," said Mrs Cole, who confounded doctors by her recovery. The Rev Ian Gobey, who worked at Whiteshill with Mrs Cole, said she would be hugely missed: "She was fantastically strong in her faith, humble and quiet but totally centred on her ministry of people," he added. "I have always quoted her as an example that healing does happen." The Rt Rev John Went, Bishop of Tewkesbury, said: "My memory of her would be somebody with an immensely deep faith that shone out of everything she was and did.