Retired pastor and missionary Ernest Eades passed away 21 November. He was 99.

Ernest Eades was born 27 October 1919 in London, England. He met his first wife, Jessie Munn, at the Emmanuel Bible College in Birkenhead, England, where they both graduated from in 1940. They were married in 1942, and they spent the next five years serving in pastoral and evangelistic work in the UK. 

In 1946, when Ernest and Jessie went to serve in Scotland, they had their daughter, Margaret Anne. The following year, the Eades went to Portugal to learn Portuguese, and in 1948, they went to serve as missionaries on the Cabo Verde Islands.

They ministered in Brava, São Vicente, and Santiago for 22 years, regularly traveling between the islands — mostly using a sailing yacht that belonged to the mission field. During this time, Ernest served as field treasurer and field strategy coordinator, and Jessie served as the field secretary.

The Eades returned to Northern Ireland in 1969 when Jessie was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 1970, Ernest began pastoring a church in Belfast, and with the help of Jessie, he organized the churches in Carrickfergus and Desertmartin.

Jessie passed away only four years later at the age of 55, and the newly formed Desertmartin Church was named the Jessie Eades Memorial Church of the Nazarene.

In 1976, Ernest remarried to Catherine Lewis, and they took on the Pastorate in Keighley, North Yorkshire, England, where they served for seven years. They then went to serve in the Azores in 1985, where they served for more than six years. 

Ernest and Catherine returned to Yorkshire in 1992, and later took on a temporary pastorate with Thomas Street Church, Battersea, London. Then in 1995, they retired and returned to Northern Ireland. 

His idea of retirement was to return to serve at the Greenisland and Carrickfergus churches, where he ministered over the next 20 years until Catherine passed away December 2015.

Ernest was a missionary in Cabo Verde when General Superintendent Eugénio Duarte, a Cabo Verde native, was just a child. Duarte recalls visiting Ernest not too long ago.

“Eight months ago, the Lord blessed me with an opportunity to visit [Ernest] after the British Isles North Assembly,” Duarte said. “His bright and contagious smile reminded me of the vigorous, hardworking, passionate missionary that he was and whom I knew in my youth on the islands of Cabo Verde. The church will miss him greatly.”

Ernest is survived by his daughter, Margaret Anne, and his granddaughter, Elayne.

His funeral service was held 25 November at the Jessie Eades Memorial Church of the Nazarene in Desertmartin.

A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. 8 December at the Clifford Gay Memorial Church of the Nazarene in Carrickfergus.