Pierre Courthial (1914-2009)
Pierre Courthial, who was a pastor in the Reformed Church of France and the founder and honorary dean of the Reformed Seminary in Aix-en-Provence, passed into the presence of the Lord in Paris on 23 April.
A memorial service was held, on Saturday 2 May, in the Eglise de l’Annonciation, Passy, where Courthial was pastor for many years.
A disciple of Auguste Lecerf and known for his confessional Calvinism, Courthial was a remarkable preacher and teacher, the author of many articles and several books. He received an honorary doctorate from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1979.
He was a member of the constituting Synod of the Reformed Church at Lyon in 1938 and continued an often lone struggle for confessional orthodoxy against developing pluralism in the denomination.
Paul Wells
