Retired Pentecostal pastor, Noel Clarke, who once acted as the governor general’s deputy, died Sunday morning, multiple sources have confirmed to iWitness News.
He was 74.
The circumstances surrounding Clarke’s death are not clear but he is said to have died at a healthcare facility where he was being treated for an ailment.
Clarke, founder and former pastor of the Layou Miracle Church, was once a popular televangelist and one of the co-hosts of Encounter, a television programme sponsored by the Pentecostal Assemblies of the West Indies.
He is the second former host of the show to die in three months. The Reverend George Frederick, another former host, died on Oct. 22, aged 76.
Clarke also made a mark on education in SVG, having operated a trade school in Layou, which trained many people in various skills in the 1990s.
A feature published in Searchlight in 2007 says that Clarke first preached when he was 17 years old and was so timid that he could not finish the sermon.
At age 20, he left his job as a junior roads supervisor to pursue studies at the West Indies School of Theology.
He completed his studies in 1974 and was assigned to the church in Mesopotamia, which moved from one member to 30 when he left in 1982.
Clarke then went on to establish the church at Layou, where he remained pastor before being succeeded by his son, Andrew.
Clarke also pioneered the Pentecostal church in South Rivers, Vermont, Pembroke and Bequia.
In 2018, Clarke acted as the governor’s deputy. He was also a member of the Committee of Mercy as recently as 2022.