Thousands attend memorial service for Timothy Keller, beloved Christian pastor: He was 'full of Jesus'
NEW YORK CITY – More than 2,000 people, the vast majority of them Protestant, filled the pews of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan on Tuesday evening to bid a final farewell to a man whose unique brand of intellectual preaching, writing and speaking changed their lives.
Thousands more watched the service streamed online.
For 28 years, Dr. Timothy Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, a congregation he founded in 1989. His goal was to transform the city and bringmore of a den of iniquity, spiritually speaking, than a city ready for a revival.
But Keller lived by the mantra that God loves cities, because in cities, especially New York, a plethora of God's image bearers reside. Every color, creed, age, shape and size live here. It's a land ripe for planting seeds of faith.
Keller's specialty, said his longtime friend, Glen Kleinknecht, was "listening to people who were most opposed to his faith."
He transformed lives because he heard people's wants — and provided what they needed.
He was buried within three days of his death, in St. Michael's Cemetery, not far from LaGuardia Airport.
That meant thousands of church members and followers never had an opportunity to come together to grieve and mourn their loss until Tuesday evening.
Cardinal Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, greeted the Keller family and welcomed all who came to celebrate Keller's life. Dolan called Dr. Keller "a man we love and admire."
It was an odd and yet triumphant gathering of all Christ's followers as some of the great hymns of Protestantism were sung under the hallowed columns of one of Catholicism's most majestic cathedrals. And yet, despite all the historical strife of schisms and a Reformation in the Christian Church, there was no discord.
That's because of Timothy Keller and all that he was: a humble, brilliant, theological person who loved Jesus and served his calling to bring others to know the Gospel.
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