Willis Metcalfe, a director of both Evangelical Press and Evangelical Times, went to be with the Lord on June 8.
Converted to Christ as a 12-year-old boy in the Methodist chapel at Snape near Bedale, he later undertook evangelistic training at Cliff College, Derbyshire, in 1947-48. He prepared for missionary work in China, but this was thwarted, firstly, by ill health and, secondly, by the Communist takeover of 1949.
Willis returned to the family occupation of farming in Yorkshire over the next 60 years. He had a deep interest in the work of Christ’s kingdom in many countries. He served as a Methodist local preacher, until seceding from Methodism in 1964 over the denomination’s unbiblical ecumenism. He became a founder member of Zion Evangelical Church in Ripon in 1965.
