A DYNAMIC Baptist minister who doubled his congregation and brought Cliff Richard to Gorsley has died.

Reverend Patrick Goodland served as minister at the Gorsley Baptist Chapel from 1976 to 1994.

After his retirement he remained in Gorsley, near Ross, and continued to be active in the chapel community until very recently.

He died on December 30 aged 85, after a short illness, and will be greatly missed by his wife, Beryl, and three daughters, Hilary, Brenda and Heather.

Mr Goodland, who was also an RAF chaplain, was awarded an MBE in 1976 for his Christian work in London and overseas.

He commenced his ministry at Stanmore Baptist Church in London in 1954 and served for 22 years.

After arriving in Gorsley in 1976, he doubled the congregation to 240 worshippers.

He was a very dynamic minister and during his time, the chapel underwent a major reconstruction and extension.

He introduced the annual flower festival at Gorsley, which is a popular event every August.

It was in 1980 when his old friend, singer Cliff Richard, donated a silver disc to boost the campaign to raise £75,000 for the chapel improvements and for six old people's bungalows on the site.

In the same year, Mr Goodland helped organise a charity concert given by Mr Richard which raised around £10,000 towards a Tearfund mobile clinic for Bangladesh.

Tearfund is a UK Christian relief and development agency which works in over 50 countries.

Mr Goodland had served on the charity's board, been a member of the editorial committees for Hymns for Today's Church and Baptist Praise and Worship, and had been chairman of governors at the Gorsley Goffs Primary School.

His funeral will be on Saturday, January 24. There will be a private service at the crematorium in the morning and a thanksgiving service at the chapel at 2.30pm to which all are welcome.

Donations invited for Tearfund may be sent c/o Smiths Funeral Services, Furnace Lane, Newent, Glos, GL18 1DD.