Sudbury pastor Jeremy Mahood dies

Just five days before his 70th birthday, Jeremy Mahood, pastor at Sudbury's All Nations Church, has died.

The Belfast-born Mahood had been head of the church since 1978, and was a well-known public speaker and author.

He recently publishedThe Character of Christ in You, a book about personal and spiritual and transformation.

In 2017, Mahood told CBC's Morning North that he was "always a rebel," and didn't feel he was suited for the ministry.

"When I grew up, I mean I would sneak into the Townehouse downtown... and there was a 99 cent buffet at 11:00 o'clock at night. If you were there you got charged for it whether you wanted it or not," he said.

When he arrived home, it was often to phone calls from people who let his father, who was pastor at All Nations, know about the young Mahood's adventures.

This public perception of how the pastor's son should be behaving was "leverage" used by his father, Mahood said.

"I wasn't even in the inside of a movie theater until I was about 18," he said. "It's part of the old kind of Baptist evangelical life...growing up was you didn't smoke, I didn't dance, I didn't go to the movies because Hollywood was the vehicle of the devil and you didn't get involved in the arts."

"You did none of that, which of course I did all of that same year."

Mahood eventually became the organist for the Sudbury Wolves, a group he returned to years later as the team's pastor.

His travels also included a stint as a lounge singer in New York City.

But it was after meeting his future wife Eileen that he returned to Sudbury and became involved with his father's church.

"The first year was a tough year," Mahood said. "It was me bumping into things, bumping into people, making mistakes."

"My dad was pretty sick, but my goodness, the people in the church were so gracious and I got to go back and see the old people who were gracious they had prayed for somebody to come and take over this church, and even though I didn't know it, I think they'd already decided I was going to be it."

"I didn't feel like the prodigal son coming home." he added. "I was coming home because I didn't know what to do."