Honoring The Life And Witness Of Steve Clark

We celebrate the life of Stephen Bruce Clark, of Chelsea, Michigan, who was born on June 1, 1940, and died at the age of 83 on March 16, 2024.

Steve Clark was a pioneer and intellectual leader of the Charismatic Renewal from its earliest days.

In 1971, Steve Clark rose to become a founding board member of the National Service Committee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the United States, now known as Pentecost Today USA..

He authored and compiled more than twenty books and several hundred articles, many having a profound impact on the development of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and its communities.

In the earliest days of the Renewal, Steve was a founding member of The Word of God charismatic covenant community drawing thousands of Christians of various ages, states of life, cultural backgrounds, and churches. In 1983, The Word of God and other related communities joined together to form an international community called The Sword of the Spirit, with Steve as its founding President.

The Sword of the Spirit now consists of more than 82 communities around the world with over 12,500 adult members and 5,000 children. Steve was also a founding member and leader of a lay ecumenical brotherhood called The Servants of the Word. They now have more than ten households in six countries.

Steve was born in Queens, New York, the son of Louis Seidenstein and Estelle Edna Clark. He attended Bellerose Public School on Long Island and Peddie Boys School in Hightstown, New Jersey. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, Steve studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship. He then completed his Masters in philosophy at Notre Dame University.

Steve became convinced of the truth of Christianity while a student at Yale, where he was baptized a Catholic. Reading about Francis of Assisi led him to seek a life of simplicity, prayer, and service to others. That pursuit inspired him to give up his doctoral studies in philosophy, and to dedicate himself to Christ as a lay evangelist and community builder.

Steve has no surviving members of his immediate family, but his loss is mourned by his brothers in the Servants of the Word and the members of the Sword of the Spirit.