Les grew up in the Liverpool of the 40s-60s and worked as an office manager for a large retail company before responding to the call to ordination in the Church of England. He trained for ordination at Tyndale Hall/Trinity College Bristol under the tutelage of the late Alec Motyer whose mark on Les is evident when he preaches; Les loves the Bible and carefully and faithfully expounds it for our rich learning and discipleship. Although he completed his training, he chose full-time evangelism with international youth organisations rather than ordination, later working with the Vineyard movement in Europe where he used all his expertise as a sound engineer. Subsequently he became an accredited minister of the ‘New Community Pioneer’ network of churches, pastoring the team at a new Spanish-speaking church plant in Granada province. When Chris was released from being her mum’s sole carer she joined Les in Spain, they married and planted several churches in Southeastern Andalucía, overseeing and pastoring the leaders of those churches until they retired.

After retiring, Les and Chris ended up in Northern Ireland and joined us in June 2021. They have been at the very centre of Church life here since. He continues to have a role in caring for the ‘Pastor’ here at Drumbeg and alongside this is now looking after all our sound and audio visuals for our Sunday services. The Rector refers to Les warmly as a ‘Father in the faith’ in the Parish. He is a regular preacher and leader at our services, having trained as a Parish Reader in the Diocese of Down and Dromore in 2022. Les also heads up one of our Life Groups and is active in the prayer ministry life of the Parish. The sound of Drumbeg is a work in progress but is beginning to bear Les’s stamp on it!