Meet our Diocesan Evangelists
On St Patrick’s Day at Down Cathedral, Bishop Harold commissioned 8 Evangelists to be deployed in the diocese as detailed below.
All of them have successfully completed a 2 year distance–learning based course accredited by St John’s College Nottingham. Here they are (in alphabetical order):
Colin Birnie: St Clement’s, Templemore Avenue
David Charleton: Christ Church Kilkeel
Janet Fleming: Evangelist at Large
Jim Fleming: Evangelist at Large
Simon Henry: St John’s Moira
Susan McFarland: Braniel Community Church
John Menagh: Outreach Co–ordinator, Willowfield Church
Ian Morton: Community Outreach Pastor, Hope Community Church
Some comments about the course…
Janet: I would recommend the course for people like myself with no theological training, the course benefitted me in that area, stretching my knowledge. Someone with the gift or burden for evangelism, who has never preached before will get opportunities to preach an evangelical message in a church on the training weekends, with helpful feedback (everyone flourished in this area on the course).
Ian: What I enjoyed most about the course was being stretched in my faith and seeing the different ways that God is moving in Ireland.
David: I would totally recommend it because of the teaching and also the camaraderie with the other students. You learn from each other. The course itself is fantastic – well run and broadens your outlook. You also see from the gifting of other people that there’s more than one way to do evangelism.
Susan: The part I absolutely loved was when we gathered together. We gathered monthly and quarterly or so we had weekends. and that time was just so refreshing and filling and being round people who love going out there and reaching the lost. That’s what excited me.
This group is the first to be commissioned and we have more evangelists in training. Read about the training course here.
View a photo gallery here