Revd Timothy Eldon is ordained presbyter
Congratulations to Revd Timothy Eldon who has been ordained presbyter for the curacy of Drumbeg. Timothy has just completed his deacon year in the Diocese of Armagh.
Bishop David ordained Timothy along with Stu Armstrong, Cosmin Pascu and Claire Pearson at a service in Down Cathedral on Sunday 27 August. The preacher was the Revd Greg Downes who is the director of Kingfisher Ministries and Theologian & Missioner of St Mary’s Cogges near Oxford. Greg is also the speaker at this year’s Bible Week.
Timothy reflects on his deacon year
Having grown up in a farming family near Portadown, the move to the wilds of mid–Ulster and the Parish of Ardtrea and Desertcreat in the Diocese of Armagh was not huge. The surroundings and rhythms of country life are comfortably familiar to me, and I felt immediately at ease in the quiet but steady evangelicalism of rural ministry.
Desertcreat, like many rural churches, is still the hub for the local community. From my cottage window on the edge of the church car park I was able to see the weekly comings and goings. Alongside the regular features of the church week in the Bible study, the Sunday school, and confirmation classes there was the pipe band, the bowls club, the badminton club, the craft groups, and various concerts and events through the year. What was interesting about all these activities was how people had returned to church and returned to faith through them. The parish had been slow to reanimate after COVID, but a programme of “Helpings Hands” mornings brought people back together, and back to church.
The focus of ministry is rightly on the proclamation of the gospel, for “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” But my time in Ardtrea and Desertcreat has reminded me again of the importance and privilege of participation in community as complement to the ministry of the word. There is good value in singing in the pantomime choir and chatting to band members during open air practices that backs up the sermons and Bible studies.
I’m very grateful to David Bell and the people in Ardtrea and Desertcreat for the past year as deacon with them and look forward to my time with Willie Nixon in the new urban setting of Drumbeg.
Timothy
