UK & Ireland in Brief

From Siberia to Greater Manchester, Russell Phillips has taken over as pastor of Radcliffe Road Baptist Church, Bury.

While studying Russian at Cambridge, Russell went to Novosibirsk, Russia with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). He met his wife Oxana there and they married in Scotland in 1999.

Russell began training at the Free Church of Scotland College in Edinburgh and, in 2004, after the birth of their first daughter, the family was commissioned and sent back to Novosibirsk to be involved in ministry with the local Russian Baptist churches. After 15 years, which included serving alongside Russian pastor Andrey Melnikov, Russell planted and pastored a church in Novosibirsk. Russell and Oxana now have three daughters.

This month sees a new pastor for Freeschool Court Church in Bridgend.

James Sibley begins his first pastorate at the church after three years training for the ministry at Cornerstone Evangelical Church in Abergavenney and Union School of Theology. He is married to Lydia.

Matthew Clay has been inducted as the new pastor at Trinity Baptist Church, Tenterden following a difficult period for the church.

The church had suffered a division following the previous pastor’s retirement at the end of 2019 and had been seeking a new pastor throughout the pandemic. John McDonald, who had been asked by the members to lead the church through this period, explained how the connection with Matthew had been made after a first unsuccessful attempt to find the man of God’s choosing. Matthew previously pastored the church at Great Harwood.

One of the longest standing mission charities, London City Mission (LCM), announce two new experienced appointments within their diverse leadership team. LCM estimates there are 3 million people currently unlikely to hear the gospel in the capital.

Newly appointed the Revd Dr Jason Roach (photo L) begins his role as Director of Ministries and Carl Knightly (photo R) serves as Director of Church Networks. Graham Miller, Chief Executive of LCM said: ‘We feel incredibly blessed to have these men of faith serving with us. Both Jason and Carl bring a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and years of service to the church – they are committed to working alongside the church of London to share the life-changing message of Jesus with their communities. This is an exciting chapter for us, as we continue our desire to see more lives in London come to know salvation and the fullness of Jesus Christ.’

OMF has seconded Martin Paterson as global mission adviser to the Free Church of Scotland, months after OMF UK partnered with the Free Church’s Mission Board.

Martin and his wife, Jennifer, had largely championed OMF’s work in Scotland and planned to move to East Asia to serve in seminary. The move was postponed, their role with the OMF ended and the offer of a secondment – a part-time role – to the Free Church was accepted. Martin said: ‘I will be seeking to develop resources which can be used in each local church. These will range from pointers about hosting good global mission events to material for leaders that will be a starting point for engaging in global partnerships.’

Steve Lancaster been appointed as the UK Director of a small Christian Bible translation agency called The Word for the World. It works in many parts of Asia and Africa empowering indigenous people to translate the Bible into their own language.

Lancaster said: ‘Here in the UK, we are a little-known ministry and part of my role is to try and make the Christian public more aware of who we are and what we do.’

After graduating from All Nations Bible College, Steve and his wife, Ruth, joined AIM (Africa Inland Mission). Steve served as an AIM area co-ordinator for eight years in the South of England. Word for the World says its mission is to ‘empower indigenous persons and organisations for Bible translation’.