A man whose roots lie in the Wrexham area has been appointed to help churches in the Northern Presbytery to make the most of their time and resources.

Mike Ward, the Presbytery’s new Training and Development Officer, will be responsible for encouraging the region’s churches to develop opportunities to serve their wider community by helping to set up community-based projects.  He will also assist in developing links with local government and other churches, as well as designing and delivering training on issues ranging from the spiritual to the practical and legal.

“I’m really pleased to be back in north Wales, where I spent much of my childhood,” said Mike, who started his new job in the first week of 2009.  “This job is a blank sheet of paper where I’ll be able to make the most of the national contacts I have in this area of work.  My greatest enjoyment is in seeing people realising their potential in terms of their talents and abilities, and I’m hoping to develop training programmes including leading worship, bereavement counselling and so on.”

Mike Ward worked with the Church of Scotland for some twenty years following ordination in 1983, and more recently spent five years as ecumenical chaplain at Grimsby Institute for Further and Higher Education, designing and delivering various teaching programmes for the churches and wider community.  Whilst at Grimsby, Mike launched the “Starfish Project” helping communities in South India affected by the tsunami – a project that has gone on to receive national recognition and awards, and which he hopes to bring to the Presbyterian Church of Wales.

Although born in Lancashire, Mike’s move to north Wales is something of a return to his roots.  Mike’s mother was born in Llay near Wrexham and many of his relatives still live in the area.  Childhood memories, he says, are focused on north Wales – he still remembers watching Wrexham play Aston Villa in the League Cup many years ago.

Mike Ward will be commissioned on 27 February at Mancott.