The Revd. Canon Brian Jones is assisting in the Parish and helping to maintain this website. He is married to Mary and they have two adult children, Andrew and Marion, neither of whom are married.
Brian was born in 1934 and spent his childhood in Wrexham, North Wales, where he attended a church school and sang in the choir of St. John's Church, Hightown, Wrexham (sadly no longer in existence).
After three years study at the Denbighshire Technical College he joined the Royal Navy in January 1950 as an Artificer Apprentice. Having served in a variety of ships and submarines, Brian finally retired from the Navy in 1979 with the rank of Fleet Chief Petty Officer - a Warrant Officer.
Then followed two years study at Trinity Theological College, Bristol with another year at Oak Hill Theological College, Southgate, North London, where he gained the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies.
Whilst at college both Brian and Mary were accepted by the Church Mission Society as potential Mission Partners. This led to them going to Crowther Hall, the CMS Missionary Training College at Selly Oak, Birmingham, on completion of the theological degree course.
A year later saw them arriving in Sierra Leone where Brian was to develop lay training in the recently formed Diocese of Bo. It was there that Brian was ordained in 1984 by the Bishop of Bo, the late Rt. Revd. Michael Keili. He served as vicar of St. Michael and All Angels Church, Baiima, in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone as well as being the Diocesan Missioner and Bishop's Examining Chaplain.
In 1991 they were obliged to flee from their house in Baiima when rebel forces drew near, having to abandon virtually everything in the process. A few hurriedly packed cases were all that could be taken - Brian remembered to pack all his clerical robes but later found that he hadn't included any spare clothes!
On arrival in Bo, the regional capital, they were just in time to join a Red Cross convoy of vehicles which was leaving for Freetown as the British High Commission had ordered everyone into the capital as a security measure. A few weeks later they were back in Bo where they remained until they finally left West Africa in December 1992. Their final task prior to departing from Bo was to act as 'independent observers' at a Diocesan Synod which had been convened to elect a successor to the Rt. Revd. Michael Keili. Brian and Mary counted the ballot papers which, after several ballots, finally selected the Revd. Sam Gbonda to be the second Bishop of Bo (seated front left in the photo).
A rather belated curacy in the parish of Frimley in the Diocese of Guildford then followed, which lasted until retirement in 1999. From the affluent south of England they then moved to Tweedmouth where both their services were made available to the parish of St. Boisil with St. Cuthbert prior to being offered a "house for duty" in the Bellingham Team Ministry in 2002 where they remained until retirement at the end of 2008.
In January 2009 Mary and Brian moved here to Ulverston where they are both actively engaged in the life of the family of the church.