The Church of Ireland Diocese of Connor

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David Humphries looks forward to new challenges in Kilbride

Saturday November 5th 2016

The institution of the Rev Canon David Humphries takes place in Kilbride Parish on November 8.

The Rev Canon David Humphries will be instituted as rector of Kilbride Parish in a service at 8pm on Tuesday November 8.

David is originally from Belfast. He attended Annadale Grammar School and Stranmillis College, and taught Music, RE and Remedial English at the Boys’ Model School, Belfast, for five years.

He trained for ministry in Dublin and was ordained in 1986. His first curacy was in Ballyholme with Canon Jack Mercer, where he remained for four years, until his appointment as Vicar Chorale at St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast.

After three years at St Anne’s David moved to St Molua’s, Stormont, where he was rector for 23 years.

He was appointed as a Canon of St Anne’s Cathedral by the Bishop of Down and Dromore four years ago, a position he steps down from after his institution in the Diocese of Connor.

“I will be very sad to leave Stormont and the people I have come to know as friends but at the same time I am excited about meeting new people and taking up a new challenge,” David said.

“I will be moving from an urban parish to a rural parish and I am looking forward to the new experience.”

David has been leading pilgrimages to the Holy Land every year for 23 years. “This was quite accidental,” he said. “A speaker wasn’t able to make our Men’s Society meeting, so I asked a good friend to come instead and give an illustrated talk about his trip to the Holy Land. I thanked him at the end and said maybe we would organise a parish pilgrimage so we went ahead and did that.

“I was hooked from my first visit. The experience is different for everybody. For me it is the land that has such a pull. There is a feeling about it that is hard to describe, but what I take out of it is that it is God’s land. It says in the Bible many times ‘This is my land,’ and that’s why I keep going back.

“Christians in the Holy Land are small in number and need our support.”

David is the Chairperson of the Down & Dromore and Connor Organ Scholarship Scheme, which offers training in order to provide organists for the two dioceses.

The service in St Bride’s, Kilbride, is at 8pm, on November 8.

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