Bury Parish Church

John Findon was born in 1950 and has enjoyed being Rector of Bury since late in 1998.  He is the son of a Warwickshire farmer and his ambition, until the age of nine, was to follow his maternal grandfather's trade as a Blacksmith.

He went to school at King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford- upon- Avon (Shakespeare was an Old Boy) and read Modern History, and then Theology, at Keble College, Oxford.  After nine years at University - which was too long for anybody - he was made Deacon by the Bishop of Manchester in 1977 and ordained Priest by the Bishop of Hulme in 1978.  He has since served very happily in Middleton, Bolton, Astley (near Leigh), Brooklands (in Sale) and Bury, where he will remain until retirement, death or decrepitude intervenes.  His work involves him in many aspects of the life of the town, especially in the field of education. 

He married Christa - the organist's daughter from his curacy days - in 1981 and they have three children; Kate, Clare and John.  He loves ministering to Lancashire people, Anglican Church music, reading Doctor Johnson and watching Andrew Flintoff bat.  He hates rooms full of clergy (anything more than two is a strain!) liturgical experts and the Marks and Spencer food advertisements!

I was born in Dartford, Kent, the same place as Mick Jagger, though I think it's the only thing we have in common. I went to Birmingham University, where I met Ann, both of us studying History. I taught for thirteen years, was very happy living in a large village in Kent called Paddock Wood, where two of our daughters were born, and where I served the local church as a Sunday school teacher, home group leader and Reader. It was a great place to be for us, open and welcoming and with a Vicar who was a tremendous preacher. We moved to Nottingham for me to train as a Vicar - two good years, during which our third child was born and where I read some great books and played a lot with my kids. We moved to Didsbury when I was a curate, then onto Middleton, where we lived for fourteen years. I loved the job and we are both going to miss the place a lot.

Our girls are grown up, one is in Bristol, one at Manchester Uni, hoping to marry a millionaire, and our third is an apprentice in an engineering firm in Royton. We look much older than we are, thanks to our daughters.

My job includes being Chaplain at Bury Church School and helping the people who shop in Bury connect with God. I like the sound of both jobs, though how good I'll be at them, I don't know. My motto is based on St Paul's words, "We have this Gospel treasure in claypots." I'm very much a claypot, sometimes pretty cracked - but I'm banking on God being in the market for cracked pots.