On Sunday 10 July several hundred people gathered at The King’s Centre in Chessington to witness the induction service of Daf Meirion-Jones, who has taken over as the new Senior Pastor of Chessington Evangelical Church.
The church was thrilled to gather to welcome Daf, as well as Graham Beynon, the minister at Grace Church, Cambridge and Director of Free Church Training at Oakhill Theological College, who had been invited as guest speaker due to his long standing friendship and gospel partnership with Daf.
Big church lunch
The service was followed by a big church lunch so that the CEC congregation- would have an opportunity to chat with Daf, his wife Boo, and their seven children.
Daf’s appointment comes almost a year to the day since previous Senior Pastor, Bobby Warrenburg, left the role to return to the USA to lead a church in Boston.
During that year, the church were pleased to welcome John Tindall, who came out of retirement to lead the church as Interim Pastor. He was previously joint Senior Pastor at CEC for over 20 years with Trevor Archer – the current FIEC Training Director. So Daf follows in a long line of excellent, expository Bible teachers.
Leaving the CofE
Daf’s appointment was a little unusual and significant for CEC because he was not a Free Church man. The Reverend Daf Meirion-Jones comes to Chessington after ten years being the vicar at All Saints in Preston. So Daf is one of a handful of Anglican ministers coming over to the Free Church.
Daf was appointed after a series of ‘get to know you’ meetings with the Ministry team, Elders, and CEC congregation. Daf and Boo felt a good connection with the church and the area – especially as they are both originally from Guildford.
At the heart of the community
They were particularly excited about the prospect of being right at the heart of the local community – which is very much what the King’s Centre as a Community Centre is all about.
The folks at CEC are excited about Daf leading us forward in this next phase of the church’s history and who knows, this move may be significant not just for us at CEC but for the whole of the FIEC.
