Profile: Richard Jackson

About This Author

Brought up in Bradford and Darlington, I became a minister of the Methodist Church and was ordained in the UK in 1971. Prior to that I was trained at: Wesley College, Headingly, Leeds; Wesley College, Bristol; and Kingsmead, Selly Oak , Birmingham, where my wife Dr Carole Jackson and I prepared for work overseas. We were stationed in the Methodist Church Sierra Leone, arriving there in 1969 and eventually returned after 10 fruitful years to ministry in the UK in 1979. For the next 20 years I continued in pastoral ministry in: Bristol; Bramhall Cheshire; and Ashton-under-Lyne before becoming Postgraduate Tutor at Cliff College, Derbyshire in the year 2000. That was, as I thought, five years before my 'official retirement age'. Whilst at Cliff College, we pioneered work: "Doing Training There' in Partnership with the Methodist Church Sierra Leone, which was recovering from the devastation caused by the 'troubles' of the 1990's. Since 2002, and continuing in so-called retirement until the present date, I have coordinated the work of what has become known as the Cliff College International Training Centre (CCITC), as we have shared in this distinctive partnership training programme with churches in Sierra Leone; Cuba; Nigeria and Uganda. I have been privileged to be supported in this work by more than seventy colleagues from many parts of the world, some of whom have contributed to the books that have been published through Feed A Read. My ever so slightly superior ability with the computer has meant that the Rev Prof David Dunn-Wilson has entrusted me with the proof-reading/editing/publishing of his two recent books for Lenten studies and in a labour of love we have re-published a fascinating book on the Dead Sea Scrolls, by my son-in-law's late father, Peter Kirk. Feed-A-Read, with its ever-helpful customer service team has made it possible for a comparative novice in this area like me to produce and publish books used with our trainees on our CCITC courses and make them available for wider circulation. Thank you Feed-A-Read