Leslie Griffiths

The Reverend and the Right Honourable Dr
Leslie Griffiths
Member of the House of Lords
Assumed office
July 2004
Superintendent of Wesley's Chapel and Leysian Mission
Assumed office
September 1996
President of the Methodist Conference
In office
July 1994  July 1995
Preceded by Brian Edgar Beck
Succeeded by Brian Richard Hoare
Personal details
Born (1942-02-15) 15 February 1942
Burry Port, Carmarthenshire
Nationality British
Spouse(s) Margaret
Children Tim, Jonathan and Ruth
Alma mater Cardiff University

Leslie John Griffiths (born 15 February 1942) is a British Methodist minister and life peer in the House of Lords as The Right Honourable The Lord Griffiths of Burry Port where he sits with the Labour Party from 2004.[1] He served as President of the Methodist Conference from 1994 to 1995.

Early life

Griffiths was born in Burry Port in Carmarthenshire, Wales, on the 15 February 1942. He attended Llanelli Grammar School before studying at Cardiff University.[2]

Early ministry and career

Griffiths became a local preacher in the Methodist Church of Great Britain in 1963.[2] He completed a Master of Arts in Theology at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in 1969, while training for the ministry at Wesley House.[3] He spent most of the 1970s serving the Methodist Church of Haiti, where he was ordained, before returning to Britain to serve in ministries in Caversham, Loughton, Essex and Golders Green. In 1987 Griffiths completed a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.[2]

President and superintendent

In 1994, Griffiths became one of the few people to be elected President of the Methodist Conference whilst still a circuit minister.[2] In this role he was the spiritual and administrative leader of the Methodists in Britain.

Since 1996 he has been superintendent minister at Wesley's Chapel, London. He was created Baron Griffiths of Burry Port, of Pembrey and Burry Port in the County of Dyfed in 2004.[4]

On 20 August 2009, Griffiths published an article in the Methodist Recorder outlining a prospective plan for his "conditional ordination" by Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, in the Church of England. The plan was the subject of detailed discussion at the Methodist Conference (sitting in closed session) in 2008 and 2009 and the conference withheld consent for this move.

On 1 September 2011, Griffiths was appointed as the thirteenth president of the Boys' Brigade.[1]

Arms

References

  1. 1 2 "Lord Griffiths of Burry Port". UK Parliament. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Griffiths, Leslie (2011). A view from the edge : an autobiography (Kindle) (Abingdon Press ed.). Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press. ISBN 978-1426716690.
  3. Oxford Brookes University site: Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  4. "No. 57344". The London Gazette. 5 July 2004. p. 8323.
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