Meet Our Leaders

Canon Ernie Mann

is the Anglican Lay Leader of St. Mary's Island Church and regularly takes services at the Church and leads the Bible Study and fellowship held fortnightly on the Island. He is also a Foundation Governor of St. Mary's Island School and chairs the Personnel Committee of the School. He and his wife Janet have been involved with the new church from before any houses were built on the Island and continue to be excited about its potential to create a Christian community on the Island. Janet and Ernie have 4 children and 6 grandchildren and have lived in the Medway Towns for many years, and are delighted to be involved in the new community on St. Mary's Island.
He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and was one Seeboards Distribution Managers before he took early retirement, he then worked for ten years for the charity for older people Abbeyfield. He is a Gillingham Football club season ticket holder and is still trying to recover from there relegation."

Ernie or Tel: 01634 304893

Martin Ferris

Hi! I’m Pastor Martin, one of three leaders at the church on St Mary’s Island. I have been in leadership at the church for nearly three years and have two great brothers that I work with. You may have already read that the church is a local ecumenical partnership made up of three denominations, which I form part of the United Reformed Church.

I am married to Charlotte who is the Worship Coordinator and who is very key to my ministry at the church and plays a very supportive role in all that I do.
I have two girls Anne 15 and Katie 12 who both have taken an active role within the church family at St Mary’s Island from a very young age. As well as being a Pastor at the church I play guitar in the worship group and run an Omega discipleship course which has been very rewarding seeing people grow in confidence and in spirit with Christ.

I came to Christ about eight years ago and was the best tonic I ever took. Since that time I have never look back only at what I had missed before Jesus came into my life. Jesus said that being a Christian would never be easy but be assured; when we accept Jesus into our lives we are all adopted into Gods wider family as brothers and sisters of Christ. When we go through good and bad times a family comes together. In my time as a Christian and as leader at St Mary’s Island, having Christ at the centre of all I do has been a great comfort.

We have truly been blessed at the church since we started in January 2000 and would welcome anyone to visit and experience that coming to church can be fun, enjoyable and have the comfort of being part of a wider family.
We look forward to seeing you.
Every blessing

Martin

Martin or Tel: 01634 573015

Bernie Pinner

Is married to Chris with two grown up children, Luke and Miriam. Been involved in the 'church' for over 30 years mainly within the Baptist denomination and held leadership positions for the last 20 years. My main activities at St Mary's have been with Alpha as well as leading services. My dream would be to see the church grow and establish congregations all over the Medway towns, and to see the leadership of the island church handed over to island folk. Some may think this is barmy, but as scripture says "without a vision the people perish".

Bernie. or Tel: 01634 576317

This page was last updated 17/01/2007