Leslie Griffiths

The Reverend and Right Honourable
The Lord Griffiths of Burry Port
Official portrait, 2019
Superintendent Minister of Wesley's Chapel and Leysian Mission
In office
September 1996 – September 2017
Succeeded byJennifer Smith
President of the Methodist Conference
In office
July 1994 – July 1995
Vice PresidentChristine Walters
Preceded byBrian Beck
Succeeded byBrian Hoare
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Life peerage
30 June 2004
Personal details
Born (1942-02-15) 15 February 1942 (age 82)
Burry Port, Carmarthenshire
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour
SpouseMargaret
Children3
Alma materCardiff University
Other offices
  • 2017–2020: Shadow DCMS Spokesperson
  • 2017–2020: Shadow Wales Spokesperson
  • 2017–2020: Opposition Whip in the Lords

Leslie John Griffiths, Baron Griffiths of Burry Port FLSW (born 15 February 1942) is a British Methodist minister, politician and life peer who served as President of the Methodist Conference from 1994 to 1995.[1] A member of the Labour Party, he was an opposition spokesperson and whip in the House of Lords from 2017 to 2020.

Early life

Griffiths was born in Burry Port in Carmarthenshire, Wales, on 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, 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.

In 1996 he became superintendent minister at Wesley's Chapel, London. He retired in 2017 and preached his last sermon on 6 August. However, he returned to take services at Loughton monthly during 2018, when the church there was between ministers. 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]

In 2012, Griffiths was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.[5]

Arms

Coat of arms of Leslie Griffiths
Adopted
2006
Coronet
Coronet of a Baron
Crest
Entwined about a Bottle Kiln Or a Dragon wings displayed the body reflexed over the sinister side with the tail to the dexter Gules langued Or
Escutcheon
Gyronny Argent and Vert on a Celtic Cross Gules between four Escallops flukes inwards five roundels Or
Supporters
On either side a male Griffin Gules armed langued rayed and holding in the interior forefoot a Conch shell Or
Motto
IN FIDE FIDUCIA
Symbolism
The griffins are a pun on the surname. The rest of the Achievement contains elements from Wales, including the green and white field, and Christianity.

References

  1. ^ a b "Lord Griffiths of Burry Port". UK Parliament. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d 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.
  5. ^ Wales, The Learned Society of. "Leslie Griffiths". The Learned Society of Wales. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gentlemen
Baron Griffiths of Burry Port 		Followed by