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Welcome to Paddy Benson

18-06-22

We are delighted to welcome Paddy Benson to Leeds Minster. He joins us as Associate Priest for the rest of this year to assist our team until Paul Maybury arrives – our thanks go to him for taking this on, and to Bishop Nick for arranging it.

Paddy retired as Archdeacon of Hereford in 2018. He and his wife then moved to Leeds to be near their daughter and grandchildren. They have joined the congregation of St Paul’s Ireland Wood.

Before Paddy was ordained, the Bensons spent eleven years in Kenya, where they taught in a Bible School and Paddy was the diocesan Director of Communications. After they returned to the UK, Paddy went back to college, and then served in two parishes on Wirral. His international connections continued, and he helped to organise several conferences for theological teachers from the Global South.

Paddy speaks Swahili, and some Kikuyu; and he is trying to resurrect his Russian in case the Bensons host a refugee from Eastern Ukraine.