2005 - present day

Sixteenth Minister of Ballywillan Presbyterian Church

Gordy is a native of East Belfast, having been brought up as a member of Bloomfield Presbyterian Church. He came to faith in May 1981 and was soon involved in both music and youth ministry, with a keen desire to share his faith.

He met his wife Karen at Belfast Bible College where they studied from 1983 – 1986. They will be 40 years married in August 2026. They have 4 grown up children Matthew, Connor, Andrew and Robyn.

For nine years after leaving BBC, Gordy and Karen worked in inner city Belfast.

They served in two different locations in the city with the Belfast City Mission – Manor Street, in the North of the city, and then Sandy Row in South Belfast.

In the middle of these two City Mission postings Gordy worked for a year in New Mossley Presbyterian Church as a Lay Assistant Minister, working alongside the Rev William Harshaw.

Moving from Sandy Row an opportunity came for Gordy to work in the Youth Department of Evangelical Ministries and for the next five years his work involved training youth leaders, developing and delivering youth programmes and helping prepare and run evangelistic youth events in local churches.

This itinerant ministry was costly on family life for Gordy & Karen and doors opened for him to move to 1st Coleraine Presbyterian, where Gordy spent the next ten years as the Youth & Family Worker. The real blessing in this was that the family were 'part and parcel' of his work & ministry, the boys sharing in all sorts of youth events with their Dad, helping with the Drama, Music, and Technology.

The calling to Ordained Ministry was something that had niggled at Gordy for a number of years, and that sense of calling led to him studying at Union College from 2010 – 2012. As part of this process he was placed as a Student Assistant and then full time Assistant in Ballywillan church for a period of 3 years. This led to an invitation to stay on as the Associate Minister for a further 3 year tenure, all of these six years working in partnership with Rev Stephen Williamson.

In 2017 Gordy and Karen were called to serve in two churches in Co Donegal – Newtowncunningham and Ray (Manorcunningham), where they spent a very happy seven and a half years before returning to Ballywillan in March 2025.