Rev Trevor Kane was installed as the new Minister of Glenwherry Presbyterian Church, Ballymena on Friday 21st October 2022.
The 36-year-old Carrickfergus native was joined by his wife Suzanne and their young family, Noah, (9), Eli, (7), Judah, (5), Eva, (3) and Joseph, who is just 18-months old.
Revealing a little of his backstory, Trevor told us: “I grew up on Sunnylands; a working-class housing estate with my two older brothers, John, and Steven. We had a Church-upbringing as my mother was Anglican.
“My mum always told us that whenever we got ‘confirmed’, we could decide for ourselves whether we wanted to go to Church or not. At that point, I decided that I didn’t want to. I had no interest in the Gospel or in Christian things, but then a new curate came to the parish who started taking an interest in me when I was about 15. We started meeting for coffee or going out for lunch which led on to Bible Study”, he added.
Trevor went on to say: “If you had asked me then if I was a Christian, I would probably have said ‘yes’, I didn’t swear that much, I didn’t smoke or drink or do any of those ‘bad’ things. However, through reading the Bible with him I came to realise that this wasn’t what a Christian was, and I knew that I needed to have that living personal faith in Jesus.”
Trevor’s journey to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has been an interesting one.
Originally, he had planned to study at Moore College in Sydney with a view to staying in the Anglican denomination.
Funding issues prevented this and following a two-year spell as a Parish Apprentice in Annalong, Trevor went to work in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church under the tutelage Rev. Gareth Burke, who later became his father-in-law, at Stranmillis EPC.
Taking up the story, Trevor continued: “It was through my conversations with Gareth that I became convinced of Presbyterian principles and the Presbyterian form of Government and confident that it was Biblical and scriptural. At that point I became a Presbyterian by conviction and moved away from Anglicanism.”
Throughout this time, the call to Ministry intensified in Trevor’s life. After a short spell working in Sainsbury’s, the Lord led him to the Edinburgh Theological Seminary as it is now called.
Subsequently, he was ordained as Minister of the Free Church of Scotland in Dumfries.
“We had a good four years there, but it was a very cold and dark place spiritually and as my wife and I were both from Northern Ireland we decided that in would be a good time to come home. The question then arose of ‘Where do we land? ‘Do we stay in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church that had put us through College in Edinburgh or move to PCI?’ In the end, we decided to transfer to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.”
A two-year Assistantship at First Portadown under Rev. Robin Brown has proved to be a good learning experience for Trevor, who is looking forward to entering the pulpit at Glenwherry.
He remarked: “I look forward to building on years of solid, evangelical history. I have been really impressed with the people I have met there so far; they are lovely. Glenwherry has a really strong community feel about it and is a really exciting place to be.”
Outside Church, Trevor Kane loves watching football, reading, and spending time with his boys. He is a keen Aston Villa fan who has also just bought a Ballymena United season ticket.
You can find out more about life in Glenwherry Presbyterian Church on their Facebook page.