Posted online: Jun 23rd, 2010

By Lauren Harte
reporter

2011 will be a busy year for the Rev. Ian Henderson, who has just been elected to lead the Methodist Church in Ireland from next June.
Mr Henderson, who has been the Methodist Minister in Donegal Town, Ballintra and Inver for the past eleven years, was elected at the Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland in Belfast last week.
Mr Henderson is currently the District Superintendent of Methodism’s North West District which stretches from Ballymoney to Ardara and Dunkineely. He is also the Senior Assistant Secretary of the Methodist Conference.
While he will still be based at the Methodist Manse, Glebe Crest in Donegal Town, his new appointment will take him around the country and overseas during his year in office.
“The role of the President will be to travel around different Methodist Churches as invited so I’ll probably be away from Donegal most Sundays preaching somewhere else around the country. “I’ve been appointed to go to the World Methodist Council meeting in Durban, South Africa in August 2011. I’ll automatically go to the British Methodist Conference next July. It will be an interesting and busy year with a lot crammed into 12 months,” the President Elect told the Donegal Post.
Born in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim in September 1946, he later moved to Dublin with his family where he attended Wesley College before earning a BA in English, History and Psychology at Trinity College.
In 1970, he returned North to undertake further study at Edgehill Theological College and Queen’s University in Belfast. Five years later, he was ordained and also married his wife Ros with whom he has a daughter, Andrea. For 24 years, Mr Henderson served the Methodist community in Cavan, Longford, Wicklow, Bandon and Sligo before moving to Donegal in 1999.
He will be installed as President of the Methodist Church on June 8 next when the 2011 Conference meets in Newtownards.