Neville Kenyon - Vice-President 2009-2010
Life-long Unitarian, Neville Kenyon, lives in Bury. He was installed as the vice-president of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches at the denomination's annual meetings at Chester in April.
With a professional background in marketing and general management, Neville will focus during his two years as vice-president and then president, on promoting the denomination and, in particular encouraging the individual congregations to find the best methods of making their chapels better known within their local communities.
Neville says 'My priority is to do all I can to ensure that our unique ethos will continue to thrive to the benefit of future generations of like-minded people.
'I am delighted that there are many signs of new growth and renewal. These indications need nurturing and one of the important roles of this office is to welcome newer members throughout the country and to confirm to them their worth to the community they have joined.
'Part of my mission.' he adds, 'will be to help those in small, isolated congregations to attract more like-minded people. As an optimist in all things Unitarian, I have noticed that, whilst there is a generally buoyant feeling throughout the country, in some smaller groups there is a tendency to be less than optimistic about the future. A major role for the Vice President/President is to boost morale and I am committed to making a contribution to this.'
As a member of the General Assembly's Executive Committee and its Communications Commission, Neville has energetically supported measures to bring about more effective publicity and 'branding'. A favourite project has been to encourage each chapel to have a handsome notice board and well-produced publicity material tailored to a consistent identity scheme.
As a boy, Neville attended Bank Street Chapel, Bury, and joined the Unitarian Young People's League in the 1950s and was its national president in 1961. In the 1970s, when they lived in Buckinghamshire, he and his wife, Betty along with their children Amanda, Paul and Richard, attended the chapel at Oxford's Unitarian Manchester College. He is currently chairman of the congregation of Bury Unitarian Church.
Neville's other interests include the Huddersfield Canal Society of which he is chairman and he is president of the Bury Liberal Democrats on whose behalf he stood as parliamentary candidate for Bury North in the 1997 general election. He is also the deputy chairman of the governors of Tottington High School.
