About Me - Stephen Fletcher

Background

After a 40 year career in construction, from building roads in the oilfields of South West Iran through building motorways in Hampshire and West Yorkshire, working on the extension of the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Airport, repairing roads for local councils in Hertfordshire, refurbishing the London Underground and building the East London Overground Line, after all that, I decided to retire!

One of the reasons I did so was because I felt called to become a Licensed Lay Minister in the Church of England, better known as a Reader. After three years training I was licensed in St Albans Abbey in July 2014. I was a member of the Ministry Team in the Bourne End and Sunnyside parishes in Berkhamsted until we moved to Milton Keynes in 2021.  I am now a Licensed Lay Minister in the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership in Milton Keynes, serving mainly in the Cross and Stable Church in Downs Barn and in St Mary Magdalen Church in Willen.

Since 2017 I have been spending most of my time in Ireland where I am part of the three rural parishes of the Church of Ireland in West Clare. In May 2017 I was also Licensed as a Diocesan Reader in the Church of Ireland in St Mary’s Cathedral in Limerick.

In July 2019 Bishop Kenneth Kearon appointed me the Communications Officer for the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe and since the merger of the diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry with the diocese of Limerick and Killaloe in 2022 Bishop Michael Burrows appointed me as the part-time Diocesan Communications Officer for the new merged Diocese of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe. 

In September 2015 I was appointed as a Chaplain to the Hertfordshire Police, in 2021 my role has changed to that of Mentor to other Chaplains.  I retired from that in July 2024 as I was spending most of my time in Ireland.

Family

In 1978 I married Frances after coming home on leave from Iran to be Best Man at my best friend’s wedding.  There I met the chief Bridesmaid who, like the bride, was a Purser flying with BA.  After meeting Frances I decided to break my contract in Iran (well the Islamic revolution was about to happen!) and six months later we were married!

We now have two grown up daughters Katie who is married to Andy and works for World Vision in Milton Keynes and Rosie who, after gaining a degree in Musical Theatre at Arts Ed in London, is a Singer/Dancer/Actress in the West End, after two years in the musical Wicked, she has been in Barnum, Hadestown at the National Theatre and played Mary in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Barbican. In July 2024 Rosie married Sam Devereaux.

In 1981 we moved to Bourne End in Hertfordshire, a small village between Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted. After living there for nearly 40 years we downsized to Willen Park in Milton Keynes in August 2020.

Radio

I have had a lifelong passion for Radio!  I still remember the excitement when, as a teenager in the mid 1960’s, I was idly tuning across the medium waveband and suddenly discovered the new Pirate Radio stations!  It really was just so exciting!  A whole new sound, so different from the staid BBC with its Home Service, Light Programme and Third Programme!  That excitement has stayed with me!  I love everything about radio, the whole process of it and I am so grateful that I have been able to bring together my two passions of Radio and my Faith and combine them in some small, occasional ways on BBC Three Counties Radio and I am a regular presenter on the Sunday evening Faith programme, Beyond Belief,  on Clare FM in Ireland.

Ireland

Which does lead me to Ireland!  Frances’ father came from Kilrush in County Clare.  It is a small town on the mouth of the River Shannon.  You can stand on the promontory in the cemetery where Frances parents are buried and look down over the town, then turn and look across the Shannon Estuary to the early Christian settlements of Scattery Island and the Kerry shore beyond and then turn and look out over two thousand miles of Wild Atlantic towards America!  Beautiful!  Despite not having an ounce of Irish blood in me I have a deep and abiding love of Ireland and the Irish and we are very fortunate that we have a large modern townhouse here close to the Marina.

So that is me!  Feel free to wander around this website and share my passions!