Deacon Jim was born in Viewpark in 1950, a native of St Columba’s Parish.  He attended St Columba’s Primary and Our Lady’s High School in Motherwell.

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He married his wife, Maureen, in St Gerard's Church Bellshill in 1972 and has lived in Mossend since 1976.

 

In his professional career he was a housing manager in Hamilton and Maryhill Housing Association in Glasgow, in addition to being Chair, Treasurer or committee member of two other housing associations.  He finished his working career at the end of 2014 as Centre Manager of the Xaverian Missionary’s Conforti Institute in Coatbridge.

 

In 2002 he began studies which would lead to him being ordained as a permanent deacon for Motherwell Diocese on 19th June 2007 by Bishop Joseph Devine.  He graduated the following year with a B.A. (Hons) in Applied Theology awarded by Maryvale Institute in Birmingham and the Open University.

 

Deacon Jim served in St Francis Xavier Parish in Carfin from 2003 to 2007 as pastoral assistant and from 2007 to 2020 as parish deacon.

 

Deacon Jim is also the Chancellor of the Diocese of Motherwell and a case instructor in the Scottish Catholic Inter Diocesan Tribunal in Glasgow.  As a deacon he leads the propaedeutic (discernment) year in Scotland for men who feel they may have a vocation to be a permanent deacon and is Assistant Director of the Permanent Diaconate in Motherwell Diocese.  

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On 29 September 2020, Deacon Jim took up appointed as Parish Deacon of Sacred Heart & St Gerard's, Bellshill.