Honorary Assistant Priest – Fr Marc Trickey
Fr Marc Trickey was born in 1935 in London and evacuated to Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset where he settled with his family until 1954, when they moved to Bristol. He attended Prep school in Burnham followed by Bristol Grammar School, leaving in 1954 for work at the National Smelting Company at Avonmouth.
In 1958, Fr Marc was accepted for training for the priesthood, going to St John’s, Durham in 1959 to read Psychology, followed by the Diploma in Theology. He was ordained Deacon in 1964 for a curacy at St Lawrence, Alton; Rector of St John’s with Winnall, Winchester in 1968; then Rector of St Martin’s, Guernsey from 1977 to 2002.
From 1995 to 2003, Fr Marc was Dean of Guernsey and in 2003, was named Priest-in-Charge of Sark. Since retirement he has helped in and around the Deanery. He served for eight years in the RNR, served on the Board of Industry and Broadcasting Committees of the States of Guernsey, and on various appeal panels. He held a number of chaplaincies: Hospital (for 17 years), Naval Association, St John Ambulance.
Fr Marc enjoys reading, making bread and philately.
Honorary Assistant Priest – Fr Leslie Craske
Fr Leslie Craske was born in Knightsbridge, London. After serving on War Office Selection Boards with the King’s Hussars and for a second period during the Korean War, Fr Leslie graduated in Theology at the University of London, King’s College, where he was elected a President of the University Union for the year of the Queen’s Coronation. His post-graduate interests were in the Latin works of Pope Gregory and the emergence of Latin as an ecclesiastical language. For this he was awarded the Lambeth Diploma in Theology.
Ordained deacon and priest in the Diocese of Southwark, he served two curacies in London before becoming an SPG missionary in the Diocese of Matabeleland, where he was chiefly concerned with African education as Director of Mission Schools and Principal of the Diocesan Teacher Training College.
In 1967 he was appointed Vicar of St John, Upper Norwood, London and during that time served as the Archbishop’s Correspondent on Roman Catholic relations. He remained there until 1983 when he became Rector of St Saviour, Guernsey, retiring in 1997 after being appointed Priest-in-Charge of the Forest Church in order to unite the benefices.
He was Honorary Priest of the Vale Church for 15 years. In 1955, he married Joyce Grut of St Peter Port who worshipped at St Stephen’s Church. She had trained at Westminster Hospital and was Matron of a 6th Form Hospital College for Blind Girls. She was also an Anglican missionary in Africa. Fr Leslie has three daughters and one son.
Honorary Assistant Priest – Fr John Luff
Fr John Luff was born in Guernsey in 1946 and was educated at Melrose, Beechwood and Elizabeth College.
After leaving school, he attended the Hampshire College of Agriculture, where he was Student of the Year in 1966, and began dairy farming in Guernsey in partnership with his brother Bill. In 1971 he was appointed Director of Music of the Castel Church, a position he held for over thirty years. He was also Area Chairman of the Royal School of Church Music Committee and was awarded their Certificate of Special Service in 2002. He was licensed as a Reader in 1997. He retired from farming in 1999, and worked for some years at Les Côtils Christian Centre and also served as Chaplain of the Castel Hospital.
He was accepted for ordination training in 2004 and studied at Salisbury, graduating in 2007. He was ordained to a title at the Town Church, and served there for seven years. In addition to continuing as a mental health chaplain, in 2012 he was appointed Chaplain of Guernsey Prison, serving for four years before moving to Birmingham as priest-in-charge of St Agatha, Sparkbrook and St Barnabas, Balsall Heath, and was for a time acting Area Dean of Central Birmingham. He retired at Easter 2020 and following his return to Guernsey has made his home at St Stephen’s, along with his wife Carole. He enjoys reading, making bread, poultry keeping and gardening, as well as researching the clergy who have served in Guernsey since the Calvinistic period.
Fr John and Carole have a son, a daughter and three grandchildren.
