Who We Are
Rev. Richard Dawson
Senior Minister
Richard is our senior minister. He has been at Leith Valley Church for 25 years, aside from 2 years where was the Presbyterian Moderator. An average week at work for him would be pastoral care, writing sermons, keeping things running behind the scenes, leading the staff team, and keeping the vision for LVPC alive. Outside of church, you can find him in the garden, bee keeping, or taking long prayer walks around North East Valley.
Tessa Lovelock
Youth + Associate
Tessa is our joint Senior Youth Group leader with Matson, as well as associate pastor for our church. An average week for her involves Tuesday night youth group, preaching prep, pastoral catch ups, and social media management. Outside of church, she really loves reading, catching up with friends, and swimming at Lake Hāwea over the summer.
Matson Kyte
Youth
Matson is our joint Senior Youth Group leader with Tessa. This means his weeks are full of his share of pastoral care, Tuesday night organisation, camp leadership, and Sunday morning youth engagement. This year, he is finishing a Masters in Microbiology and enjoying first year martial bliss with his wife, Tiana. He also enjoys a good tramp, a good book, and a good coffee.
George Bates
Junior Youth
George, who has been part of Leith Valley since 2008, is our Junior Youth Group leader, looking after the Sunday morning junior youth programme and the fortnightly Fun Friday events. This involves a lot of communication, rostering, brainstorming and then all the fun of running games and connecting with our junior youth. He is also a committed worship leader and preacher in our church, as well as a regular member of the young adult Bible study group. Outside of church stuff, George is a fifth year medical student who loves to go for a long run or do some wedding planning with his fiancée Imogen.
Fran Dawson
Children & Families
Fran is our joint Kidztime leader with Hana. She has had many different positions over the 25 years of LVPC attendance including Sparklers and administration roles and and worship team, Mainly Music – some might call her the backbone of LVPC. An average week at work for Fran includes testing out crafts for the kids, planning lessons, organising volunteer helpers, and running Wednesday morning Mainly Music sessions. You might also find her reading a book, doing cryptic crosswords, sewing, or hanging out with her grandkids.
Annie Colley
Sparklers (Pre-School)
Annie is our Sparklers leader, leading the Sunday morning programme for 0-5 year olds. Her job involves testing the crafts, practising songs, organising lessons, and ensuring our littlest church members hear about God’s love for them. She also leads our Food for the Soul programme, a small groups, helps maintain the Malvern St property with her husband Frosty, and is a church elder. Annie is an upcycling extraordinaire so outside of church times can be found scouting out discarded items and creating something new.
Ged Forbes
Parish Administrator
Ged is our church administrator. This involves almost everything from the weekly church emails, rostering, set up, to keeping the fridge stoked with milk! He has been a faithful member of LVPC since 2012 and is married to the parish clerk, Judith. Outside of being the most organised church member, he enjoys walks and visiting the grandkids.
Lynley Lamb
Finance
Lynley is our finance manager. She spends her time doing the budget, payroll, paying the bills, and just generally managing the church’s finances. Her husband, Karl, is the minister at Mornington Presbyterian so you’ll find her there on a Sunday morning. However, you might also find her out running, walking, crafting, or op-shopping.
Rev. Tom Mepham
Student Soul
St Stephen’s Leith Valley History
Leith Valley Church began as part of an inner city church called St Stephens based in what is now part of the campus of the University of Otago (Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou). The Valley was settled very early because of the valuable fertile soil and so some work had been done to service the area by a variety of churches since the mid 1800’s.
In the 1970’s a bequest left a property to the church on which was later built a simple concrete block building from which to base a more permanent work.
The Church grew in this new base after the main church was sold for a dollar to a strong Chinese church. In the early 2000’s there church grew to the point where a new larger worship venue was needed and in 2008 worship was moved down to the newly renovated George St Normal Primary School and has remained here to this day along with the student ministry and various other church based activities.
Leith places an emphasis on children and young people’s ministry, student work associated with the University of Otago and the Otago Polytechnic (Te Kura Matatini ki Otago). We actively seek to care for our environment and to reduce our carbon footprint and we also seek to honour the Great Commission of Christ.