Rev John & Maureen Gilmore
JOHN & MAUREEN GILMORE have been involved in Christian ministry for more than sixty years, for much of that time “preaching the Word in the Island of the Sun”. For over thirty years they have had pastoral responsibility in the Chiesa Biblica Cristiana in Messina together with a subsequent church plant in Rometta Marea.
The Gilmores have been engaged in Christian ministry since the early ’sixties. Maureen was born in Wrexham and in her early twenties, whilst studying drama at Cardiff Castle, came to faith in Christ, through the ministry of Viv and Joan Taylor, members of the Heath Church. So it was that, after a couple of years or so, Maureen left a promising theatrical career in order to dedicate herself fully to the Lord, Whom she had come to know and love and desired to glorify in serving.
John is from Essex and prior to meeting Maureen had carried on an itinerant evangelistic ministry since the early fifties. For some years they both knew the constraint of the Spirit concerning their future service for the Lord. After their marriage towards the end of 1961, in association with the European Missionary Fellowship, they left for Italy and after two years in Florence felt led to move south to Sicily. The next decade was dedicated to pioneer evangelism in many parts of the Mediterranean’s largest island, spending the first five years living outside Catania, before moving to Ragusa in the island’s deep south.
Since the mid-seventies they have been associated with Aurora Ministries after having being invited to be part of a missionary leadership team in a newly-formed group of believers in the strategic city of Messina. In 1978 John and Maureen accepted full pastoral responsibility and the subsequent years saw evidence of the work of the Spirit of God as the church was consolidated through a Christ-exalting Bible-teaching ministry. In those years an FM radio station was operated , dedicated mainly to pre-evangelism; a small new church came into being in Rometta Marea; a fine property was bought through the generous giving of the believers, to be dedicated as a camp and conference centre. Most of all, believers were built up in their most holy faith and others added to the church mainly through the consistent witness of its members.
In the first decade of the third millenium it became evident that local churches were facing new situations and consequent challenges, particularly concerning social and religious changes taking place with amazing rapidity. In these years the testimony has been maintained, though without spectacular numerical growth.
Over many years of Christian ministry John and Maureen have sought to “hold forth the Word of life” in Sicily, convinced of the power of the Gospel of the grace of God. Some have come to faith in Christ, and show evidence of a burning desire to know the transforming power of the Truth which sets men free. The call to a coherent, consistent Christianity will only be answered as Christ Jesus the Lord is exalted in His people, called to be salt and light in the midst of a perverse and wicked generation. The Gilmores’ ministry has had this aim and purpose as they have dedicated themselves to “act as men who have the enemy at their gates, and at the same time like men who are working for eternity” (Giuseppe Mazzini)
John and Maureen have two children, Jonathan and Deborah, both born in Wrexham, as well as six grand-children. John is the author of Five Million Islands : European Missionary Fellowship 1968 and member of the Pastors’ Association.
