Meet the elders and deacons

Stephen Dancer

Minister or Teaching Elder

Stephen is married to Susan and they have one grown up and married daughter. He has a PhD in physics and worked for 14 years in the aerospace industry, becoming a chartered engineer.

Stephen trained for the ministry at what is now Union School of Theology in south Wales. He was called to be the minister of Solihull Presbyterian Church in March, 2007, following on from the church’s founding minister, Dr Albert Lutz.

You can follow stephen on Twitter at @stephendancer and blogs (very) occasionally at doggiesbreakfast.com

Falko Drijfhout

Ruling Elder

Falko was born in South Africa of Dutch parents. He grew up in a Christian home. When he was 16, the family moved back to the Netherlands where Falko finished his education with PhD in chemistry at Wageningen university. Here he met his wife Els. They both professed their faith in the Reformed Church (Liberated) in Wageningen and got married in 1995. The Lord blessed them with three children, Marianne, Pieter and Ineke. Falko served as a deacon in this church. During a two-year stay in the USA, they enjoyed fellowship with believers in the RCUS and the RPCNA. Falko moved to England in 2003, where he is now a lecturer at Keele university. Starting as members in Cheltenham Presbyterian church (now Naunton Lane Evangelical Presbyterian Church) the family has been involved with Solihull Presbyterian Church since the start in 2005. Falko was called as an elder at Solihull Presbyterian church in 2012. In his free time, he plays volleyball and likes to do woodwork.

Jonny Umpleby

Ruling Elder

Jonny was born and raised in the Midlands, in a Christian home. He came to faith at a young age. He studied engineering at Warwick University and spent a year working with the university Christian Unions in Leicester, and has since worked as a building services engineer in St Albans, Cambridge and Birmingham. He joined the Solihull congregation with his family in 2016 and became an elder at SPC in 2021. Jonny is married to Ali and they have four children.

Evan Ritchie

Deacon

Evan was born in Texas in the USA and grew up in a large Christian family. He came to faith as a late teen and developed presbyterian convictions while studying at Texas Tech. Many years later he met his wife, Marianne, via a reformed group on Facebook and they got married in 2019. Evan then moved to the UK and together they settled in Birmingham. They recently welcomed a son, Malcolm, to their family.

Evan is a small business owner and works as a barber; in his spare time he plays and records music. He uses his audio skills to manage the sound and recording system for Solihull Presbyterian church, and has been an ordained deacon there since November 2022.

Bruno Cavalar

Deacon

Bruno Cavalar was born in Brazil in a Christian family, and came to faith in Christ during his teenage years. He met his wife Thais at university, and at that time they joined the Presbyterian Church of Brazil after coming into contact with Reformed literature.

Bruno is currently a Researcher in Theoretical Computer Science at the University of Oxford. He came to the UK in 2020 for his doctoral studies at the nearby University of Warwick, and joined Solihull Presbyterian Church in 2021.