Job became the first arkmate to walk the plank tonight, departing in style with a fine dive into the waters and the safety of a waiting lifeboat.
We can now reveal that Job was played by David Fletcher, a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada and living in Nova Scotia, with more than a passing resemblance to his Ark character. David is being interviewed live after tonight's show in Ark Chat, but meanwhile, here's a biography of the Ark's steadfast barman.
David is a Canadian, born in Sudbury (that's a hard-rock mining town), raised in Toronto (that's the biggest city in the country), and now living in Lantz, Nova Scotia (that's an ex-urban collection of subdivisions near the provincial capital of Halifax). Nova Scotia styles itself as "Canada's Ocean Playground;" David lives about 20km from the ocean.
Following a brief stint in the Navy, which provided him with the technical expertise for undertaking a sea voyage on the Ark, David earned a music degree in organ, harpsichord and choral conducting (with a couple of irrelevant minors like classics and stuff) in 1981.
David trained for ordained ministry in the Anglican Church of Canada at an ecumenical theological college, The Atlantic School of Theology and was ordained a priest in 1986. Following parish appointments in Port Morien and Louisbourg, and New Waterford with Dominion, he was appointed rector of the Parish of Lantz in 1990.
David is currently a doctoral candidate at Seabury Western Theological Seminary in the Congregation Development programme, and is working on his thesis when he's not writing diary entries for the Ark. He also coordinates a Non-Stipendiary Ordained Ministry programme in the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and is an Education for Ministry trainer and mentor.
David is divorced, with a 9-year-old daughter Kelsey who lives with him a lot of the time, and is foster-father to a cat and a dog. Unlike his Ark character of Job, who is the pinnacle of piety, David tends to be more like Simon Peter, and has been known to "shoot from the lip" before considering what is said. He signs his email as "David: Sometimes Reverend, Seldom Pious."