Terry was a practicing lawyer in South Africa for 25 years, during the apartheid years, before answering a call into the ordained ministry in the Anglican Church (Church of England) of Southern Africa. As a Priest he spent time as a Prison Chaplain as well as a Hospital Chaplain before being appointed to parish ministry. A one-time law lecturer and subsequent tutor of theology, he is now retired from full-time ministry, lives in New Zealand and spends his spare time writing novels and Christian devotional books.