 Ferguson was educated at Birkenhead School; New College, Oxford; and Westcott House, Cambridge.He was made a deacon at Petertide 1985 (30 June), by Ronald Brown, Bishop of Birkenhead, at St Mary-without-the-Walls, Chester, and ordained a priest the Petertide following (29 June 1986), by Michael Baughen, Bishop of Chester, at Chester Cathedral.After a curacy at St Mary, Chester he was Curate, Chaplain, Sacrist and Precentor at Westminster Abbey from 1988 to 1995.