 He was one of four children of a building society manager.He went to school at Gravesend Grammar School and university at Hertford College, Oxford, before training for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.Porter was made a deacon at St Peter's Day (29 June) 1977, by Bill Westwood, Bishop of Edmonton, at John Keble Church, Mill Hill, and ordained a priest the Petertide following (25 June 1978), by Gerald Ellison, Bishop of London, at St Paul's Cathedral.