Richard has spent much of his working life in the founding and development of several successful not-for-profit, community-owned, or co-operative enterprises that allow people to express constructive social and environmental values through their work, spending or saving. Amongst these are Traidcraft, the Fairtrade Foundation and Warm Zones. The majority have been focussed on fair trade, the problems of social exclusion, international development and sustainability.
Richard has degrees in sociology, theology and business with honorary doctorates from Durham and Newcastle Universities. In 2006 he was listed by the Independent newspaper as one of the top 50 people in the UK who had had most impact in "making the world a better place" for his practical development of the concept of ethical shopping. From 2001-2015 he was a member of the European Union's Economic and Social Committee, and is currently a delegate to the EU's Consultative Committee on Industrial Change, where he specialises in energy, ethical and environmental issues. His current interests are focused on developing an inclusive dialogue on the role of energy in a sustainable world and the potential influence of religious traditions.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-adams-4766ab37
Adesola Akala is a biblical and theological scholar with a focus on Johannine and Pauline literature. Her published doctoral dissertation entitled, The Son-Father Relationship and Christological Symbolism in the Gospel of John (London: T&T Clark, 2014), examines the symbolic presentation of the Son-Father relationship and its implications for Johannine Christology and discipleship. Sola has recently completed a forthcoming volume, Paul and Prayer: History, Theology and Spirituality (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Academic, 2020), which entails and exegetical study of the prayer and praise texts in the Pauline corpus and explores intersections between theology and spirituality.
As an ordained minister, Sola has held teaching, pastoral, and administrative positions in evangelical churches. In addition to establishing lay bible schools, ministry training institutes, and prayer programmes for local churches, she has travelled extensively, teaching and preaching in the UK, Europe, Africa, North America, South East Asia and Australia. Sola lectures and supervises dissertations at the Westminster Theological Centre. She currently co-chairs the Johannine Literature Committee of the Society for Biblical Literature. She also sits on the Race Advisory Committee of the Society for the Study of Theology, is an active member of the Evangelical Theological Society, and an Honorary Fellow at Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham.
https://www.doxaconsultancy.com/
Alan was appointed tutor in Church History, Spirituality and Anglican Studies in February 1996 and remained on the College staff until October 2008. During this time he was also Programme Director for the newly-started MA in Theology and Ministry and DMin programmes and taught for the Dept of Theology and Religion. His appointment to teach ‘Anglican Studies’ was a new departure for Cranmer Hall, and indeed for a Church of England theological college. It marked St John’s College’s serious commitment to enriching and articulating its Anglican ethos.
Alan is the author of a key book on Anglican identity and spirituality, A Passionate Balance (published by DLT in 2007). He has written a number of articles on Anglican history and ecclesiology and served as a board member for Anvil. He has particular expertise in the study of Richard Hooker, though he also ranges more widely through Classic Anglicanism (Anglicanism of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries). He has also published Humane Christianity (DLT 2004), based on the Durham Cathedral Lent Lectures in 2002, which offered a method for bringing the resources of historic Christian spirituality into intelligent and honest conversation with the needs and values of the modern Church.
Stephen is native of Australia and was born and raised in Sydney. Having studied initially at Macquarie University (BA Hons., Dip. Ed.), he came to England for postgraduate studies, first at Lancaster University (MA in Religious Studies), then at King’s College London (PhD in New Testament). Stephen's first full-time appointment was as Tutor in Biblical Studies at Salisbury and Wells Theological College (1984-88). In 1988, he was appointed to a lectureship in New Testament in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. In 2002, he was made Reader in New Testament. In 2006, he was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Doctoral Supervision. While lecturing in the Department, Stephen trained part-time for ordination at Cranmer Hall, and was ordained priest in 1994, serving subsequently as a non-stipendiary minister at St John’s Church Neville’s Cross.
Stephen's teaching and research interests have focused in an interdisciplinary way on the New Testament in its originating context and in the life of the Church today. His teaching has included the following subjects: New Testament Theology, New Testament Ethics, Marriage and Family in Christian Social Teaching, Theological Hermeneutics, and The New Testament and the Social Sciences.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-barton-978696ba
Dr Batey's main research interests lie in the field of Viking and Late Norse archaeology with particular reference to the Northern Isles and Caithness and the North Atlantic region. She has excavated widely on several major sites, including Jarlshof in Shetland, Rousay in Orkney, and Hofstađir in Iceland.
Currently Dr Batey is involved in bringing together the excavation work undertaken at the Earl’s Bu, Orphir, Orkney which she directed. This discovered a Norse horizontal mill as part of the Earl’s complex and provides evidence of local agricultural exploitation. In addition, she is actively involved in the research of Viking pagan graves in Scotland, providing specialist input into a number of ongoing projects, such as the Loch Lomondside Viking Cemetery and the Ardnamurchan boat grave.
A major area of Dr Batey's work focuses on the promotion of Orkney (and to a some extent Shetland) as centres for cultural tourism. She has spent nearly 20 years working with small expedition ships which undertake day-long visits to the main UNESCO sites in Orkney for example. Committed to ensuring that the archaeology of the region is showcased to the largest possible international audience, Dr Batey now lives in Orkney permanently.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-batey-54b63830
Fran Beckett is an accomplished voluntary sector CEO and has served as chief executive of Shaftesbury Society (now Livability) before moving to a similar role in Church Urban Fund. She has also provided consultancy services on leadership, governance, change management, and strategic planning and mentoring services to CEOs and Chairs of Boards. She has been Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Prison Fellowship since 2017, also serving as Chair of Governors at St Andrews Primary School since 2019, and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the YMCA DownsLink Group since 2020.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/fran-beckett-a802bb29
Revd Dr Paul Beetham is currently a Supernumerary Methodist Minister. He studied Botany and Zoology at London University (Royal Holloway College) graduating in 1975 and gained his PhD (Wales 1980) in microbiology (lichens and SO2). He has been editor of the Christ & The Cosmos publications, a trustee of the Science & Religion Forum and published papers in both science and theology. As a result of the fellowship in 2016 he published a paper entitled "Science, Theology And Politics in the Eighteenth And Twenty-first Centuries".
Stuart served as Rector of Aberystwyth for 25 years with special responsibility for St Michael's. In active retirement, he is now Interim Minister of the parish of Borth whilst enjoying some international ministry opportunities.
Stuart has committed to serve on the Council as he believes that "The Church in Wales has needed a strong and clear united orthodox voice. Anglican Essentials Wales is a new movement restoring confidence in the authority of Scripture and bringing a message of hope to an embattled church."
After gaining a First in his two-year Theology BA, Mark was awarded a British Academy grant to write a thesis on The Antioch Episode of Galatians 2.11-14 in Historical and Cultural Context with John Muddiman and Maurice Casey. He was Tutor in New Testament at Cranmer Hall from 1995-2006 where his teaching focussed on Pauline Theology, the Gospels and the Apocalypse. He taught New Testament at Leeds University for three years and Romans and Charismatic Theology at St John’s College, Nottingham. Mark currently teaches MA courses in Acts and Charismatic Theology and an Introduction to Free Church History and Ministry for the Free Church Track at Cranmer Hall.
Kings is linked to Ichthus Christian Fellowship in London, led by Roger and Faith Forster. It has grown into a missional church with strong community involvement and training programmes and with a large student ministry. For six years Mark was a trustee of UCCF – The Christian Unions, has run the Christian Leaders’ Forum in the North East, currently chairs the Regional inter-church body, North East Churches Acting Together, and represents the New and Independent Churches on the Church Leaders’ Group for the North East.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-bonnington-67972159
Gillian Boughton teaches in the Durham Department of Theology and Religion as an Honorary Fellow, directing the MA module Literature and Religion. She was a Resident Tutor at St John's from 1983 - 1985 when studying for a Durham M Litt (later commuted into a PhD). She was elected Staff Representative on the St John's College Council from 1988 until 2000.
She worked in St John’s College as Assistant and then Acting Senior Tutor from 1994 until 2000 alongside teaching in the Department of English Studies, completing her PhD in Durham in 1995: a diplomatic and critical edition of six unpublished 1860s MSS narratives by Mary Arnold, later Mrs Humphry Ward. Gillian is a founder member of the International Society for Literary Juvenilia and organised three of the current total of six international conferences in Durham,. Her more recent writing related to the Department of Theology teaching and interests have concerned the poetry of Stevie Smith and Elizabeth Jennings.
From 2000 until December 2013 she held the post of Vice-Principal and, as interregnum, Acting Principal of St Mary's College. Here, she had a special pastoral involvement with the Durham Afghan Scholarship scheme.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-boughton-0212138
Rich is an independent education advisor and researcher. He has wide experience of adult vocational learning, and has worked extensively with young adults with special needs, the manufacturing industry and the NHS. As education advisor to the Northern Deanery (2003-2012) he supported the postgraduate medical education of doctors through faculty development, educational quality assurance, leadership and innovation. He currently leads the development of postgraduate medical education in Juba, South Sudan, where he is Honorary Professor of Medical Education Planning, Dean of the newly established College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education.
Rich spends around four months a year in Juba, where he works with the Ministry of Health and with staff of Juba Teaching Hospital. Developing active support networks in Eastern Africa, the UK and more widely is just one of his priorities. Back in the UK, he works with his colleague Dr Jamie Harrison to develop the Centre for Healthcare Resourcing at St John's College, Durham. He also teaches on the Master's course in clinical education at Newcastle University. His doctorate in medical education explored how operating theatre practice can enable and constrain learning.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-bregazzi-58a9a57b
Dr Peter Brierley is a statistician who formerly directed Christian Research. He has been collecting and analysing church statistics for 50 years, serving now as a church consultant. In particular he has had the privilege of organising and analysing the results of 10 church Censuses, four in England (1979, 1989, 1998 and 2005), four in Scotland (1984, 1994, 2002 and 2016), Wales in 1982 and London in 2012, as well as multiple church/Christian/agency surveys. The results have all been published, the most recent two in Capital Growth (London) and Growth Amidst Decline (Scotland).
After serving in the Cabinet Office as Head of the Survey Control Unit and in other ways, he moved to become Programme Director of the Bible Society and thence to head up the research organisations MARC Europe and Christian Research. His work as a church consultant continues the previous publications Religious Trends giving multiple church statistics in producing thus far four editions of UK Church Statistics. He also continues to produce a bi-monthly free publication FutureFirst taken by hundreds of church leaders.
https://www.brierleyconsultancy.com/
Melody is a PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield, and a former tutor at St John’s College, Durham. She has worked in theological education for over 20 years, in a range of church, academic, and mission contexts. Her current work has a particular focus on how children read scripture, drawing on her academic background in the fields of both theology and children’s literature. Her goal is to use her research to help develop the way the church resources children and young people reading scripture.
She currently teaches Historical Theology and Mission Studies at Kings Church, Durham, building on her experience teaching such modules as Christian Identity & Tradition, The Theology of Youth Work, and Interpreting the Bible at St John's College. She has a number of publications under her belt, including the co-written book Living for God. Studies for Disciples in the 21st Century, and articles such as The Boy who Lived and Died for the Wizarding World: Concepts of Salvation in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Reshuffling Representations of Reality: Responses of a 21st Century Child to Early 20th Century Texts.
Peter attended St John’s College from 1971 to 1974, and from 1976 to 1977 attended the Graduate Society (as it then was) to do an MA in Classics. Then followed a career in educational librarianship and history teaching, before he set up his own company, Appian Way Software Ltd, in 1988. This specialised in publishing history resources for secondary schools. In 1997, he merged Appian Way with a larger company called Actis Ltd as Managing Director, which produced online content for education. In 2001 the company was taken over by a large financial services firm who wanted to invest in education.
Peter worked as a consultant on various history-related projects for several years, producing resource for such clients as the National Archives, English Heritage, the British Film Institute, Barings Bank Archives, the London Grid, the East of England Broadband Network and the South East Grid for Learning. In 2007, he set up his current company, Timemaps, with the specific brief to create an online atlas for world history. He continued with his consultancy work for several years, but since 2012 has concentrated full-time on the Timemaps projects.
https://www.timemaps.com/
Although more widely known as the 'Story Keepers man', Brian D Brown insists he is just another Methodist minister called to preach the gospel. During four searing years as Secretary for Younger School Leavers for the Student Christian Movement in Schools in the North West, his concern to communicate to the church-alienated, Biblically illiterate young became acute. In the 1980s, he established the Television Research Unit at Oxford Polytechnic where he advised BBC and ITV on their religious and children’s output.
The unprecedented worldwide success of the Story Keepers on TV and video took everyone by surprise. 29% audience share; 49% of 4-9 year olds watching TV, viewing at least one of the thirteen episodes aired on ITV on Sunday mornings when the natural Sunday School-attending audience was in Junior Church; transmission on all the main channels in Europe and throughout the USA. Story Keepers was followed by the 39 episode series Friends and Heroes, like Story Keepers conceived in Oxford and produced by Brian and his writing teams in Hollywood. He is currently creating an interactive podcast for the BBC entitled Fire in Rome, and a graphic novel for young people entitled Underground Story.
Kate was ordained in 2001, after seven very happy years as a secondary school English teacher in Yorkshire. Following a curacy in Ripon, she worked as Associate Priest at St Oswald’s Durham and was Chaplain to Van Mildert and Trevelyan Colleges, Durham University. Following this she was appointed as Chaplain to St John’s College, a post she combined with PhD research as Fellow in Preaching with CODEC which included teaching preaching and apologetics at Cranmer Hall. She took up her post as Deputy Warden and Tutor in Homiletics in April 2013 and was awarded her doctoral thesis on imagination and preaching in 2014.
Kate teaches, researches and writes about preaching, leading courses and day conferences in preaching. She has been a full time RAF chaplain since May 2018 and enjoys meeting new people and experiencing service life.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-bruce-39b480168
Dr Jocelyn Bryan has spent over twenty years working in ministerial formation at St John’s College. She joined the tutorial staff of the Wesley Study Centre in 1999 taking responsibility for the Foundation Training Programme and then became its Director Of Studies in 2008. From 2009 Jocelyn was appointed Director of Postgraduate Studies at Cranmer Hall, overseeing both the MATM and DThM programmes. In January 2017 she became Academic Dean and a Cranmer Hall Officer. Throughout this time, she has taught extensively in the field of practical and pastoral theology, drawing on her particular expertise in psychology which is the discipline of her PhD.
Over the past thirty years Jocelyn has served the Methodist Church and more recently the Church of England in lay ministry. She was a Methodist Local Preacher from 1992-2014 and served on the Faith and Order Committee of the Methodist Church from 2002-2013. In 2016 she became a licensed Reader in the Church of England and is currently licensed to Easington Deanery. Jocelyn continues to teach Psychology and Christian Ministry and Issues in Pastoral Ministry at Cranmer Hall. She also teaches a module on the MA programme at ETF Leuven.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelyn-bryan-35978342
Revd Dr Graham Buxton is an ordained Anglican with extensive pastoral experience in both the UK and Australia. Prior to ordination, he was a lay pastor in an Anglican church in the north of England, following earlier careers as a marketing executive in the oil industry, and a lecturer in a university business school. In 1991, he took up a teaching position at Tabor Adelaide, where he was instrumental in developing the postgraduate program at the School of Ministry, Theology and Culture.
Now ‘retired’, Graham was the inaugural Director of the Graeme Clark Research Institute at Tabor Adelaide, an initiative established at the college to conduct, facilitate and promote research and development in the broad context of Christian service to the community. He taught in the areas of practical theology, pastoral ministry and the science-theology interface. Graham is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Theology at Flinders University, a Visiting Fellow at St John’s College, Durham University in the UK, a Fellow of ISCAST (Institute for the Study of Christianity in an Age of Science and Technology and now teaches as a professor in the School of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, USA.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-buxton-96568b53
Jason Byassee is a full professor and the inaugural holder of the Butler Chair in Homiletics and Biblical Hermeneutics at the Vancouver School of Theology in British Columbia. His primary vocation is to reinvigorate today’s church with the best of ancient and contemporary wisdom for creatively faithful living. At VST, he directs the summer school program and the school’s joint PhD program with Durham University. He teaches subjects as various as preaching, biblical interpretation, leadership, church history, and writing.
Jason studied at Davidson College and Duke University in his native North Carolina, and earned a Ph.D. in systematic theology from the latter in 2005. He is also a contributing editor to Christian Century magazine, where he served in Chicago as an assistant editor from 2004-2008. He has served previously as a Fellow in Theology and Leadership at Duke Divinity School and as a Research Fellow in the New Media Project at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He is a visiting fellow of St. John’s College and of the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. He is the author or editor of eighteen books, including, most recently, Northern Lights: Resurrecting Church in the North of England.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbyassee
Miro Cafolla
After working for the University of Rome, Oxford and Cambridge, Miro is currently based in Durham where he conducts experimental research on nanoscience and nanotechnology. His background is wide and includes a solid knowledge of both biomedical sciences and of physics and chemistry. His research is indeed interdisciplinary and focuses on different areas including friction and lubrication, electromagnetic phenomena like skyrmions and multiferroics, as well as pharmacology on model systems and on voluntary subjects. It aims to answer questions in fundamental science, and develop new medical devices and technological applications.
Rt. Revd Graham Cray is an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of York, where he is Diocesan Advocate for Pioneer Ministry and Fresh Expressions of Church, and Chair of the Oversight Group for Wydale Hall. Graham was the Principal of Ridley Hall theological college in Cambridge before being appointed Bishop of Maidstone in 2001. He left this ministry in 2008 when he was appointed Archbishop's Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions. He chaired the working group which produced Mission-shaped Church and has contributed to several other books regarding the future of the Church including Mission-shaped Youth, The Future of the Parish System and Making Sense of Generation Y.
Graham read theology at Leeds University and at St John’s College, Nottingham. As well as his role as a Visiting Fellow at John's, he is a Governor of the London School of Theology, and Chair of the Soul Survivor Trust.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-cray-99106621
After reading Theology as an undergraduate in Cambridge and a post-graduate in Oxford, Susie returned to the North East and served her Curacy on Teesside. After a spell as an Interim Minister in Billingham she spent five year in Sunderland parish alongside serving as College Chaplain. Since 2018, Susie has lived in central Derby where she has supported local parishes and theological education, alongside her role as an external Trustee for the SJCR, and as a Bishop's Advisor.
Maggi Dawn is an author and theologian. She began her professional life as a singer-songwriter, but later after reading for a degree and a PhD in theology at the University of Cambridge, she turned her creative talents to writing books. After eight years at Yale University, Maggi returned to the UK as Professor of Theology and Principal of St Mary’s College, Durham University. She teaches courses on Songwriting, Poetry for Ministry, Coleridge and the Bible, Designing and Curating Worship, and Performative Theology. Her books include The Accidental Pilgrim, which traces the history of pilgrimage within a theological memoir.
https://maggidawn.net/
Andreas Dettwiler studied Theology at the Universities of Bern and Tübingen (Germany). He would later become assistant professor of the New Testament at the University of Neuchâtel, then at the University of Zurich. Between 1997 and 2004, he was professor of the New Testament at the University of Neuchâtel, where he notably assumed the responsibilities of director of the Romand Institute of hermeneutics and systematics (IRHS), vice-dean, and then dean (2003-2004). Since 2004, he has been teaching the New Testament at the University of Geneva, where he notably served as vice-dean (2005-2009) and dean (2009-2013) of the Faculty of Theology.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreas-dettwiler-99606b14
Nancy worked in the charity sector for 15 years – most recently as Chief Executive of Oasis Community Housing - before joining Virgin Money Foundation in 2016 as its Executive Director. She brings extensive knowledge of how charities effect change within local communities. As well as her role as a Visiting Fellow at John's, Nancy is a Trustee of The Common Room of the Great North. She graduated from Oxford University and has a postgraduate certificate in Charity Finance and Accountancy.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancy-doyle-hall-68257630
John Drane has spent much of his adult life wrestling with the challenge of being a Christian in a rapidly changing culture, and has written many books on missional topics, including The McDonaldization of the Church, Do Christians know how to be Spiritual? and After McDonaldization: Mission, Ministry & Christian discipleship in an age of uncertainty – as well as three best-selling books on the Bible which have been translated into more than sixty languages.
For more than twenty years he has played a leading role in ecumenical thinking and action on mission, and is co-chair of the Mission Theology Advisory Group of the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England and of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, as well as being a member of the UK and Scottish boards of Fresh Expressions. His pastoral experience includes involvement in the care of children and parents at the time of the school massacre in Dunblane in March 1996, at which time he was teaching Religious Studies in the University of Stirling. Since then he has taught at the University of Aberdeen, and is currently affiliate professor of New Testament and Practical Theology in Fuller Seminary, California.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-drane-79572518
Olive Fleming Drane is chaplain at International Christian College in Glasgow. After a career in research physics, she studied theology and the arts at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and is also a graduate in practical theology of the University of Aberdeen, as well as being affiliate professor of evangelism in the School of Theology of Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, California. She is the author of numerous articles and contributions to symposia and also of Clowns, Storytellers, Disciples, Spirituality to Go: rituals and reflections for everyday living and, with John Drane, Family Fortunes: Faith-full caring for Today’s Families. She is a member of the Scottish board of Fresh Expressions, and has also contributed to the development of course materials. Olive is a regular speaker on new forms of church at conferences and other events.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olive-fleming-drane-96488043
Rae Earnshaw is Professor of Electronic Imaging at the University of Bradford since 1995 (now Emeritus). He gained his PhD at the University of Leeds and is a chartered engineer and chartered information technology professional. He was Dean of the School of Informatics (1999-2007) and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Strategic Systems Development) (2004-09). He has been a Visiting Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology, George Washington University, USA, and Northwestern Polytechnical University, China. He is a member of ACM, IEEE, CGS, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society and the Institute of Physics. He has authored and edited 43 books on computer graphics, visualization, multimedia, design, and virtual reality, and published over 200 papers in these areas. He is on a number of Editorial Boards of international journals and is a Top Management Programme Fellow of the Leadership Foundation. In his role as Pro Vice-Chancellor, he led a broad range of 60 linked projects over 5 years which developed the University’s electronic information and communications capability and infrastructure. Although playing a significant role in academic leadership and management over the past 15 years, he has maintained his research and publication record and has been included in all the RAEs/REFs since 1996.
https://raearnshaw.co.uk/
Richard Everett was educated at Mill Hill public school in the 1960s. Immediately after leaving he became an actor, appearing many times on London’s West End stage and on Broadway, New York. He also worked in films, on television and on radio before forming The Upstream Theatre Company near London’s South Bank, where he was Artistic Director for 3 years in the late 1970’s. He also helped to set up the now established Riding Lights Theatre Company in York.
Richard then turned to writing and is the author of 7 published stage plays, including the much-acclaimed Entertaining Angels. Richard also has 200 animation scripts to his credit, including the BAFTA-nominated Joseph for the BBC’s Testament Series. He has written 2 feature films, 3 plays for BBC radio 4, and a published collection of award winning sketches and meditations. Richard has spent 5 years running weekly drama workshops for Additional Needs Adults with the L’Arche community. A short film he made with them, The Most Important Person in the World, won 3rd place at a film festival in Poznan, Poland.
https://richardeverett.co.uk/
Having begun musical studies at an early age, David held his first parish church organist post at 15 and has been deeply involved with church music ever since. He became Organ Exhibitioner of St John’s College, Oxford and spent a further postgraduate year in at Clare College, Cambridge. In 1978, he was appointed Assistant Organist at Canterbury Cathedral, a post he held for eight years. He has made several recordings and has appeared on radio and television as well as performances in Cathedrals, churches and concert halls.
In 1986, he was appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers at Lincoln Cathedral and, after two enjoyable years, returned to Canterbury in 1988 as Organist and Master of the Choristers. Annually since August 1997, he has hosted an American Children’s Choir Festival. In 1999, he visited Australia and New Zealand to direct residential choir courses and give recitals and made his first appearance as conductor at the Berkshire Choral Festival in Massachusetts, USA. In 2008, he made his first appearance as director of the Washington All-State Symphonic Choir. In July 2002, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Music by the University of Kent.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-flood-44583a15
Will Foulger is vicar at St Nicholas Church in Durham city-centre. During his four years at Cranmer Hall he taught mission and evangelism and missional entrepreneurship at BA, and mission and ecclesiology and theological Reflection at MA, alongside supervising students at BA, MA and DThM level. He led on the establishing of the Centre for Church Planting Theology and Research, serving as director for 18 months. CCPTR exists to carry out original theological-empirical research into church planting activity within the UK. In 2023 Will organised and led an international conference on church planting theology, which saw over 60 delegates come to Durham. His book, ‘Present in Every Place: The Church of England’s New Churches and the Future of the Parish’, was published by SCM Press in 2023.
Before moving back to Durham in 2019 to take up the role at Cranmer Will was part of a team that planted Trinity Church Nottingham, a city-centre resource church. His ordination training took place at Cranmer Hall (2013-2016) during which time he completed by DThM on new churches as they relate to the parish structure within the CoE. Prior to ordination Will was a Secondary Religious Studies teacher in South East London. He completed my MA at Princeton Seminary in New Jersey, and his undergraduate degree at St Andrews University in Scotland. He has a wife, Vikki and four children: Iris and Jonah, Jesse, and Huck.
James Francis grew up in Aberdeenshire and studied classics and then theology at Edinburgh University and Yale Divinity School. While training for ministry at Edinburgh he was influenced by the worker-priest movement of Roland Walls and the Community of the Transfiguration at Roslin. He was for a number of years parish minister of Coldingham Priory with St Abbs, Berwickshire, in the Church of Scotland. In 1987, he became a non-stipendiary minister of the Church of England in the Diocese of Durham.
He taught New Testament Studies at Sunderland University, while serving in two parishes in Sunderland (St Chad’s East Herrington and Sunderland Minster). He was latterly principal of the Durham Diocese Ordained Local Ministry Course, and was the founder and director of a diocesan adult learning programme called “Living Theology Today”. He is a non-residentiary canon (emeritus) of Durham Cathedral. He was for eighteen years the Durham Diocese Adviser for Self-Supporting Ministry. Jim has written, co-edited and contributed to a number of books and articles on self-supporting ministry, and on childhood in the ancient world and the New Testament. He also edits a book series Religions and Discourse for Peter Lang Publishers.
Heinz studied modern languages at Bonn and Toulouse and after completing his PhD he decided to become a librarian. He has spent most of his professional life in academic libraries. Through his work, he came in contact with Cambridge University and was elected to a visiting fellowship at Sidney Sussex College in 1997. He has extensive experience in both alumni relations and development as a volunteer. Heinz's link with St John’s comes through his son, Matthias, who studied for a Master of Science degree in psychology at Durham. Heinz has since contributed to College by teaching, tutoring and consulting in the fields of alumni relations and fundraising.
Richard Giles grew up in Birmingham and gained degrees in town planning and theology at Newcastle University. After training at Cuddesdon, he served as a priest in the Midlands and the North of England before becoming parish development officer and canon theologian for the Diocese of Wakefield, working with parishes to rethink and redesign their buildings as part of mission strategy. His particular expertise in the design of liturgical space bore fruit in the publication of Re-Pitching the Tent, now in its third edition, Creating Uncommon Worship (2004) and Times and Seasons (2008). Other titles include Mark my Word (1995), How to be an Anglican (2003), Here I Am (2006), At Heaven’s Gate (2010) and Walk in this Light (2013). From 1999 to 2008 he was Dean of Philadelphia Cathedral in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, USA, where he oversaw the radical renovation of the cathedral to become a place of transformative worship.
Michael recently retired as Academic Registrar of Durham University, having been responsible for a very broad range of institution‐wide responsibilities and having taken on national roles such as chair of the Academic Registrars Council. Prior to Durham, Michael was Director of Governance, Planning and Registry at the University of Leicester, and before that he taught in the philosophy faculty at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in Rome and served as the Vice-Rector of the Venerable English College there.
Michael is a member of Durham University’s Centre for Catholic Studies. His current research in applied theology reflects on his experience as a ‘bureaucrat’, asking questions that are pertinent to contexts such as education, the public sector, charity administration and church bureaucracy. From a Christian perspective, beyond being efficient and effective, what could redeem bureaucracy, as a human construction, so that it could mediate divine purpose and enable human flourishing?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmichaelgilmore/
David Goodhew joined the staff of Cranmer Hall in 2008, as Director of Ministerial Practice. David acted as the ‘bridge’ between academic study and local church ministry and mission; overseeing the large placement programme and contributing to teaching church history, practical theology and a number of other courses. He is experienced both in local church leadership and academic life. Prior to Cranmer, David was Vicar of St Oswald’s Church, Fulford, York. Before York, David was Fellow and Chaplain of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. David has published widely in the fields of modern British church history and South African social and religious history. David edited the academic study Church Growth in Britain, 1980 to the Present Day. In addition, along with Michael Volland and Andrew Roberts, David wrote Fresh! An Introduction to Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry. He has edited a volume entitled Towards a Theology of Church Growth. He has also co-edited a book entitled The Desecularisation of the City: London’s Churches, 1980 to the Present. David is now Vicar of St Barnabas, Middlesbrough.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-goodhew-81728623
After gaining a degree in theology and a PGCE at St John’s, Durham, Andrew worked as a youth worker for churches in Hull and Chester-le-Street, then did research in the theology of family at the College of St Paul and St Mary in Cheltenham. In 1995 Andrew joined the BBC as a producer in the Religion and Ethics department, then became Development Executive responsible for the commissioning of religious programmes across BBC radio and TV. After leaving the BBC, he worked as a media analyst and communications consultant, then became Director of The Church and Media Network.
Andrew appears regularly as a commentator on BBC Radio 5 Live and has written and presented countless short talks. He led the multi-faith chaplaincy team serving the 27,000-strong media cohort at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He is chair of The Charnwood Trust, an educational charity based in the North West, and the Music Plus Trust, a UK-wide arts education and community development charity. Andrew’s major research interest is in the way that digital culture is changing perceptions of personhood. He was awarded an MA from Manchester University in 2012 and is reading for a doctorate in Durham.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-graystone-6163807
Robin was born in Scarborough and spent his childhood in Boston Spa. He prepared for ordination in the Anglican Church at St Chad’s College, University of Durham. His doctoral studies were supervised by David F. Ford. Robin has taken a leading part in learning events in Australia, Kenya, New York, New Zealand, San Francisco and Sweden. He has served as a Co-Director of the Edward King Institute for Ministerial Development. He has been a Board Member of Lindisfarne (Regional Training Partnership), acted as a vocational adviser in Bishops’ Advisory Panels and as part of the Church of England’s Quality Assurance and Enhancement in Ministerial Education processes for Colleges and Courses.
As a practical ecclesiologist, Robin’s approach intentionally interweaves scriptural, theological, psycho-dynamic, spirituality and community development insights. In his work as William Leech Research Fellow at St John's, Robin engaged over a two period with six churches across the ecumenical spectrum in the North East. With the theological focus of living in God’s blessing and becoming an agent of blessing, Robin encouraged church communities and their leaders to rediscover their identity and purpose within their locality.
Jamie Harrison is a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and Research Fellow in Healthcare and Religion at St John's College, Durham University. He was until recently a GP Specialist Adviser to the English Care Quality Commission. Previously he was Deputy Director of the North East Postgraduate School of Primary Care, and a GP Adviser to the Department of Health from 2001 until 2006. Following his appointment as a Sir William Leech Fellow in Applied Christian Theology (2012-2013) he established the Centre for Healthcare Resourcing at St John's College. Among many Church roles, Jamie is Chair of the House of Laity of the Church of England's General Synod, which he has been a member of since 1995.
Jamie has written widely on vocation, clinical governance, medical careers, the NHS, and the nature of trust. With Professor Tim van Zwanenberg, he received the 2000 Baxter Award of the European Health Management Association for their book Clinical Governance in Primary Care. He contributed to the Department of Health Report of the Working Group on Doctors Working in Prisons, 2001, and to Good Medical Practice for Doctors providing Primary Care Services in Prison, 2003.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-harrison-90991166
Mrs Anne Harrison is an Oxford music graduate with an MA in Music and Liturgy from the University of Leeds; she was Music Co-ordinator at St John’s College with Cranmer Hall, Durham, in the 1990s, and then worked for the Royal School of Church Music, spending ten years editing the RSCM's liturgy planner Sunday by Sunday. She also served on the Durham Diocesan Liturgical Committee for a number of years and has belonged to GROW (the Group for the Renewal of Worship) since 1998.
A member of the Executive Committee of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland and a trustee of the Song and Hymn Writers Foundation (which supports the work of the Jubilate Group and Resound Worship), she chaired the editorial team for the hymn book supplement Sing Praise and helped to produce Ancient and Modern: Hymns and Songs for Refreshing Worship. She has written two Grove booklets on congregational song and is music editor for the quarterly Praxis News of Worship. One of her particular interests is the sung worship of the Taizé Community.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-harrison-464949117
Michael Harvey is the developer of Back to Church Sunday, which started in 2004 which started with 160 participating churches in one city and has now developed into the National Weekend of Invitation. Over that period, 25,000 churches have participated in eighteen countries across five continents. He is an international speaker and author of the books Unlocking the Growth, Creating a Culture of Invitation in your Church, and Invitation to Heal. He is currently researching fear, identity and healing in the context of mission.
Michael has an executive MBA and considerable expertise in taking an idea and making it a reality. He was asked to investigate the compatibility of science and faith on behalf of the Diocese of Manchester. As a result, he founded God and the Big Bang, and has developed it over the past eight years. He has connections with diocesan schools through his work with diocesan bishops and the diocesan directors of education network. God and the Big Bang has delivered 142 events seeing 18,000 students. Michael with his team has developed an outstanding faculty of speakers which is continually being renewed. During the lockdown he led the development on-line courses for schools and teachers.
https://www.unlockingthegrowth.com/
Rev Dr Rob Haynes is an author, speaker, teacher, pastor, theologian, and missiologist. His work focuses upon local and global mission and evangelism, forming disciples for missional service, and leadership development in new and existing church communities. He has a keen interest in fostering new spaces for conversations of faith and culture. Since 1996, he has served as a teacher and a pastor. He is a seasoned mission leader and continues to research contemporary mission movements. This experience and research is leading to new ways of engaging in mission and evangelism.
He completed a BSci in education at the University of South Alabama, an MA in biblical and theological studies at the University of Mobile, his seminary training at Asbury Theological Seminary, and a PhD in theology at Durham University. He is a senior John Wesley Fellow and senior Harry Denman Fellow. In addition to his work with World Methodist Evangelism as Director of Education and Leadership, Rob serves as the Teaching Pastor at Christ Wesleyan Church on the Alabama Gulf Coast.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drrobhaynes/
Currently researching and writing on the subject of worship as encounter with God, others and self, Janet is the Spiritual and Pastoral Care Manager at St Michael’s Hospice, Harrogate, overseeing social work, occupational and complementary therapy and chaplaincy. She has been Archdeacon of Richmond in North Yorkshire, a residentiary Canon at Ripon Cathedral, a parish priest in Nottingham, a lecturer in Liturgy with the Cambridge Theological Federation and at St John’s College, Nottingham, and a renal and haematology nurse at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. She has also served as a Director on the Council of St John’s College, Durham, and as a Trustee of Marrick Priory, an outdoor adventure and education centre in Swaledale. She has been involved with a number of Fresh Expressions and was one of the founding trustees of Kairos Network Church in Harrogate. .
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janet-henderson-21a22948
Richard studied Classics at St John's College, Cambridge, before coming to Durham to study for a PGCE and then a PhD in the Department of Theology and Religion. His thesis was published as Arator on the Acts of the Apostles: A Baptismal Commentary (Oxford, 1993). After four years’ teaching at Durham School, in 1991 he became Head of Classics and then Housemaster at Repton School, where he and Elaine remained until 2006 when he became Headmaster of The Oratory Prepatory School in Oxfordshire and then, from 2010 to 2017, of The Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey.
Richard resumed his study of late-antique Latin literature in earnest when invited in 2010 to give a paper on Arator and baptismal liturgy at a conference on Early Roman Liturgy in Oxford. He has since given and published further papers and articles, and translated Arator’s Historia Apostolica for the series Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpool, 2020). Current projects include an article on the reception of Arator in Anglo-Saxon England, a translation of Ennodius’ Discourses and Declamations (again for Translated Texts for Historians), and a new edition for Oxford University Press of the hymns added to the Milanese Hymnal in the 7th and 8th centuries.
Dr Purba Hossain is a historian of colonial South Asia. She holds a BA and MA in History from Presidency University, Kolkata (India) and a PhD in History from the University of Leeds. Her research interests include histories of labour and migration, urban history, and social histories of colonial India. She interrogates how voices from nineteenth-century Calcutta – the capital of British India – contributed to debates on the employment of Indian indentured labourers in Caribbean and Indian Ocean plantations. Her research has been published in the Journal of South Asian Studies and the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, and as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Historical Research (London), she is completing her first monograph on Indian contributions to global indenture debates.
Her interest in the historical entanglement between commodities, plantations and empires has also led her to editing Across Colonial Lines: Commodities, Networks, and Empire Building (under contract with Bloomsbury Academic). During her time at Durham, Purba would love to engage with historians of South Asia and imperial history, as well as scholars of South Asia and colonialism across the departments of English, Anthropology and Geography.
Canon David Kennedy is Vice-Dean and Precentor of Durham Cathedral. He read Theology at St John’s College, Durham, trained for the ministry at St John’s College, Nottingham, and after curacies in Spennymoor and Kirk Merrington taught Liturgy and Spirituality for 9 years at The Queen's College, Birmingham. He returned to the North East in 1996 as Rector of Haughton-le-Skerne in Darlington and was appointed to the Cathedral as a Residentiary Canon in 2001. He is a member of the Church of England Liturgical Commission, Chair of PRAXIS and Chair of Durham Diocesan Liturgical Committee. He also undertakes teaching in the Department of Theology and Religion, Cranmer Hall & the Wesley Studies Centre and the Durham Reader Training Course.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kennedy-14a51633
David Lindon Lammy, FRSA is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tottenham, first winning the seat for Labour in 2000. He studied law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, obtaining a first-class degree, before studying an LL.M. at Harvard Law School. In 2002, David became Parliamentary under-Secretary in the Department of Health, and in 2003, he was appointed as a Minister in the Department for Constitutional Affairs. Since then, he has served as Minister for Culture, Minister in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, and Minister for Higher Education. After Labour lost the 2010 general election, David turned down a post in the Shadow Cabinet and asserted a need to speak on a wide range of issues that would arise in his constituency due to the cuts in the public services that his constituents rely on. In November 2011, he published a book – Out of the Ashes: Britain after the Riots – that serves as his account on the causes and consequences of the August 2011 riots.
https://www.davidlammy.co.uk/
Canon Dr George Lings is an ordained Anglican and a leading thinker on church planting. He wrote the first draft of Mission-shaped Church, and now speaks on these subject areas at home and abroad. He became an honorary Canon of Sheffield Cathedral in 2010. Since leaving parish ministry in 1997, he was employed by Church Army to direct its Research Unit, until his retirement in 2017. He is currently leading research into the size and nature of ‘fresh expressions of church’ within the Church of England, sponsored by the Archbishops Council.
He lectures at various theological colleges and national and diocesan conferences and has contributed chapters to various books and journals, such as edited by Steven Croft, John Drane and David Goodhew. He writes the occasional Grove Booklet, often with Anabaptist friend Stuart Murray. His 2008 Ph.D. contends that the nature of the church includes the calling and capacity to reproduce and should be modified to include this. The case is argued from Trinitarian and Incarnational understandings, as well as themes in Scripture, and elements of the Christian tradition.
David Marshall is a priest in the Church of England and a scholar in the field of Islamic Studies. After undergraduate studies in Modern Languages and then Theology at Oxford University, and a couple of years working with homeless people, he studied for a Master’s in Islamic Studies at Birmingham University. After ordination training at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and a curacy in Leeds, David returned to Birmingham for doctoral studies on the Qur’an.
He has since served in a variety of contexts, including as a parish priest, Chaplain of Exeter College, Oxford, Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and on the staff of the World Council of Churches in Geneva. He has for 20 years served as the Academic Director of the Building Bridges Seminar for Muslim and Christian scholars. However, most of David's work has been in the field of theological education. He has taught at St Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya, Edinburgh University, Georgetown University, and Duke Divinity School. He currently teaches at the University of Bern and assists his wife Helen in her ministry as Anglican Chaplain in Bern.
Professor Jolyon Mitchell specialises in Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding, with particular reference to the arts and media. Educated at the Universities of Cambridge (Selwyn), Durham (St John’s) and Edinburgh, Jolyon worked as a Producer and Journalist with BBC World service and Radio 4 before moving to the University of Edinburgh. He is currently Director of CTPI and a former President of TRS-UK. He is author of many books, chapters and articles, including Promoting Peace and Inciting Violence: The Role of Religion and Media (Routledge, 2012); Martyrdom: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2012); Religion and War: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2021) and Media Violence and Christian Ethics (CUP, 2007). His most recent edited book is The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Peace (2022).
Ordained within the Scottish Episcopal Church, Jolyon has served as an NSM at a number of churches for nearly three decades, including St James, Leith and currently St John’s, Edinburgh. He has also served on international film juries at the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals. He directs a number of projects on Peacebuilding, including one which led to the widely used co-edited volume on Peacebuilding and the Arts (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020).
Born and raised in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe, Cathrine moved to the UK for a one-year experience of monastic life for young people in London. She moved to Durham to train for ministry at Cranmer Hall.
Cathrine has a background in purchasing and logistics, and administration. Ordained a Priest in July 2021, Cathrine is serving her curacy in the North downs Team in the Diocese of Canterbury. She has contributed to the Modern Believing Journal (Autumn issue) on Ubuntu and Leadership. Cathrine is currently a member of the Lambeth Conference 2022 Design Group.
Revd Canon Dr Ashley Null is an internationally respected scholar on the grace and gratitude theology of the English Reformation. Holding a MDiv and STM from Yale and a PhD and BD form the University of Cambridge, Ashley has received numerous academic awards for his work, including Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim fellowships as well as being elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries in London. He currently holds a research post funded by the German Research Council at Humboldt University of Berlin.
In addition to his scholarly activities, Ashley is an ordained Episcopal priest, Canon Theologian of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Kansas as well as the Anglican Diocese of Egypt. Finally, he serves as a chaplain to elite athletes and coaches. He is the author of Real Joy: Freedom to be Your Best and served for six years as chairman of the Major Sport Event Chaplaincy Commission. Ashley himself is a veteran Olympic chaplain, serving most recently at Rio 2016. In Berlin, he sits on the board of directors for the Arne Friedrich Foundation.
Glenn Packiam is one of the associate senior pastors at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the lead pastor of New Life Downtown, a congregation of New Life Church. He is the author of Discover the Mystery of Faith, LUCKY: How the Kingdom Comes to Unlikely People, Secondhand Jesus: Trading Rumors of God for a Firsthand Faith, and Butterfly in Brazil: How Your Life Can Make a World of Difference. He was one of the founding leaders and songwriters for the Desperation Band and has been featured on several Desperation Band and NewLifeWorship recordings. He has also released three solo projects with Integrity Music, "The Mystery of Faith", "The Kingdom Comes", and "Rumors and Revelations".
Glenn has spoken at many conferences for pastors and worship leaders, and has taught seminars, modules, and chapel services at Biola University, Asbury Seminary, Calvin College, and Trinity School for Ministry. He earned a Doctorate in Theology and Ministry from Durham University. He also holds a BA in Theological/Historical Studies and Masters in Management from Oral Roberts University, and a Graduate Certificate in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is an ordained priest with the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA).
https://www.glennpackiam.com/
Roddy was a History and Classics undergraduate in John’s Hall from 2003–06, where he was an active participant in the JCR, eventually being elected JCR President. Graduating with a 2.1, he worked as a project manager before training as an actor. having been awarded the Laurence Olivier bursary at the Bristol Old Vic. In the past decade he has toured to Toronto and around Australia with Theatre Royal Bath’s stage version of North By Northwest, performed in the West End, in a BBC feature film, at venues such as Bolton Octagon, Oxford Playhouse and Birmingham Rep, appeared on The Archers and recorded multiple audiobooks for the RNIB. A specialist in immersive theatre, he was the White Rabbit in Olivier nominated Alice’s Adventures Underground, invited to return as Assistant Director and taken to Shanghai to launch the transfer.
Beyond acting, Roddy hosts an annual literary festival for Stanford’s Travel, teaches drama to 5–18-year olds, English to GCSE, and has been a copywriter, graphic designer and quiz host. Alongside this, he chaired the St. John’s Society for 13 years until its absorption into the stewardship of this Council’s Development Board, where he has served for the past seven years
https://twitter.com/roddypeters
Ester received a BA and MA in Bible and Theology from the Continental Theological Seminary in Brussels, Belgium, before coming to the University of Durham to pursue a PhD. She now teaches at the Norwegian School of Leadership and Theology, specialising in Bible and Interpretation, New Testament Exegesis and Theology.
Victor is of Ukrainian decent but was born in Belorussia and raised in Latvia (now a Latvian citizen). He came to England to study at London School of Theology (former London Bible College), Brunel University (BA in Theology and MTh in Theology). He subsequently studied at the University of Durham, UK (PhD in Church History). After finishing his studies, Victor and his wife, Ester, moved to Latvia (2006) where he is now the Director of the Latvian Biblical Centre (2008-present).
In 2010-present, Victor was appointed Senior Lecturer for Graduate Studies and Extraordinary Research Fellow at Northwest University (RSA) & Greenwich School of Theology (UK). In 2011-present, he was also appointed Associate Professor at the Norwegian School of Leadership and Theology, Oslo, Norway. His research interests have focused on Russian Orthodox Church, Theology of Icons, Church History (Protestant & Evangelical in Eastern European Context), and Historical Theology. His teaching includes the following subjects: Church History, Dogmatics and Christian Initiation.
Born in Pity Me, County Durham, Joe Plumb trained as a Catholic priest, serving at Our Blessed Lady Immaculate in Washington Village. In 2000, he left the North East to embark on a new mission, joining the Catholic Church in Peru. He dedicated himself to helping Peruvians living in grinding poverty in Iquitos, known as the capital of the Peruvian Amazon, with the local parish church. He built schools and chapels, ran soup kitchens and formed a local football team to stop young kids falling into gang violence. In 2012, he started The Peru Mission, which works to alleviate extreme poverty in Iquitos where the War on Drugs, trafficking of women and children, and gang violence are all rife. He now teams up with the police and local government while still working with the Church in Iquitos. Through his work, Joe sees the dangers of the rife local sex trade first hand. Along with a group of Peruvian nuns, he works with a girls' orphanage to save young women from being preyed on by men and pushed into a life of prostitution. He is also the honorary British consul for Iquitos.
https://theperumission.org.uk
Dr Lydia Reid is a an innovative and creative sociologist with over a decade’s experience of interdisciplinary research in academia. Her research interests include: quantitative and qualitative analysis, science, religion, education, (new) atheism, humanism and ethics. Lydia published her doctoral work How Religious Students Negotiate The Secular Culture of a State University in 2017 with Edwin Mellen Press.
From 2015 to 2019, Lydia worked on the project 'Equipping Christian Leadership in An Age of Science' at St John's College working under the guidance of Revd Prof David Wilkinson, Prof Tom McLeish and Revd Dr Kathryn Pritchard. During this period, Lydia produced original academic research on church leaders' views on science - including a survey of over 1,000 clergy and 20 qualitative interviews with senior church leaders. Lydia also carried out a one year strategic piece of research focused on church educators' views on science, artificial intelligence and ministerial training. Lydia has presented her research at international conferences and published material on social scientific approaches to science and religion. Currently, she is continuing to disseminate the research from the ECLAS project.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiareid2020
Rev. Dr. Kimberly Reisman is Executive Director of World Methodist Evangelism, a ministry that equips the global Methodist/Wesleyan family of Christians for the work of evangelism. An author, pastor, teacher and theologian, Kim is a frequent speaker, focusing on evangelism, spiritual formation, women’s ministries, leadership development and the intersection between faith and culture. She is an elder in the United Methodist Church and has written numerous books and articles.
Born in Gulfport, Mississippi, Kim lived in California, Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio and Connecticut before moving to Indiana in 1993. She received a Bachelor’s Degree from Emory University, a Masters of Divinity from Yale Divinity School, and a PhD in theology from Durham University. Kim serves on the World Methodist Council Steering Committee, is a senior Harry Denman fellow, a senior John Wesley fellow and an Adjunct Professor at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, Washington, and Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-reisman-68ab3b11/
Richard Roberts BA, TEP, CTAPS is the director of Gedye and Sons, Solicitors of London and Grange over Sands. He gained a BA (Joint Hons) in Law and Politics from Durham University, and then qualified as a solicitor in 1982. His practice areas cover a wide range of work with the emphasis on trusts, contentious probate, wills and estate planning. He has a wide range of experience with both Court of Protection matters and estate administration. He was a member of the Law Society’s Wills and Equity Committee for nine years, the last three (2011-2014) as its Chair. The Committee regularly responded to Consultation Papers on all aspects of wills, probate, charity law, trusts, and associated taxation.
Richard frequently lectures to professional and lay groups alike, and since the 1st of June 2012 he has been an Honorary Fellow in the School of Law at the University of Durham, where again he lectures from time to time. Richard also writes for professional and special interest magazines, has appeared on Radio 4 and BBC television. He writes regularly for legal periodicals, primarily on the softer skills aspects such as the emotional side of dealing with probate.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-roberts-21350814
Jonathan Ruffer left Cambridge in 1972 to become a stockbroker. He trained as a barrister, and worked in the Corporate Finance Department of Schroders. In 1980 he returned to investment, first with Dunbar; on its takeover by Allied Hambro, together with Micky Ingall, they set up a new business which became Rathbones, following a merger with the Liverpool company of that name. In 1994, he left to set up Ruffer Investment Management Limited, which took partnership status as Ruffer LLP in 2004. He is also Churchwarden of St Peter’s Church, Ugley, and is a speaker both on the rubber-chicken circuit, and on Christian topics.
Jonathan has written two books: The Big Shots (1977), about rich people behaving badly in the Victoria countryside, and Babel, the Breaking of the Banks (2009), a chronicle of rich people behaving badly before and during the credit crunch. In 2017, he received an Hon D Litt. The Auckland Project and the Modern Language Department have a joint venture in the Zurbaran Centre, which has an acuerdo with a number of Spanish Institutions - the Real Academia and the Prado included.
https://www.ruffer.co.uk
Roy was born and grew up in Tyneside and North Yorkshire. He came to faith when he was training as an Outward Bound instructor in Scotland before going on to prepare for ministry at Lebanon Missionary Bible College, Berwick-upon-Tweed and University College, Cardiff. He began his church ministry at Portrack Baptist Church on Teesside, before becoming Senior Pastor at Enon Baptist Church in Sunderland. He is one of the founders of the Northumbria Community, and has been one of its leaders since 1992.
Roy works ecumenically and has served in various aspects of denominational ministry, is a former President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, and from January 2016 is working part time as the Baptist Union Coordinator for Pioneering in the North of England. He is a visiting lecturer at several colleges including Spurgeon’s College, London, South Wales Baptist College, Cardiff and the former International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague. He has worked as a consultant, associate and adviser to individuals, several church, charity and secular organisations. He is also one of the writers and contributors of the Northumbria Community’s very popular daily office, Celtic Daily Prayer.
https://northumbrianreflections.org
The Revd Dr Sarah St Leger Hills was born in South Africa, brought up in Northern Ireland, and has lived in Sheffield since the mid 1980’s. She qualified in medicine and worked as a psychiatrist, specialising in psychotherapy. She trained for ordination on the Northern Ordination Course. She was ordained in 2007, and is curate at Holy Trinity Church, Millhouses, Sheffield. She holds an MA in Theology and Pastoral Studies, which focused on the theology and psychology of reconciliation in South Africa. Her research interests also include healing in terms of the crossover between theology and medicine; and the role of supervision for clergy. Sarah is Pastoral Care Advisor to the Yorkshire Ministry Course, and serves on a Diocesan mental health working group. She is Chaplain to the RSCM Easter Courses for choristers. She is also a researcher for St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, on an apartheid memory project; and is Advisor to the Foundation for Church-Led Restitution.
Dr Muthuraj Swamy researches in the fields of Religious Studies, Theology and World Christianity with the focus on religious pluralism, interfaith relations, ecumenism, contextual theologies, religion-politics connections, and science-religion dialogue. He has degrees in Religious studies, Theology, Sociology and Political Science, and is engaged in integrating theological education with other streams of education, particularly in India. He obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in the field of Religious Studies focusing on the theme ‘Interrogating Interreligious Dialogue.’
Muthuraj is currently Director of the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide and teaches and supervises in the Cambridge Theological Federation and in the University of Cambridge. He is principal investigator of a CCCW-Tearfund research project on local churches’ response to conflicts. Formerly he was Dean of Faculty of Theology in the Union Biblical Seminary, India, where he taught in the fields of Religion and Theology. He has also been involved with interreligious organisations in India for several years. He is currently involved in various publication activities. He is the author of several articles in international journals and of the books The Problem with Interreligious Dialogue: Plurality, Conflict and Elitism in Hindu-Christian-Muslim Relationships and Reconciliation: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2019.
After his preliminary degree work at Glasgow University and Union Theological Seminary, New York City, Bill went on to pursue a doctoral programme at Cambridge in the field of New Testament studies. A subsequent period as Research Fellow and Tutor in Biblical Studies at Mansfield College, Oxford led to his appointment as Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Newcastle. He moved to the Durham Department of Theology and Religion in 2004, where he continued as a teacher and examiner in New Testament at undergraduate and postgraduate level until his retirement in 2011. He continues to engage in research and writing.
Bill’s research interests lie in the following fields, in all of which he has published: The Gospel of Mark; Pre-Synoptic Traditions; Jesus in History and Culture; Methods of Biblical Interpretation; the Bible in Fiction and Film. His publications include: Writing on the Gospel of Mark, Cinéma Divinité: The New Testament: A Short Introduction, and The Theology of the Gospel of Mark. From 1993 until 2005, Bill was Assistant Secretary and then Secretary of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS), the premier international learned society.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-r-telford-46431a1a
The Rt Revd David Thomson DPhil, FSA, FRHistS initially worked in Higher Education, lecturing at Wentworth Castle College of Education and tutoring in Oxford, before preparing for ordination in the Church of England as deacon and priest. He served as Curate in the Maltby Team Ministry, 1981–84; Team Vicar, Banbury, 1984–94; Team Rector, Cockermouth, 1994–2002; Archdeacon of Carlisle, and Canon Residentiary, 2002–08, before serving as Bishop of Huntingdon between 2008 and 2018. Between September 2013 and Easter 2015 he was seconded as Acting Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich; and for a number of years was Vice-Chairman of the National Society. He was Chair of the Cambridgeshire Historic Churches Trust, and co-founded the Cambridge Conversations.
His publications include A Descriptive Catalogue of Middle English Grammatical Texts, 1979; A Journey with John, 2004; and Ways to Pray, 2007. He remains active in academic research, most recently on the iconography of the Bewcastle Cross, newly-discovered early stained glass of Cambridge University, and the legacy of bishop-scientist Robert Grosseteste in the later middle ages. He is a Visiting Fellow in the History Department of Durham University, and also a Research Associate of the Faraday Institute based at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.
https://bpdt.wordpress.com/
Gavin Wakefield is the Director of Training for Missional Ministry for the Diocese of York, where he leads the Diocesan Training Team in its work of developing the formation of lay and clergy people. Currently he is also an external supervisor on the Durham Doctor of Theology and Ministry programme. His previous role was at Cranmer Hall for over 10 years, as Deputy Warden and the mission tutor. Before that he was in parish ministry in the dioceses of Sheffield and Chelmsford, including a spell church planting in a former mining area. Other roles include being a co-opted member of the Council for Christian Unity, and on the reference group for the Research and Statistical Department of the Church of England.
Gavin's academic interests are mainly in the area of missiology and include knotty issues in evangelism, the origins of Pentecostalism in the UK, and the development of mission in the north east of England. His recent publications include editing and contributing to Northern Gospel, Northern Church, Reflections on Identity and Mission, and the Grove booklets Doing Evangelism Ethically and The Wise Pastor: Learning from Gregory the Great's "Pastoral Rule".
https://twitter.com/revgavin
Professor Peter Ward's academic research has its origins in the practice of mission and ministry in the Christian Church. For more than 15 years, he worked as a Christian youth worker and then 5 years working as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Adviser for Youth Ministry. His doctoral research developed these concerns by examining the phenomenon of contemporary worship. He currently teaches Religion Media and Popular Culture, which is a strand in the Research Project and Colloquium second year undergraduate module. He also teaches a Masters Module in Ecclesiology and Ethnography.
In 1996, Peter joined King’s College London, where he established the DThM and the Masters Programmes in Theology and Ministry. In 2012, he became Professor of Theology and Ministry at King’s. He is currently Chair of the Ecclesiology and Ethnography Network and he was editor of the Journal Ecclesial Practices published by Brill. The Ecclesiology and Ethnography Network hold their annual conference in Durham at St John’s College. There is a book series linked to the network and he edited the first volume, which was published as Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography. He is also Programme Director for the DThM in Durham, which is co-taught with Cranmer Hall.
https://twitter.com/petewarddurham
Sir Andreas Whittam Smith, CBE is an English financial journalist. Most of his career has been spent in the city in journalism, including as city editor of The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, and as editor of the Investors Chronicle from 1970 to 1977, and Stock Exchange Gazette. With Matthew Symonds, he was a co-founder of The Independent newspaper and was its first editor from 1986 to 1993. From 2001 to 2003, he was chairman of the Financial Ombudsman Service. He is also a director of Independent News and Media (UK), Vice Chairman of Tunbridge Wells Equitable Friendly Society, and a vice-president of the National Council for One Parent Families. In 1998, he was appointed president of the British Board of Film Classification.
On 6 March 2002, Whittam Smith was appointed the First Church Estates Commissioner, a senior lay person in the Church of England. As such, he is Chairman of the Church Commissioners' Assets Committee and a member of the Church Commissioners' Board of Governors, the General Synod of the Church of England, and the Archbishops' Council. In 2012, he started the Democracy 2015 movement in an attempt to reform how British democracy functions.
https://www.independent.co.uk/author/andreas-whittam-smith
Dr Wilf Wilde is an economist who first studied Economics and Sociology at Hatfield College, Durham University. He undertook a varied career in the oil industry, in the City and latterly as marketing director at the energy regulator, Ofgem. Since leaving the City and Ofgem he has also written two major inter disciplinary books on oil, geo-politics and biblical theology. His first book Crossing the River of Fire; Mark’s Gospel and Global Capitalism was a critique of the over optimistic assumptions of the Make Poverty History Campaign. His second book is entitled Nowhere to Lay Our Head; The Empire of Oil, Client Rulers and the Anarchy of Jesus.
As a Policy and Enterprise Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Wilf will commence a collaborative interdisciplinary project on UK energy security with the Durham Energy Institute. His work at the IAS and DEI will be to recommend policy directions for UK energy security. He will consider trends in oil and gas prices in the medium and long term, especially the links to what he calls the ‘elusive revolutions’ of the ‘Arab Spring’.
http://www.wilfwilde.com
Jennifer undertook her undergraduate degree at Newcastle University and went on to undertake a Master’s Degree and PhD at Durham University in the field of New Testament Studies/Classics. Her current research interests include the History of Medicine; health/healing and magic in the first century Levant. She combines these research interests with her role as an Associate Lecturer at Newcastle University in the Faculty of Medicine and as a Tutor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London University. She supervises and teaches both undergraduates and postgraduates in subjects relating to clinical design and research.
Jennifer's expertise includes clinical epidemiology and clinical trial methodology in clinical trials of investigational medicinal products, advanced therapy medicinal products, devices and complex interventions. She was a member of the North East Research Design Service where she advised on academic grant applications to national funding bodies and is also co-applicant on a number of prestigious national awards. Her research interests also included epidemiological population-based audit studies in the North of England and Scotland, in association with the Scotland & Newcastle Lymphoma Group. She continues to publish her collaborations in academic journals.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jennifer-wilkinson-59427270
Revd Dr David Wilson is the Chaplain of Radley College, where he teaches Theology. After graduating from Durham, he undertook a PhD at the University of St Andrews. He was ordained in 2000 at Chester Cathedral and has served as a Rector of St Peter's Church, Chester, and St. Andrews Church in the University Town of St. Andrews. As a visiting fellow, his areas of interest are the role of Christian chaplaincy and the engagement between the divine as being both transcendent and immanent, as well as furthering the formal research he has already undertaken on the topics of Anglicanism, The Bible and the Contemporary World and Theology and Art.
Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. He has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, he has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia.
Ben has written over forty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.
http://www.benwitherington.com/
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