The Very Rev’d Jo Kelly-Moore
Jo Kelly-Moore was installed as the 10th Dean of St Albans in December 2021. In the Church of England she previously served as Archdeacon of Canterbury and Residentiary Canon of Canterbury Cathedral. In the Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia she served as Dean of Auckland and prior to that Vicar of St Aidan’s, Remuera.
Before her ordination in 2000 she worked as a solicitor in New Zealand and London working in the area of commercial litigation.
Chine McDonald
Chine McDonald is Director of Theos, the religion and society think tank. She was previously Head of Public Engagement at Christian Aid. She has two decades of experience in journalism, media and communications across faith, media and international development organisations. She also speaks and writes regularly on issues of race, faith and gender, and is the author of ‘God is not a white man: and other revelations’ (Hodder & Stoughton, May 2021) which was runner-up for the Michael Ramsey Prize for theological writing, and Unmaking Mary: Shattering the Myth of Perfect Motherhood (Hodder & Stoughton, March 2025). Chine is a regular writer, broadcaster, panel host and media commentator and has written for the Financial Times, the Guardian, The Independent, The Big Issue, Prospect, The Mirror and contributes to TV and radio programmes such as regularly presenting the BBC’s Thought for the Day on Radio 4’s Today programme and appearing on BBC Sunday Morning Live. She regularly speaks in and hosts panels including previously at Cheltenham Festivals and How the Light Gets In. She is vice–chair of Greenbelt Festival and a trustee of Christian Aid and Demos. She is on the Advisory board for Cambridge University Library. Chine studied Theology and Religious Studies at Cambridge University, and is a Canon Theologian at Chester Cathedral.
Dame Fiona Reynolds, DBE
Dame Fiona Reynolds is a non-Executive Chair and Director, holding roles in organisations that align with her personal passions. Fiona is Chair of the National Audit Office, the Council of the Royal Agricultural University, the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England, the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission and Cambridge University’s Botanic Garden. She is also a trustee of the Grosvenor Estate.
Fiona was Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 2012 until 2021. She came to the college from the National Trust, where she was Director-General from 2001-2012. During her time there, she made the Trust warmer and more welcoming, bringing the houses to life and raising the profile of the Trust’s work in the countryside.
Before the Trust, she was Director of the Women’s Unit in the Cabinet Office (1998-2000), Director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (now Campaign to Protect Rural England) from 1987-98 and Secretary to the Council for National Parks (now Campaign to Protect National Parks) from 1980-87. She has an MA and MPhil from Cambridge University in Geography and Land Economy.
Her book The Fight for Beauty was published in 2016. Fiona was appointed CBE for services to the environment and conservation in 1998 and DBE in 2008.
Dawid Konotey-Ahulu CBE DL
Dawid Konotey-Ahulu is a British Ghanaian entrepreneur, passionate about helping people to discover their true potential. He qualified as a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn in 1987 before switching careers to investment banking. In 2006, Dawid co-founded Redington, the UK’s leading independent pensions consultancy; he also set up Mallowstreet, an AI-powered platform for the financial services industry; and co-founded The 10,000 Interns Foundation, a charitable foundation that has secured 10,000 internships for undergraduates of Black heritage or with a disability. In 2018, he was named Black British Entrepreneur of the Year. He was on the Prime Minister’s Business Council in 2022/2023 and currently sits on ACOBA, the Advisory Committee for Business Appointments. Using his Spellbound! programme, he teaches prison inmates how to speak with confidence to a roomful of their peers about who they really are and the people they want to be. Dawid is also on the Board of Mission 44 and of Somerset House. He was awarded a CBE in 2023 and is a Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire.
Dr Eve Poole, OBE
Dr Eve Poole was educated in high schools in Scotland and the United States, and has a BA in Theology from Durham, an MBA from Edinburgh, and a PhD in Theology and Capitalism from Cambridge. She is a popular speaker and broadcaster, and the author of several books, including Robot Souls, Capitalism’s Toxic Assumptions, and Buying God. Her book Leadersmithing was Highly Commended in the 2018 Business Book Awards and described by Joanna Lumley as ‘inspirational, practical and fascinating.’ For 15 years she taught leadership at Ashridge Business School, pioneering a new approach to the accelerated development of leaders, using ground-breaking neurobiological research into how leaders really learn. Since then, she has pursued a portfolio career while writing books. Currently, she Chairs the Woodard Corporation. In 2023-2024 she was Interim CEO of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, and Interim CEO of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2022. She was Third Church Estates Commissioner from 2018-2021, and the first female Chairman of the Board of Governors at Gordonstoun School from 2015-2021. Her early career involved working for the Church Commissioners and for Deloitte Consulting, where she specialised in change management in the Financial Services sector. She was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Years Honours list for services to education and gender equality, and became Canon Prebendary of Newthorpe at York Minster in January 2024. Eve lives in Edinburgh and has twin girls. You can follow her on X @evepoole and her website is http://evepoole.com/
The Very Rev’d Mandy Ford
Mandy’s role as Dean of Bristol includes leading the Cathedral’s work on the legacy of slavery and overseeing the diocesan support for urban parishes, racial justice and widening participation. Mandy was brought up in Hong Kong in an army family and educated in Wiltshire. She studied fine art in London before training as a teacher in Exeter where she subsequently spent ten years teaching. After the call to ordination, Mandy studied theology in Oxford and began her ministry on a multi-cultural inner estate in Leicester, then moving to Southwark as Director of Discipleship and Ministry. She spent a year running the Church of England’s Ministry Division before her current appointment. She is a member of the General Synod and involved in several national church initiatives, including the Living in Love and Faith programme.
Matthew Mees
Matthew is a senior business leader and finance professional with over twenty-five years’ experience gained with a range of commercial businesses and not-for-profit organisations in different sectors. In his career he has worked with enterprises that predominately focus on the use of real estate, including iconic buildings and estates in London.
Joining the Greenwich Foundation in February 2019 as Director of Finance & IT, he was appointed Interim Chief Executive in October 2019 before taking on the role permanently in March 2020.
Before joining the Old Royal Naval College, he was Director of Finance, HR and Legal for a private-equity backed start-up business in the real estate and flexible office provider sectors. Prior to that he was Finance Director of a privately-owned, non-branded, multi-site business that owned and managed over 20 venues including heritage pubs, contemporary bars and boutique hotels.
He has also been Finance Director for the Covent Garden property portfolio of a FTSE250 company and Group Finance Director for two central London Exhibition Centres. He also worked as Chief Financial Officer of a private hospital in Chelsea, Group Accountant for a luxury London department store and also for a luxury goods groups working both in London and New York.
Sarah Meyrick
Sarah Meyrick has been Editor of the Church Times since September 2024. Before that she worked in a variety of roles including 11 years as Director of Communications for the Diocese of Oxford, and four years as Public Engagement Manager for Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. She has been the Director of the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature since its inception in 2013, and is also the author of three novels.
Sir Robert Buckland, KBE KC
Rt Hon Sir Robert Buckland enjoys a distinguished career in law and politics. He is a practising barrister at Foundry Chambers, Senior Counsel & Head of Policy at Payne Hicks Beach LLP and is a member of the DAC Beachcroft Policy Unit. He is a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School. Robert was a criminal barrister and part time Crown Court judge prior to his election to Parliament as Conservative MP for South Swindon in 2010.
During his fourteen years in the House of Commons, Robert served in the Conservative Governments of four Prime Ministers, becoming Solicitor General in 2014, Minister of State for Justice in 2019 and then entering the Cabinet as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice from 2019 to 2021. He returned to Cabinet as Secretary of State for Wales in 2022, and Chaired the Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee from 2023-24.
As an influential backbencher, Robert was Secretary of the 1922 Committee from 2012-14 and was Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism. He most recently chaired an independent review into autism and employment, which culminated in a report published last year. Robert has campaigned on disability issues, domestic abuse and criminal law reform, amongst other things.
Robert writes regularly on constitutional law matters, current affairs and political history, collaborating on several books on these issues. He was knighted by His Majesty The King in 2022 for his political and public service.
The Rev’d Dan Drew
Dan is the Assistant Director of Mission and Ministry in the Diocese of St Albans. His doctoral research explores missiology and generational theory, shaping his work with churches to reach emerging generations. Married to Alex, with their seven-year-old daughter Isla, they planted The Hub Church to engage people in their 20s and 30s. Dan now oversees the development of new worshipping communities, the Growing Younger and More Diverse initiative, The Alban Way, and strategic funding across the diocese.
Will Watt
Will used to publish Viz comic but is now a named advisor on the 2021 HM Treasury Green Book Supplementary guidance on wellbeing economics.
Will launched State of Life in 2020 with the help of Lord Gus O’Donnell. State of Life measures the social and economic value of the things that make our lives happier and healthier. State of Life’s methodology is recommended in chapter 5 of the treasury guidance and has been combined with technology to make data collection easy and practical.
Will and State of Life have led pioneering studies on the social and economic value of Churches, Sport England, Tideway Tunnel, Sizewell C, Girlguiding, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, local green space and more.
David Olusoga, OBE
David Olusoga is a historian, writer, and broadcaster. He is the presenter of A House Through Time and author of Black and British: A Forgotten History. Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester, David looks at what our history reveals about contemporary society and the lasting effects of the British Empire.
Starting out as a researcher for BBC Radio 4, David was soon involved in producing and directing historical documentaries for the station, including Namibia: Genocide and the Second Reich, The Lost Pictures of Eugene Smith, and Abraham Lincoln: Saint or Sinner. From there he became a presenter for the BBC, appearing on documentaries including Civilisations, The World’s War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire, and the BAFTA-winning Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners.
David’s book Black and British was accompanied by a BBC Two series of the same name which he both wrote and presented. His book looks at the global slave-trading empire of Britain, how the country’s 19th century economic and industrial might was built on American slavery, and how modern society has been shaped as a result. David is also the author of Civilisations: First Contact/The Cult of Progress, The World’s War, The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism and Black History for Every Day of the Year. He regularly writes for The Guardian, has hosted the BBC’s The Civilisations Podcast and co-hosts the Goalhanger podcast Journey Through Time, and is a regular contributor and commentator across broadcast media.
David received the BAFTA Special Award for his ongoing legacy and impact on the television industry and society, widening perspectives of how history is presented, and expanding the diversity of stories told.
Chris Curtis, MBE
Canon Chris Curtis is the Chief Executive of Youthscape, a national Christian charity dedicated to helping young people flourish within the life of the church. Under his leadership, Youthscape has partnered closely with the Church of England, most notably through Launchpad—a programme that has equipped nearly 500 vicars to begin youth ministry from scratch.
Chris writes and speaks widely on youth work, theology, and the changing lives of young people. Alongside his national leadership, he remains firmly rooted in hands-on youth ministry, working directly with teenagers in both his local church and at Bute Mills, Youthscape’s award-winning youth centre in Luton.
He is married to Helen, a hospice nurse, and together they have two adult children. When not working, Chris enjoys long walks with his beloved dog and practising magic as a member of The Magic Circle.
Debbie Clinton
Debbie Clinton is Director of Vision & Strategy for the Church of England, a role she has held since January 2022. She has worked nationally since 2018, bringing experience in strategic leadership, organisational development, and guiding complex change across diverse settings. She loves to bring together strategic clarity, a deep faith and a passion for seeing people and church communities flourish.
Before moving into church roles, Debbie spent many years in senior leadership positions within the insurance sector. At Aviva Europe, she shaped customer and brand strategy, supported national executive teams on new market development, and led organisational reviews across multiple countries. Her earlier roles included heading strategic marketing in the UK business, directing major change programmes, and overseeing new product development—including early online innovation in the sector.
Debbie previously served as Capital Vision Director in the Diocese of London, helping develop and implement an ambitious diocesan vision and strategy from 2012.
She holds an MA in Economics from Trinity College Dublin, an ACII insurance qualification, and undertook global leadership development programmes at London Business School and INSEAD.
Debbie has been involved in church life from an early age, across a range of contexts—city centre churches, church plants, suburban parishes, and her childhood parish in Dublin where she sang in the choir and led youth groups. She now leads a small group and is part of the welcome team in her local church.
Ross McWhir
Ross is a Director in BDO’s Advisory team and a member of its Not-for-Profit sector hub.
He has over 10 years of experience supporting trustees and leadership teams to identify and deliver financial and performance improvement programmes.
He has supported a wide range of organisations, including leading national charities, large corporates, and owner-managed businesses. For his charity clients, he brings together experience of third-sector excellence and trading commerciality to support strong, sustainable outcomes. He advises and provides clients with hands-on, practical support focused on sustainable change, often in relation to complex and specialist organisations.
Ross is a Chartered Accountant.
The Rev’d Julia Porter Pryce
After 15 years in museum management, Julia worked as an Anglican priest in Hackney where she ran a programme of residencies and community arts projects. For 10 years she co-ordinated creative arts engagement in the Diocese of London. She is an Advisor for Art & Christianity and a Prebendary Emeritus at St Paul’s Cathedral. In 2015 Julia took study leave to research contemporary art in cathedrals (see findings in Art and Christianity No 86 Critical Context: Curating contemporary art in Anglican churches and cathedrals). Julia is passionate about connecting artists with places of worship as a means of interpreting faith traditions and at the same time making art accessible to new audiences.
Alan Smith
Alan Smith, since October 2021, is First Church Estates Commissioner at the Church Commissioners for England. Prior to that he had 27-year career in international banking at HSBC. Since September 2024 Alan has been a lay canon in the College of Canons at Salisbury Cathedral.
Helen Gray
Helen is Trust Director at Benefact Trust, one of the UK’s largest Christian grant-making charities, supporting places of worship and faith-based charities across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. She brings over 15 years’ experience in the charity sector, having previously served as Head of Development at St Albans Cathedral and Trust Director at Hertfordshire Community Foundation. Her earlier career began in business development within the professional services sector. Helen also serves as the Senior Non-Executive Member at St Albans Cathedral, where she is deeply aware of the challenges Cathedrals face today, while championing the vital role they play in communities across the country.
John Lloyd, CBE
John Lloyd has been behind some of the most successful and well-loved TV and radio (and adverts) of the last three decades. He’s also written or co-authored over 30 books, and is the driving force behind developing a new concept of education based on his BBC panel show, QI.
Studying law at Cambridge, John joined the famed Footlights society, meeting a number of the writers and performers he would later work with. That group included Douglas Adams, whose Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy John would help bring to radio.
After university, John joined BBC radio where he helped create shows that have become national institutions with The News Quiz (which John also briefly hosted), Quote…Unquote, The News Huddlines, and the original incarnation of To The Manor Born. Switching to TV, John’s first major production was the satirical Not the Nine O’Clock News with Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, Rowan Atkinson, and Pamela Stephenson. The show created some of the most fondly remembered sketches of the era including Gerald the Gorilla, the darts players, and a classic interview with Billy Connelly. The show also provided a platform for writers including Richard Curtis, Clive Anderson, David Renwick, and Andy Hamilton.
John then went on to produce Blackadder, working again with Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, and creating arguably one the greatest sit-coms ever. At the same time he worked on Spitting Image alongside a host of comic writers and performers from Harry Enfield to Ian Hislop to Jo Brand. Briefly considered for the role as host of Have I Got News For You (he hosted the pilot episode) John remained behind the camera and created the panel show QI.
QI has gone on to spawn a range of books and other merchandise, but has also evolved into a system of research, learning and study. John is at the forefront of looking at what real knowledge is and how it can be imparted. Reacting against the idea that Google and Wikipedia offer free access to knowledge, John considers what really is interesting, and useful, alongside tales from his varied and often surprising career.
David Cloake
David has worked as a civil emergency and business continuity planner at all levels of operation, management and consultancy in a variety of settings over the past 25 years. As a seasoned planner and responder, In addition to an MSc qualification in this area, David has a considerable depth of experience of planning for and dealing with a broad spectrum of incident types and responses. This has included the management of a wide range of incidents types, business continuity challenges and recovery working.
Foresight Solutions has been helping several Cathedrals and more widely, the heritage sector, over the past 5 years. Our current active client list includes Canterbury Cathedral, York Minster, St Paul’s Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral. Of note was our work with Canterbury Cathedral in the development of their internal emergency planning arrangements that were deployed for the Installation Service of the Archbishop of Canterbury in March of this year. Other notable work includes the development of Cathedral business continuity planning and development of specific plans such as Collections response and Crisis Communications planning.
Foresight Solutions has developed an approach that is tailored for easy application within a Cathedral setting using recognised the emergency and crisis management techniques that are used by the emergency services. The approach, which has been adopted by our clients, ensures that UK recognised standards and approaches are used and that integration with emergency service partners can be easily facilitated if required.
The Very Rev’d Winnie Varghese
The Very Rev’d Winnie Varghese is the 12th Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, the world’s largest Gothic cathedral. A national leader in The Episcopal Church, Revd Varghese is known for her inspired writing, teaching, and preaching. Prior to joining the Cathedral, she was the 23rd Rector of St. Luke’s Atlanta, Gal. Before that, Rev’d Varghese served as Priest for Ministry and Program Coordination at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City. Prior to Trinity, she served as Rector and Priest-in-Charge at St. Mark’s in the Bowery in New York and was also Chaplain at both Columbia University and University of California Los Angeles. Rev’d Varghese serves on the Board of Trustees of Union Theological Seminary, she chaired the General Convention’s Committee on the State of the Church from 2015 to 2018, and she served on the Board of Trustees of the Episcopal Divinity School from 2013 to 2016. She is also a published author, editor, and podcaster.
Rev’d Varghese is the daughter of Indian immigrants and spent part of her early childhood years in Kerala, India. She attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA and earned her bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. She then graduated from Union Theological Seminary with her Master of Divinity degree in 1999. She was ordained to the diaconate in Los Angeles in 1999 and to the priesthood six months later in 2000.
Brother John – Conference Chaplain
After graduating in French, Brother John was a Baptist minister before joining the Society of St Francis 25 years ago. He has lived in six different friaries around England, working with asylum seekers and refugees in Leeds and Birmingham, and contributing to the ministry of hospitality, retreat and care for creation in more rural settings. He enjoys music, film, literature and cooking.
Andrew Robinson, MBE
Prior to joining the CCLA, Andrew was Head of Community Development Banking for RBS and NatWest, responsible for the not-for-profit and social enterprise sectors. Before joining NatWest, he was the founding Executive Director of the UK’s first community development finance institution to provide loan finance to voluntary and community sector organisations working in the most disadvantaged communities in England.
Prior to these roles he worked for the Royal Bank of Canada, the St Paul’s Hospital Foundation and the Canadian Arthritis Society. Currently Andrew is an Advisor to Switchback. Previously he was: Trustee – RBS Social & Community Capital; Chair – Community Development Foundation; Vice Chair – LankellyChase Foundation; Trustee – Local Trust; and Trustee – Locality, having been a trustee of both the Development Trusts Association and British Association of Settlements & Social Action Centres. Andrew is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and was awarded an MBE for services to social and community enterprise in 2003.
He was appointed as an Executive Director of CCLA in 2006.
Justin Brierley
Justin Brierley is a writer, speaker and broadcaster, known for hosting conversations between Christians and non-Christians on radio, podcast and video.
Justin’s book ‘The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God’ was a finalist in Christianity Today’s 2024 ‘Book Of The Year’ awards. His latest title ‘Why I’m Still A Christian’ was published in 2025.
Justin is director of the media company ‘Think Faith’. He currently co-hosts the Re-Enchanting podcast and is the creator of the award-winning Surprising Rebirth Of Belief in God podcast documentary series. His most recent podcast is the faith discussion show ‘Uncommon Ground’.
Justin is married to Lucy, a church minister in Surrey, England and they have 4 amazing children – Noah, Grace, Jeremy and Toby.
The Very Rev’d David Monteith
David Monteith was appointed Dean of Canterbury in December 2022. Previously he was Dean of Leicester (from May 2013), and before that served as Canon Chancellor and Acting Archdeacon of Leicester. David grew up during ‘The Troubles’ in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. He studied Zoology at Durham University and Theology at Nottingham University, after which he served as a priest in the Diocese of Birmingham, in London where he was Associate Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and as a Team Rector and Area Dean in Wimbledon, Diocese of Southwark.
During his time at Leicester, David oversaw work on reordering the Cathedral and the establishment of Cathedral Gardens, and the Leicester Cathedral Revealed Project which, with NLHF funding, will complete the re-ordering work and provide a new Chapter House. The reburial of the remains of King Richard III, which were rediscovered in the nearby Leicester car park overlaying the remains of a medieval Franciscan Friary, was another major project completed successfully.
From 2020-2025 David was Chair of the College of Deans.
Jonathan Mayes
Jonathan joined Cathedral Music Trust as CEO in 2024 following two decades in the UK and North American arts sectors. He has held artistic planning and leadership roles with Clore Leadership, Philharmonia Orchestra, Arts Council England, the Pittsburgh and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Southbank Centre and the Barbican.
Jonathan is an honorary Cultural Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, advocating for the place of culture within wider society and bringing sector-specific knowledge to research and academic practice. He also served as Vice-Chair of the National Children’s Orchestra from 2018-2025. He is also a keen amateur singer, performing with various groups around London when not chauffeuring his two chorister children who sing at Temple Church. In 2025 and 2026 Jonathan is completing a 3,0000-mile cycling pilgrimage, visiting all of the choral foundations in England and Wales that have been supported through Cathedral Music Trust funding.
Sir Paul Ruddock FSA
Sir Paul is the Founder and Chair of the Wyvern Research Institute. He has been a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum in New York since 2010, and is co-chair of its International Council and Chair of its Medieval Department (as well as being a life-time benefactor).
Prior to this, he has held the following positions:
British Museum: Honorary Senior Research Fellow; Trustee 2016-24
Victoria and Albert Museum: Honorary Senior Research Fellow; Chair 2007-15; trustee 2002-15
Gilbert Collection: Chair 2009-15
Courtauld Trust: Trustee 2004-7
National Infrastructure Commission: Commissioner 2016-17
WW1 Cathedral Emergency Repair Advisory Panel: Chair 2014-18
Covid Emergency Cathedral and Major Churches fund: Chair 2020-2022
Lansdowne Partners: Co-Founder, CEO 1998-2013
He is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Des Lettres, France, and holds honorary doctorates from Birmingham University, UK, and Bowdoin College USA, and is a Distinguished Friend of Oxford University.
Michael Minta
Michael is the Director of Bishoprics & Cathedrals and Lambeth Palace Library for the Church Commissioners and has been in this role for over 7 years leading a great team supporting many aspects of the Church and particularly those at our great Cathedrals. Most recently he has played a key role in the Lambeth Palace Refurbishment Project. Previously Michael was Director of Property and Development at the Diocese of Chelmsford. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a trustee of the YMCA in Essex.
Joanne Moriarty
Joanna is a Senior Partner at Green Park, where she heads the Charities Practice, and leads work in the areas of Faith, Arts, Culture and Heritage, and the Impact Economy. Her background is in the third sector, and she was for many years in senior leadership in SPCK. Her recent clients include St Paul’s Cathedral, the Barbican, the Church Commissioners and the National Trust. Green Park was set up twenty years ago to make recruitment a more equitable and positive experience, and we remain committed to diversity of all sorts, with a particular interest in the intergenerational workforce. Joanna sat on the Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Task Force, and created the inclusive recruitment guidelines in the Lament to Action report. Alongside her work at Green Park she sits on the Board of the Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust, where she Chairs the Pay and Personnel Committee, and acts as a Bishop’s Advisor in the Diocese of Oxford.
Robin Tjolle
Robin Tjolle is a Tourism and Destination Management specialist with over 30 years’ experience in the travel industry. He has held a number of high-profile roles including as Chief Executive of a number of destination organisations. He has worked with visitor attractions and event venues and was the International Travel Trade representative for the East and West Midlands promoting destinations across the region in North America and the Asia Pacific regions.
Robin is currently Regional Development Lead for the South West at VisitEngland and a trainer for VisitEngland’s “Taking England to the World” programme and has so far trained and supported over 2,500 businesses. He is also on the judging panel for the National Churches Trust National Church Awards.
Photo credit: Emyr Parri
The Rev’d Canon Professor Leslie J Francis
Leslie J. Francis is a Canon Theologian at Liverpool Cathedral, Co-Director of the World Religions and Education Research Unit at Lincoln Bishop University, and Professor Emeritus of Religions and Psychology at the University of Warwick. His publications have been recognised for higher doctorates in divinity (DD, Oxford) and psychology (SDc, Cambridge). For the past twenty years his research group has taken a keen interest in establishing the science of cathedral studies as reflected in Anglican Cathedrals in Modern Life: The science of cathedral studies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), Sustaining Cathedrals: Sacred space and common ground (Routledge, 2026), and three Special Issues of Journal of Beliefs and Values (2023, 2024, 2025) each containing twelve studies covering a wide range of issues. Currently he is lead academic on a three-year Knowledge Transfer Project with Liverpool Cathedral designed to embed a research-engaged approach to cathedral ministry, mission and financial sustainability, working with the Very Rev’d Professor Sue Jones (Dean), Dr Ann Casson (Insights Lead and KTP Associate), the Rev’d Canon Professor Sally Harper (Lincoln Bishop University), and Mick Card (Innovate UK).
The Rev’d Molly Boot
Molly (they/them) is a priest and theologian currently based in rural Gloucestershire, where they are coming towards the end of their time as Curate of nine beautiful churches. Alongside this, Molly is an Associate Chaplain at the University of Gloucestershire.
A bit of a theological magpie, Molly’s academic work focusses on medieval mysticism, particularly where themes interact with trauma and queer theologies. Their work on consent in medieval mystical spirituality is soon to be featured in Routledge’s Contemporary Theological Explorations in Mysticism series.
Molly is a sought-after public speaker, regularly contributing to Religion and Ethics programmes for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Gloucestershire, as well as offering seminars, quiet days and training on neurodiverse and queer spiritualities, mysticism, and medieval church history.
Molly is the Vice-Chair of Greenbelt, a festival of arts, spirituality and justice, and is also on the board of the British Trust for Tantur, a charity supporting ecumenical and interfaith projects in Jerusalem.
Jill Appleton
Jill Appleton is the National Development Manager at The Feast, where she leads nationally on programmes that equip young people to build friendships across cultural and faith differences. After 30 years working in education, she joined The Feast in 2015 and quickly came to describe her role as “the best job in the world.”
Jill has developed and delivered initiatives that help young people grow in confidence, resilience, and community engagement. She regularly collaborates with organisations across the UK to train people in The Feast’s distinctive dialogue approaches, supporting them to foster community cohesion between diverse groups of young people.
Jill brings warmth, experience and a passion for creating safe, inclusive spaces where young people can thrive.
The Very Rev’d Andrew Zihni
Andrew was born and grew up in Hong Kong, before moving to the UK with his family. He trained for ordination at St Stephen’s House, Oxford, and was ordained Deacon in 2002 and Priest in 2003. He began his ordained ministry in the former mining town of Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire, before moving to St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where he was a Minor Canon and School Chaplain. Andrew then moved to Southwark, where he was Assistant Director of Vocations in the Diocese of Southwark and Honorary Minor Canon at Southwark Cathedral before becoming Canon Precentor in January 2021. He was also a Priest Vicar at Westminster Abbey from 2018 to 2021. In April 2023, he was installed as the 39th Dean of Gloucester.
Joel Harris
Joel is Head of Engagement for the Christian mental health charity, Kintsugi Hope. Kintsugi aims to equip the Church in the UK to engage with the conversations around mental and emotional health. He is passionate about seeing the Church live out its calling to be the light in communities. Joel is married to Emily.
The Very Rev’d Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson was installed as Dean of Derby in 2020. Before his appointment, Peter was the Archdeacon of Lindisfarne in the Diocese of Newcastle, a position he had held since 2008, with responsibility as chair of the Newcastle Diocesan Board of Education, as lead for community engagement in Northumberland, and for rural delivery of the diocesan vision.
Peter worked in the oil industry before being ordained in 1995; he trained for ministry at Cranmer Hall in Durham and served his curacy in North Shields.
Following his curacy, he became priest in charge at St. Martin’s, Byker – where he was highly successful in bringing together a challenging inner-city community, designing a new church building and attracting a visit from the home secretary to showcase the community’s achievement. He had also been director of the Urban Ministry and Theology project in Newcastle.
Justine Horseman Sewell
Justine was appointed Chief Operating Officer at Chelmsford Cathedral in April 2024. Prior to this she was the Chief Operating Officer at Southwark Cathedral where she led the Cathedral through the implementation of the Cathedrals Measure – the first parish church cathedral to do so. Before moving to Southwark in 2021, Justine held the Cathedral Administrator role at St Edmundsbury Cathedral and was a legal consultant for Durham Cathedral.
Justine studied Art History and was a Chapel chorister at Cambridge University. She is a qualified solicitor and has worked in the arts and third sector for many years, including at the Fifteen Foundation and Tate galleries and for clients including the Girls’ Day School Trust, Thomson Reuters and Virgin Media. She was raised and educated in East London and has lived back in Essex for the past twenty-two years. She now lives on the Stour estuary with her husband and has four grown up daughters and a granddaughter.
Justine was appointed to the CAFA Executive in 2025 and is an ex-officio member of the AEC Executive.
Anna Pitt is the Executive Director of the AEC.
Anna joined Birmingham Cathedral as Director of Development in January 2014 until February 2025 following an 11-year career as a charity fundraiser. From 2015 – 2025 Anna served as CEO at Birmingham Cathedral. During that time Anna was Vice Chair of CAFA and a member of the AEC Executive. CAFA and AEC jointly nominated Anna to represent their interests on the Bishoprics and Cathedrals Committee of the Church Commissioners. Anna was also involved in the AEC peer review project as a reviewer.
George Lapshynov
George is a mixed-methods Researcher at Theos. His background is in History and Politics, and he holds a Master of Research in International Relations from the University of Glasgow. Since April 2025, George has spent a year conducting in depth research into Anglican cathedrals in England, combining national polling, visitor surveys, and qualitative fieldwork across multiple cathedral contexts. He is the author of several Theos reports, including A Theology of Investment (2026), From Strangers to Neighbours: The Church and the Integration of Refugees (2025), Religion Counts (2024), and Volunteering After the Pandemic: Lessons from the Homelessness Sector (2023).
Michael Angell
Michael is Benefact Group Church Relationship Director. He is a qualified chartered insurer, and has over 40 years of experience in the faith sector of the insurance industry. Outside work Michael is a keen sportsman and is President of the Gloucestershire Lawn Tennis Association. He is also Deputy President of his local national league rugby club, Old Patesians RFC and is actively involved in his local church.
Claire Woolway
Claire is Head of Client Relationships at EIG and has over 30 years of extensive senior leadership experience within the faith insurance sector. She is responsible for the Relationship Management Team within Ecclesiastical’s Church Operations Dept and deals with Cathedral and Diocesan clients. Outside of Ecclesiastical Claire is a governor of her local Academy secondary school and weary owner of 3 miniature dachshunds.
Paula Gooder
Dr Paula Gooder is a writer and lecturer in New Testament studies. Her passion is to ignite people’s enthusiasm for reading the Bible today, by presenting the best of biblical scholarship in an accessible and interesting way. She has written a wide range of books the most recent of which include the Women of the Nativity, Lydia. A Story and a book on the Parables. Two further books Women of the Gospels and a commentary on Mark’s Gospel are due out later this year (2026).
She is currently the Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral in London where she helps shape the cathedral’s theological life, teaching and public engagement, bringing deep biblical scholarship into conversation with the questions of contemporary faith and leadership.
Julian Atkins – Net Zero Carbon Programme Director
Julian joined the NCIs in February 2023 as the Net Zero Carbon Programme Director responsible for implementing the Routemap to Net Zero by 2030. Prior to joining the NCI’s he spent 29 years working in local government in a variety of sustainability/climate change and built/natural heritage conservation roles. As the Countywide Climate Change Coordinator for Gloucestershire Julian worked to a wide public sector partnership involving the County and District Councils, the NHS Integrated Care Group, Gloucestershire Constabulary, the Local Enterprise Partnership and the Local Nature Partnership to coordinate climate change policy and action. Previously he was Director of Countryside and Land Management, and then Chief Executive, with the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority and led work on sustainability and community development initiatives. Julian has also been a board member of National Parks Partnerships, working to build funding relationships with the corporate sector. Prior to joining the National Park Authority he managed Swansea’s buildings conservation and Gower AONB services and also lectured on buildings conservation law as part of Swansea Metropolitan University’s Buildings Conservation degree course. Outside of work Julian is active in his local church, sits on the PCC, and has been a PCC Treasurer.
The Rev’d Katie (Kt) Tupling
With a background in youth and children’s work across Birmingham, Kt has served as Anglican parish priest for 16 years, before becoming Diocesan Disability Advisor in the Oxford Diocese. She has also worked as Chaplain to the Deaf church, and as a Chaplain in an Oxford College.
Kt is also Co-founder of ‘Disability and Jesus’, a user led task group wrestling with theology, discipleship, and church practice through the lived experience of disability. She co-authored the book ‘Pilgrims in the dark ‘ – the story of how Disability and Jesus came into being, and is the author of two Grove booklets: ‘Worship and Disability, a Kingdom for all’ and ‘Being Disabled, Being Human’. She is also a contributor to the Canterbury Preachers Companion 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028
Kt’s social media presence includes: working with UCB Radio and BBC local radio, occasional live feeds on Twitter and Facebook from her narrowboat, a weekly ‘recorded as live’ Sunday service with Disability and Jesus, and a YouTube channel where you can find her training materials on disability and church inclusion.
Kt is a member of the Committee for Ministry of and amongst Deaf and disabled people, Chair of the national network of Diocesan Disability Advisers, a member of the Living Ministry Stakeholders Group, and Vice-Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion in Cathedrals Working Group.
More speaker details to follow
As we approach the commencement of the National Cathedrals Conference 2026 in Bristol,
further speakers will be announced. Please check back soon.
