Associates, Consultants and Contributors

ASSOCIATES Ekklesia associates are people with particular interests and expertise who support us, whose own work we value and publicise, and who in different ways contribute to the endeavour of engaging transformative theological perspectives with a thoughtful understanding of religion, beliefs and values in public life. They assist Ekklesia, but are not institutionally tied to us. Savitri Hensman was born in Sri Lanka and now lives in London. She works in the voluntary sector in community care and equalities, is a respected writer on Christianity and social justice, and was a long-standing member of the Jubilee Group, a network of radical Anglo-Catholics and others. She provides expert commentary on Anglican and Church of England affairs, and contributed several chapters to Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change (Shoving Leopard, 2008). Michael Marten is Lecturer in Postcolonial Studies with Religion at Stirling University. His research centres on religion, history and politics in an international context, with a particular focus on the involvement of Europeans overseas and especially in the Middle East; he has published widely in these areas. He is also one of the organisers of the Christians in the Middle East network (http://www.cme.stir.ac.uk) and a contributor to the Critical Religion Research Group (http://www.criticalreligion.stir.ac.uk). He previously taught Middle East history and politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, and at the Institute for Advanced Study, University of Pavia, Italy. Harry Hagopian is an international lawyer, ecumenist and EU political consultant. He also acts as a Middle East and inter-faith advisor to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales and as Middle East consultant to ACEP (Christians in Politics) in Paris. Formerly an Executive Secretary of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Committee and Executive Director of the Middle East Council of Churches, he is consultant to the Campaign for Recognition of the Armenian Genocide (UK) and author of The Armenian Church in the Holy Land. Dr Hagopian’s own website is www.epektasis.net and his Ekklesia articles, blogs and podcasts are here: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/HarryHagopian Bernadette Meaden has written about religious, political and social issues for some years, and is strongly influenced by Christian Socialism, liberation theology and the Catholic Worker movement. She is author of Protest for Peace (Glasgow & Iona: Wild Goose Publications, 2004), which documents the work of Christian peace activists within, and on the edges of, the churches. Her blog is: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/bernadettemeaden John Gillibrand is vicar of Llangeler and rector of Penboyr in Cymru/Wales. He is a theologian and researcher who has done extensive work on the history of disability. His latest book is Disabled Church - Disabled Society: The Implications of Autism for Philosophy, Theology and Politics, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize. He is currently working on how an alternative 'care-based economy for all' could function. Keith Hebden is an Affirming Catholic Anglican pioneer minister and Seeking Justice deanery adviser in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where he chairs the Diocesan Greener Churches Group. He teaches and writes on Dalit theology, Christian anarchism, green spirituality, and spiritual activism. His latest book, Seeking Justice: The radical compassion of Jesus plots experiments in faith based community organising and direct action. Some of his workshop material and other resources can be found at Compassionistas. Symon Hill is a Christian activist, writer and peaceworker. He is a tutor for the Workers' Educational Association and an associate tutor at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). He is author of The Upside-Down Bible: What Jesus really said about money, sex and violence (DLT, 2015), Digital Revolutions: Activism in the internet age (New Internationalist, 2013) and The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion (New Internationalist, 2010). From 2009-2013 he was a co-director and then associate director of Ekklesia. In 2011, he walked from Birmingham to London as a pilgrimage of repentance for his former homophobia. See: http://symonhill.wordpress.com/ Vaughan Jones is the Chief Executive Officer of Praxis, a multi-agency NGO working with displaced people across London and globally. He is a minister of the United Reformed Church (URC) with many years of pastoral experience in Bethnal Green. With expertise in the role of faith communities in social and political action, community development, human rights and social justice, Vaughan is author of 'Are Immigration Controls Moral?' (Ekklesia, 2005-9) and Take, Bless, Break, Give (Granary Press, 2003), which features prayers and liturgical resources from ecumenical and inner city contexts. Sarah Hill worked in various professional roles for the evangelical agency Tearfund from 1989 to 2009. She is now a law graduate of the College of Law with an interest in Human Rights Work and Inclusivity. A founder member of 'Accepting Evangelicals' she was for several years the conference co-coordinator of the Evangelical Fellowship For Lesbian and Gay Christians. Graeme Smith is Reader in Public Theology at the University of Chichester. He has worked previously at St Michael’s College, Llandaff and Cardiff University, and Oxford Brookes University. His research interests are in contemporary social and political theology. He is editor of the journal Political Theology and author of the books A Short History of Secularism and Oxford 1937: The Universal Christian Council for Life and Work Conference, as well as academic articles on Thatcherism, Blair, Richard Rorty and Pragmatism, and Red Toryism. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATES Stephen Brown is a Geneva-based journalist who lives in France. The former managing editor of Ecumenical News International (ENInews), he is involved in the global ethics dialogue and was the editor of a special issue of The Ecumenical Review to mark the 2011 International Ecumenical Peace Convocation. He is also the author of From Disaffection to Dissent: The Conciliar Process for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation as a precursor of the peaceful revolution in the GDR, published in German in 2010 by the Verlag Otto Lembeck, Frankfurt/Main. Douglas Hynd is a former civil servant who lectures at St Mark's National Theological Centre in Canberra, Australia, and is conducting doctoral research himself. He is Vice President of the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ), and signatory to a radical biblical statement on Christian confession in today's world. David Wood is an Australian-based writer, theologian and commentator. He is author of Poet, Priest and Prophet (CTBI: 2002), an intellectual biography of the late Bishop John V. Taylor, one of the most widely acclaimed ecumenical mission theologians of the twentieth century. He contributed to Ekklesia's Fear or Freedom? (Shoving Leopard: 2008) and Consuming Passion (DLT: 2005). He is parish priest of Grace Church Joondalup and Anglican Chaplain to Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia. CONSULTANTS Ekklesia is able to draw on the critical advice and contribution of a wide range of people with expertise drawn from church, academic, social policy, ecumenical, inter-denominational, political, conflict transformation and research backgrounds - both practicing Christians, and those from other faith or non-religious traditions; in Britain and Ireland, and worldwide. Carla J. Roth is a lawyer based in Edinburgh, Scotland, assisting us with research. An Episcopalian from a Mennonite background, she has a professional background in journalism, the church/voluntary sector in Britain, and as a policy lobbyist on women's and human rights issues in Washington DC. She has contributed to the SCOLAG (Scottish Legal Action Group) Law journal. Bob Carling is a zoologist/pharmacologist with 30 years' experience in science and medical publishing. He is a writer and speaker on ‘science in society’, philosophy/theology of science and environmental ethics. Tim Nafziger has been active with Christian Peacemaker Teams in the UK, USA and Colombia, and now works for CPT. In 2006 he returned to the USA after working with the Anabaptist Network UK, and supporting Ekklesia and other projects. He is a web developer and writer, and blogs at The Mennonite magazine: http://www.themennonite.org/bloggers/timjn. George Fitzherbert-Brockholes is researching secularism and religion in relation to Turkey and the changing global order. In 2010 he assisted with Ekklesia's regular news summaries, and has worked with the Alliance for Inclusive Education (www.allfie.org.uk/). Vic Thiessen is chief operating officer for the Mennonite Church Canada and was formerly director of the London Mennonite Centre. He has a particular interest in film and theology, about which he writes at: http://thiessenbros.blogspot.com/ CONTRIBUTORS In addition to associates and consultants, over the past seven years Ekklesia has published features and analysis from a wide range of commentators, including, in random order: Elizabeth Kassab (Fellow & Researcher, Erfurt University, Gemany), Mary Kaldor (Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance and Professor of Global Governance, LSE), David Haslam (Methodist minister, Dalit campaigner), Tony Blume (general secretary Urban Forum), Katja Neumann (Stirling University, doctoral candidate), Andrew Suderman (director, Anabaptist Network in South Africa), Dominic Browne (intern, Left Foot Forward), Joseph Ballan (University of Chicago Divinity School, USA), Richard H. Roberts (Visiting Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Stirling), Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar (Senior Lecturer in Latin American and Amerindian Studies at the University of Stirling), Alison Jasper (Lecturer in Religion at the University of Stirling), Timothy Fitzgerald (Reader in Languages, Cultures and Religions at the University of Stirling), Robert Jackson (Professor of Education at the University of Warwick), Ahmad Sadri (Professor of Sociology and James P. Gorter Chair of Islamic World Studies at Lake Forest College, USA), Malika Zeghal (Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life at Harvard University), Shatha Almutawa (editor of ‘Sightings’, University of Chicago Divinity School), Nadim Shehadi (associate fellow of Chatham House, academic visitor at St Antony's College, Oxford), Nicola Sleap (disability rights campaigner, theologian), Colin Bossen (Unitarian Universalist Society of Cleveland, USA), Pierre W. Whalon (Bishop in charge, Episcopal Churches in Europe), Aled Edwards (ecumenist and community campaigner in Wales, general secretary of Cytun), Omid Safi (Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, USA), Jonathan C. Bergman (Assistant Professor of History at Texas A&M University), Chris Cole (Christian peace campaigner, former general secretary of Fellowship of Reconciliation England), Virgina Moffatt (writer and community activist), Annabel Turner (refugee worker), Kenneth Roth (executive director of Human Rights Watch), Steven Shakespeare (Anglican priest and lecturer in philosophy in the Department of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Liverpool Hope University, UK), Mary Anson (writer on science and society), Aneth Lwakatare (World Council of Churches communications department intern), Alberto Dufey (Chilean journalist), William Kenney (Auxiliary Catholic Bishop of Birmingham), Tim Newell (prison governor for 38 years, restorative justice advocate), Tim Saunders (Christian student activist), Iain McLean (Professor of Politics, University of Oxford), Sande Ramage (Anglican priest and spiritual practitioner, Aotearoa/New Zealand), Graeme Smith (Senior Lecturer in Practical Theology at the University of Chichester, editor of Political Theology), John Heathershaw (Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Exeter), Simon Jones (Editor, Third Way magazine), Alison Tomlin (2010-11 President, Methodist Conference); Fofo Lerefolo (WCC intern on Unity, mission, evangelism and spirituality); Jeremy Timm (LGBT Anglican Coalition); Theodore A. Gill (senior publications editor, World Council of Churches); Ian Davis (Coordinator, NatoWatch); Scott Appleby (John M. Regan Jr. Director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies); Peter Kenny (former editor-in-chief, ENInews); Anne Robertson (CEO, Massachusetts Bible Society); Sarah Davison (CAFOD Communication Team); Bridget Mary Meehan (Roman Catholic Womenpriests), Lubomir Martin Ondrasek (University of Chicago Divinity School, Illinois, USA, cofounder of Acta Sanctorum), Michael Bartlet (Parliamentary secretary for the Quakers in Britain), M. Cooper Harriss (Visiting Assistant Professor of Race and Religion in the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech, USA), Simon NatasOlav Fykse Tveit (general secretary, World Council of Churches), Joseph Laycock (Boston University, USA), Mark Bilby (Visiting Assistant Professor at Point Loma Nazarene University, USA), Alex Kennedy (former co-ordinator, Accord Coalition), Michael Kinnamon (general secretary, National Council of Churches of Christ, USA), Stuart Murray (writer, church practitioner and academic specializing in Anabaptism and contemporary Christian witness), Courtney Wilder (Religion and Philosophy Department, Midland Lutheran College, Fremont, Nebraska, USA), Jo Siedlecka (founder and editor, Independent Catholic News), Michael Robbins (English Department, University of Chicago, poet, New Yorker magazine), Henry Morgan (Anglican priest, spiritual director, Annunciation Trust), Anton Shelupanov (penal reformer and social innovator, Young Foundation), Martin Davis (founder, Davis Communications, Washington DC), Melissa Conroy (Assistant Professor of Religion, Department of Religion and Philosophy, Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, USA), Alan Wilson (Bishop of Buckingham, Anglican Diocese of Oxford), Alison Downie (Duquesne University, USA), T. Jeremy Gunn (Emory University, USA), Denis Alexander (Director, Faraday Institute, Cambridge), Noel Moules (Anabaptist theological educator, Workshop), Kevin Scully (Rector, St Matthew’s, Bethnal Green, author, actor, playwright, journalist), James Jones (Anglican Bishop of Liverpool); Lesley Crosson (Church World Service), Jim Killock (executive director, Open Rights Group), Carly Whyborn (CEO, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust), Patrick Franks and Miranda Rosoux (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel), Mark Beach (director of communications,World Council of Churches), Benjamin E. Zeller (Assistant Professor of Religion, Brevard College), Willard Roth (Mennonite Church, USA), Guy Aitchison (openDemocracy), George Gabriel (Power 2010), Johan Maurer (evangelical Quaker writer and minister, Portland OR, USA / Russia), Jim Wallis (chief executive officer of Sojourners, Washington DC, USA), Patricia Gaffney (Pax Christi), Glynn Cardy (St Matthew-in-the-City, Auckland, Aoteroa), Chaiwat Satha-Anand (Foundation for Democracy and Development Studies, Thammasat University in Thailand), Valerie Hartwich (French-German writer, researcher for the Manifesto Club), Tony Campolo (leading evangelical author, Eastern University, PA, USA ), Peggy Gish (CPT, USA), Frank Regan SSC (Catholic religious), Chris Cole (Fellowship of Reconciliation), Chris Rowland (Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford), Hazel Southam (journalist, former editor, Baptist Times), Nick Adams (Lecturer in Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics at New College Edinburgh), Ron Kraybill (professor of conflict studies at Eastern Mennonite University), Sergio Carranza-Gomez (assistant Episcopal bishop in a heavily Latino area of southern California; formerly Bishop of Mexico), James Clark (community organiser, formerly Emory University, USA), Phil Wood (Development Worker, Wantage and Abingdon Methodist Circuit), Catherine Masden (contributing editor for CrossCurrents, the journal of the Association for Religion & Intellectual Life), Malcolm Duncan (Faithworks, UK), Mark LeVine (Professor of modern Middle Eastern history, culture and Islamic studies at the University of California), Dilwar Hussain (Head of the Policy Research Centre at the Islamic Foundation, UK), John Hedley Brooke (Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion, University of Oxford), Micah Hampson (Epiphany Trust), Jerry Hames (North American religion journalist), Maggi Dawn, (chaplain, Robinson College, Cambridge), Julian Sheffield (Maine, USA), Deidre Good (Professor of New Testament, General Theological Seminary, New York City, USA), Oskar Wempter (Jesuit communications office, Zimbabwe), Terry Waite (Writer and lecturer, formerly envoy for the Archbishop of Canterbury), Sunny Hundal (Asians in Media, UK), Jeremy Chadd (Anglican priest, tutor in practical theology on the North-East Oecumenical Course), Alison Downie (Duquesne University, USA, feminist theologian), Doris RachelJonathan Dorsett (Peace School, Anvil Trust), Andrew J. Weaver (United Methodist minister, research psychologist, New York USA - died October 2008), Alison Goodlad (St Stephen's, Exeter), Jonathan Romain (Reformed Rabbi, Maidenhead Synagogue), Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury), Ted Huffman (pediatrician and political columnist), John Sentamu (Archbishop of York), Martin Marty (University of Chicago), Colin M. Morris (Methodist writer and broadcaster), Puck de Raadt (Coordinator, Bail Circle Churches' Refugee Network, CTBI), Juan Michel (World Council of Churches; from the Evangelical Church of the River Plate in Buenos Aires, Argentina), Jerome Eric Copulsky (director and assistant professor of Judaic Studies at Virginia Tech, VA), Jo Rathbone (Eco-congregations project coordinator for England and Wales), Paul Rogers (Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford and Global Security Consultant to Oxford Research Group), Pearl Duncan (writer on slavery, New York), Ann Pettifor (political economist), Peter Tatchell (human rights campaigner and Green politician), Robert P. Baird (managing editor, Chicago Review), Lord Alton of Liverpool, James Walters (parliamentary researcher, globalisation expert), Desmond Tutu (Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate), Will Braun (editor, Geez magazine), Barack Obama (President of the United States), Timothy Seidel (Mennonite Central Committee - Palestine), John Dear (Catholic priest and peace activist), William Schweiker (Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School, director of the Martin Marty Center), Sarah Malik (British Methodist youth president), Jean Blaylock (Global Trade Campaign Officer, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance), Gethin Abraham-Williams (ecumenical consultant, Wales), Andrew Bradstock (Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago, New Zealand), Keith Clements (former gen sec, Conference of European Churches), Justin Thacker (Head of Theology, Evangelical Alliance UK), Robert Rhodes (Mennonite Weekly Review), Ken Tanner (writer, Charismatic Episcopal Church, Chicago), Shawn F. Peters (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), Stephen G. Wright (visiting professor, University of Cumbria, Faculty of Health, Medical Sciences and Social Care), Simon Sarmiento (Thinking Anglicans, UK), Emma Halgren (Uniting Church, Australia), Andrea Stephens (classical musician, critic), Bob Morris (honorary senior research associate, Constitution Unit, Department of Political Science, University College London), Tony Cross (Courage UK, evangelical lesbian and gay organisation), Claire Shelley (Christian Aid, Scotland), David Ford (Ford-Peacock Consultancy, UK), Mark Vernon (writer, religiously-inspired agnostic), Jane Stranz (URC minister working for the WCC in Geneva), Peter Heslam (Cambridge University / London Institute for Contemporary Christianity), Steve Fouch (Christian Medical Fellowship), Brian Draper (writer, Echosound 'spiritual intelligence' consultant), Hannah Kowszun (communications advisor, third sector), Maria Halava (ACT Alliance, Haiti), Andrew Copson (CEO, British Humanist Association), Fredrick Nzwili (Kenyan journalist, Ecumenical News International correspondent), Garth Hewitt (Honorary Canon of St George's Cathedral, Jerusalem), Annegret Kapp (World Council of Churches' web editor, member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Württemberg, Germany), Harry Hagopian (ecumenical, legal & political consultant, Armenian Church UK, former MECC), Kevin Boyd (Director of Field Education and Church Relations at the Chicago Divinity School in Illinois, USA), Michael Roberts (Anglican priest, geological scientist), Anto Akkara (freelance journalist, Asia), Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford (Church of the Brethren news service, USA), Ben White (writer on Israel-Palestine), Richard Skinner (poet, therapist and researcher on into evolutionary psychology), Kersten Storch (German Lutheran pastor, WCC Faith & Order Commission), Alice Walker (prize winning novelist), Martin Revis (UK correspondent, ENI), Tom Hurcombe (Anglican priest, South London), Kathleen LaCamera (United Methodist Church News Service correspondent in England), Christopher Jamison (Benedictine monk, Worth Abbey), Shay Cullen (Catholic priest, PREDA Foundation, Philippines), Tina Beattie (Reader in Christian studies, Roehampton University), Spencer Dew (University of Chicago, USA), Wilson Tan (Singapore, digital media specialist), Wendy Doniger (Mircea Eliade professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago), Carla J. Roth (Lawyer and journalist, Edinburgh), Douglas Anderson (associate professor of neurological surgery, Loyola University Medical Center, USA), Manoj Kurian (WCC Health and healing exec, Malaysia), Brian Collins (University of Chicago), Uri Avnery (Israeli commentator and peace activist), Ferne Burkhardt (Mennonite World Conference news editor), Asa Humphreys (writer, poet, Limpsfield Trust), Jonathan Frerichs (WCC programme exec for nuclear disarmament and Middle East), April Bogle (Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University, USA), Walt Wiltschek (Church of the Brethren USA, Messenger magazine), and a range of Christian Peacemaker Teams members and volunteers: Amy Peters, Jerry Levin (USA), Amy Hailwood (London, UK), Maureen Jack, Jim Loney (Canada), Harmeet Singh Sooden (New Zealand), Norman Kember, Paul Mukerji, Gene Stoltzfus (USA - died 10 March 2010), David Cockburn, Christy Bischoff, Jan Benvie, Garland Robertson Justin Alexander, and others. Contributors, consultants and associates do not necessarily subscribe to all the views expressed by Ekklesia, or vice versa. NEWS REPORTERS Those who have contributed to the daily news briefing periodically include Stephen Brown, Anna Clark, John Cooper, Mike Crockett, Hazel Southam, Fran Race, Gary Hopkins, Mark Porthouse and Ed Thornton. A significant number of stories are also contributed by the Ekklesia co-directors and associates - these are not bylined.