The Revd Canon Professor James Woodward, Principal
Principal of Sarum College. James is a practical theologian who specialises in health and healing, old age, theological reflection and end of life care.
Sarum College’s faculty is enhanced by a wider teaching and research community. Visiting Scholars play an active role in that wider network by helping to shape the future direction of research and teaching, and by sharing their expertise with our students, faculty and other scholars associated with Sarum.
John Arblaster is Associate Professor and Director at the Ruusbroec Institute, a research centre for the study of the history of Christian spirituality at Antwerp University. He is also part-time visiting assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven.
The Revd Christina (Tina) Beardsley SMMS is a Church of England priest with a commitment to healing and wholeness, and to advocacy for LGBTI+ people, especially trans people. Having worked for twenty-two years in the Portsmouth Diocese, Tina spent the following fifteen years in healthcare chaplaincy at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital in London, where she was head of department from 2008-2016. Tina now assists in her local parish in West London, while continuing to speak and write about spirituality, gender identity and sexuality. Her other interests include Victorian religion and dance and movement as a spiritual practice.
Books published:
Trans Affirming Churches: How to Celebrate Gender-Variant People and Their Loved Ones (Jessica Kingsley, 2020) Co-author with Chris Dowd
Transfaith: A Transgender Pastoral Resource (Darton, Longman & Todd, 2018). Co-author with Chris Dowd.
This is my body: hearing the theology of transgender Christians (Darton, Longman & Todd, 2016). Co-editor with Michelle O’Brien
Unutterable Love: The Passionate Life and Preaching of F. W. Robertson, (Lutterworth Press, Cambridge, 2009)
Charlie’s theological research focuses on matters of sacramental practice, ecclesiology and ecumenism, contemporary debates on sexuality and gender, and the interface of science, medicine and theology.
He is currently pursuing a research project into conscience, culpability and its implications for human flourishing.
Charlie has published several books and articles, regularly reviews for Theology journal, and has taught for both theological colleges and IME groups on the medico-theological interface and liturgy.
Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand is a senior member of the London-based Pears Foundation team and director of the foundation’s operating programme, JHub. In this role, she founded JDOV, a Jewish TED-style video platform which invites inspiring speakers to give the “Jewish talk of their life”: www.jdov.org.
Shoshana appears regularly on BBC Radio’s “Pause for Thought” and “Something Understood” programmes and also presents frequently at conferences such as TEDxJerusalem, Limmud, and Greenbelt on issues around faith, identity and leadership. She is the author of numerous articles on Jewish leadership and innovation, as well as The Barefoot Book of Jewish Tales, an illustrated collection of Jewish stories for all faiths and all ages.
Previously, Shoshana served as Vice-President of the Wexner Heritage Foundation in New York, and she currently serves on the faculty of Faith in Leadership and the board of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations.
She was ordained as a rabbi in 1997 at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Visiting Scholar, Sarum Ministry
Tom Clammer OC trained for ordination at Wescott House in Cambridge, and then served in parishes in the city of Gloucester, and in rural Gloucestershire before becoming Precentor of Salisbury. Since 2019 he has worked as a freelance theological educator, liturgist and spiritual director. His PhD thesis examined theology of evil and the devil in the liturgy. He is a novice brother of the Anglican Order of Cistercians.
Dr Ann Conway-Jones is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. She is also an Accredited Lay Worker of the Church of England.
Ann’s PhD thesis, involving a range of Jewish and Christian mystical writings on the heavenly temple, has been published as Gregory of Nyssa’s Tabernacle Imagery in Its Jewish and Christian Contexts (OUP, 2014). She has continued to research the exegetical foundations of early Christian mystical theology, recently producing a series of audio lectures entitled Moses, Mount Sinai, and Early Christian Mystics.
Ann is also interested in early Jewish-Christian relations, and in the new insights that Jewish New Testament scholarship is developing. She has written articles aimed at Christian preachers in The Expository Times and Theology, on talking about Jews and Judaism with respect, even if that involves challenging New Testament anti-Jewish rhetoric.
Ann combines up-to-date scholarship with over twenty years’ experience of teaching adults. She is passionate about making academic research accessible and relevant. She is an associate tutor at The Queen’s Foundation; Woodbrooke Quaker Studies Centre; Oxford University Department of Continuing Education; and the Birmingham Diocese. She writes regularly for Roots: Worship and Learning Resources for the Whole Church.
Ann is actively involved in Jewish–Christian dialogue. For four years she served as Honorary Secretary of The Council of Christians and Jews and is now Chair of Birmingham CCJ.
The Revd Dr Jonathan Dean is the Director of Learning for Ministry for the Methodist Church in Britain. A Methodist presbyter, he has served in local church ministry, in chaplaincy in a range of contexts, as a university lecturer and in theological education. Born in the Black Country and raised in the Cambridgeshire Fens, he’s enjoyed living and working both in the USA and the UK, and in places of great diversity and human variety. He currently lives in north London.
Keith combines organisational consultancy, research and teaching and parochial ministry.
He has been an organisational consultant for over 20 years, and for 12 of those was a partner in Telos Partners in Windsor. He has helped leaders of organisations across the sectors make the changes necessary for long-term, sustainable success, using models derived from systems thinking. He is passionate about helping the church to make use of insights and practices derived from an informed and theologically integrated approach to organisation theory.
Keith delights in working with and supporting church leaders who seek to engage positively with the challenges posed to the church by the world today. He is the author of Creating the Future of the Church: A Practical Guide to Addressing Whole System Change, published by SPCK in 2013. He completed his doctoral studies at Roehampton University in 2022. His thesis explores the relationship between organisation theory and theology in the context of an assessment of the ecclesiological and organisational rationales of the Church of England’s Renewal and Reform programme.
Keith was ordained in the Church of England in 1990 and is currently interim priest-in-charge of St John the Baptist, West Byfleet in Guildford Diocese. He aims to develop the leadership element in Sarum’s work so that it combines theoretical rigour with practical effectiveness through consultancy, coaching and tailored leadership development programmes.
The Revd Azariah France-Williams is a priest at the Ascension Hulme, a member of the HeartEdge church network which focuses work around four C’s: congregations, culture, commerce, and compassion. He has been a priest with the Church of England for 10 years. For the first 6 years he ministered on a group of housing estates in an area of deprivation. His role included community organising, creating social events and supporting people in great need. For the next 4 years, Azariah spent time in a suburban setting, enjoying coffee, enduring a ParkRun, and roaming the parish hearing stories.
He writes poetry and prose, is a podcaster, and his most recent book is Ghostship: Institutional Racism and the Church of England, available through SCM Press here.
Dr Alex Fry is Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Health and Illness at Bournemouth University.
There he has co-led two projects as part of the Living Ministry initiative on clergy wellbeing; the first was with working-class clergy, leading to a report which was widely featured in the media, including in The Times, The Telegraph, BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme, The Guardian and the Church Times. The second project focuses on disabled clergy.
Alex regularly engages with Christian audiences, is active in his local church and is a part of the AI, Faith and Civil Society Commission.
Sophie Hacker has artwork in public and private collections across the UK and abroad. Her current projects focus on stained glass, collaborations with musicians and poets and numerous ecclesiastical commissions.
Tim’s special interests include viewing organisations as ecosystems, insights from the complexity sciences, and attachment theory.
He has contributed to a number of books, including Faithful Improvisation: Theological Reflection on Church Leadership (CHP, 2016) and Developing Leadership: Questions Business Schools Don’t Ask (Sage, 2015). His articles have been published in such journals as Business Ethics: European Review and the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion.
Tim is a Licensed Lay Minister in the Church of England and a Member of the British Academy of Management.
Eddie teaches Christian Spirituality at a number of colleges, including Cuddesdon and St. Mary’s University, Twickenham. He is an Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at Oxford University, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Roehampton. He is interested in bringing academic study together with the life of faith, retrieving the spiritual writings of the Christian tradition for growth in faith and understanding today, especially on questions of experience and personal transformation.
The Revd Dr Ayla Lepine is an art historian and theologian. She is Associate Rector at St James’s Piccadilly in London.
Email: Deborah.Lewer@glasgow.ac.uk
Dr Lewer is Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Glasgow. She has worked there since 2001, prior to which she taught at Manchester University, University of East Anglia, University College London and Christie’s Education.
Her PhD was on Dada in Zurich and she is a specialist and has published widely on 20th-century German art in particular. She co-runs an MLitt programme at Glasgow, Art: Politics: Transgression and teaches across a wide range of other topics, including architecture, photography, literature and performance and on earlier periods in art. In 2009-10 she held a Senior Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship at the University of Bonn. She has also been a visiting lecturer at Northwestern University, Evanston USA.
She has a special interest in art and theology and is currently preparing a book in this field. She has also been involved in the training of ordinands and is a regular speaker in churches, on retreats and at conferences and festivals. In her spare time she paints.
Website: www.rachelmann.co.uk
Church Website: www.st-nicholas-church.org.uk
The Revd Dr Rachel Mann is Area Dean of Bury and Rossendale. Her most recent book is a debut novel, The Gospel of Eve. Rachel’s research and writing interests include poetry, literature and spirituality, as well as trauma, gender and sexuality. She is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at the Manchester Writing School, Manchester Met University.
Dr Naylor Davis completed her PhD on translation studies, text-linguistic analysis and 1 Corinthians in 2015.
Her teaching expertise is in New Testament and Greek exegesis, metaphor theory, text-linguistic approaches to texts (particularly ancient/religious texts), translation methodology, the interpretation & reception of the Bible throughout history, and women and gender in both Hebrew bible and New Testament.
Her current research specialises in the history of interpretation of the Bible, particularly the reception of texts through arts and literature – most recently contributing to a volume on the science fiction works of Octavia Butler. She is a scholar of Metal Music Studies engaging in research and collaborative projects on gender and on the Bible in metal lyrics, fandom and material culture. She works both inside and outside the academy to provide tools of good biblical literacy to theological students and community groups alike.
She is an independent scholar. You can find out more about her work at https://hcommons.org/members/charlottend/ and www.patreon.com/MetalBiblicalScholar
Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet and theologian who brings interests in language, conflict and theology to his work. He hosts Poetry Unbound from On Being and his work has been published in Poetry Ireland, the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day and Harvard Review, among others. His books include volumes of poetry, prayers and prose. From 2014-2019 he was the leader of Corrymeela, Ireland’s oldest reconciliation community.
Pádraig lives in Ireland with his partner Paul Doran, with whom he co-founded the Tenx9 storytelling project. Pádraig’s recently published work includes Borders and Belonging, coauthored with Glenn Jordan; an essay in The Book of Queer Prophets, edited by by Ruth Hunt; 15 sonnets on the stations in When Did You See Me Naked, edited by Reaves and Tombs. Pádraig holds a pontifical degree in Divinity validated by St. Patrick’s college in Maynooth; an MTh from Queen’s in Belfast (dissertation: Jesus and the Marginalised; a narrative exploration of human encounter in the gospel of Mark) and is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow exploring poetry and prayer. Additionally he holds qualifications in adult education and conflict resolution, with emphasis on group dynamics of conflict.
Dr Helen Paynter is Director of Theological Education, Tutor in Biblical Studies, and Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence.
She was a nephrologist (kidney doctor) when God called her to Baptist ministry. She trained at Bristol Baptist College and then became Associate Minister at Victoria Park Baptist Church in South Bristol, where she worked part-time for six years. She then was interim Associate Minister at Westbury-on-Trym Baptist Church for two years.
Helen has a Masters in Missional Church Leadership, another Masters in Biblical Studies, and a PhD in Old Testament. Her main research interests are in the narrative portions of the Hebrew Bible. Her second Masters dissertation was on “total annihilation” in Deuteronomy and Joshua, her PhD thesis was on aspects of humour in the book of Kings, and her current research interest is in violence and Judges.
Helen is passionate about helping people to get to grips with the Bible, because she has seen its power to transform lives. She loves to study it, preach it, teach it, encourage others to study and understand it, and help others to learn to read it in its original languages.
Dr Eve Poole writes and teaches on leadership, capitalism and consumerism. She has a BA from Durham, an MBA from Edinburgh, and a PhD in theology and capitalism from Cambridge. She was Third Church Estates Commissioner from 2018-2021, following earlier careers at Deloitte, Ashridge Business School and Gordonstoun. Her recent books are Leadersmithing, Capitalism’s Toxic Assumptions and Buying God.
Mark Pryce is Director of Ministry for Church of England Birmingham, and Chaplain to His Majesty The King. A published poet and practical theologian, Mark’s work contributes to the vital place of poetry in Christian spirituality, liturgy and public theology, gender studies and ethnographic research.
Professor Anthony G. Reddie is the Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture in Regent’s Park College, in the University of Oxford. He is also an Extraordinary Professor of Theological Ethics and a Research Fellow with the University of South Africa. He is the first Black person to get an ‘A’ rating in Theology and Religious studies in the South African National Research Foundation. This designation means that he is a leading international researcher. He has a BA in History and a PhD in Education (with theology) both degrees conferred by the University of Birmingham. He is a prolific author of books, articles and chapters in edited books. His latest book is the co-edited Intercultural Preaching edited with Seidel Abel Boanerges with Pamela Searle.
Reddie is the author of Theologizing Brexit: A Liberationist and Postcolonial Critique (Routledge, 2019). This book is the first intercultural and postcolonial theological exploration of the Brexit phenomenon. His previous book was Journeying to Justice (Paternoster Press, 2017) (co-edited with Wale Hudson Roberts and Gale Richards). He is the Editor of Black Theology: An International Journal. He is a recipient of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s 2020 Lambeth, Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship, given for ‘exceptional and sustained contribution to Black Theology in Britain and Beyond’.
Fr Jarel Robinson-Brown is Assistant Curate at St Botolph-without-Aldgate in the City of London and Vice-Chair of OneBodyOneFaith. Prior to this he was Associate Chaplain at King’s College London and served as a Methodist Minister in Wales and South East London.
His research interests are in the History of Early Christianity, particularly in North Africa and Egyptian Late Antiquity. He also writes in the areas of sexuality, gender, ethnicity, Black Liberation Theology, Queer Theology and Christianity and the arts.
His most recent book is Black, Gay, British, Christian, Queer: The Church and the Famine of Grace, published by SCM Press in 2021.
Dr Nick Shepherd is a practical theologian currently working for the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England on the implementation of recommendations from the 2017 Setting God’s People Free report. This role works across dioceses to shape a culture that better enables the everyday faith of the whole people of God and a flourishing of diverse Kingdom callings for the whole mission of God in the whole of life. Before his current role Nick worked in discipleship and ministry development for the Diocese of Southwark and prior to that spent 25 years in youth work and ministry, including being Director of the Institute for Children Youth and Mission and editor of the Journal of Youth and Theology. Nick’s research interests lie in the use of ethnographic, qualitative and action research methodologies to better understand faith formation & Christian identity in a secular age, missional engagement in social vocations and how participation in Christian practices impact our being in the world. Originally from Yorkshire, Nick now lives in South London.
Nicola Slee is Professor of Feminist Practical Theology at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Until July 2023, she was Director of Research at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, and continues to supervise a dozen PhD students at Queen’s/VU, while dropping her larger role and resuming a freelance portfolio of writing, speaking, spiritual direction and leading retreats. She has published widely in the fields of feminist and practical theology, prayer and spirituality and poetics, and is well known as an international scholar and practitioner in these fields.
Her most recent publications are Abba Amma: Improvisations on the Lord’s Prayer (Canterbury Press, 2022) and Fragments for Fractured Times: What Feminist Practical Theology Brings to the Table (SCM, 2020), and she has also contributed to From the Shores of Silence: Conversations in Feminist Practical Theology, edited by Ashley Cocksworth, Rachel Starr and Stephen Burns (SCM, 2023). She is currently hatching a number of different writing projects and wondering which one is going to surface first!
Dr Susanna Snyder is a Visiting Scholar at Sarum College, and a Research Associate with the Susanna Wesley Foundation working on a project exploring understandings, experiences and practices of hope in twenty-first century local communities.
She studied at the Universities of Cambridge (MA) and Birmingham (BATS, PhD), and previously taught at Emory University, Episcopal Divinity School and the University of Texas at Austin in the USA before becoming Academic Dean at Ripon College Cuddesdon and then Director of Research at Sarum College. An associate member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, her research has focused on faith-based responses to refugees, and her most recent book is Parenting for a Better World: Social Justice Practices for Your Family and the Planet (Chalice Press, 2022).
Christopher Southgate is Professor of Christian Theodicy at the University of Exeter, as well as a much-published poet.
Christopher’s current research interests include the problem of suffering, especially in the non-human world, Christian theology’s contribution to addressing the climate crisis, the problem of understanding God’s action in the world, especially in the light of Covid, and the challenge to Christian ministry of sudden tragic events. He also continues to explore the poetry of T.S. Eliot and R.S. Thomas.
Férdia J. Stone-Davis is Director of Research at the Margaret Beaufort Institute, Cambridge, an Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, and a Postdoctoral Bye Fellow of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge.
Dr Stone-Davis is the Chair of the Royal Music Association Music and Philosophy Study Group. From January 2022, Férdia will be the principal researcher on a three-year project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), “The Epistemic Power of Music: On the Idea and History of Artistic Research through Music”, to be conducted with the Institute of Music Aesthetics, and the Doctoral School for Artistic Research, at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz.
She received a BA in Theology and Religious Studies, an MPhil in Philosophy of Religion and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. She also has an MMus in Early Music Performance Studies from Trinity College of Music, London. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Musicology at the University of Göttingen, Germany between 2012 and 2015 and has taught in departments of music, philosophy and theology at the University of Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin University, the University of East Anglia, and King’s College, London. Her research interests centre upon music and its relation to philosophical and theological anthropology, ethics, epistemology and worldmaking.
Her publications are listed on her personal website
The Revd Dr Gillian Straine is the Director of the Guild of Health and St Raphael, an ecumenical charity dedicated to the healing ministry. An Anglican priest and physicist, her books include Introducing Science and Religion (SPCK, 2014) and Cancer: A Pilgrim Companion (SPCK, 2017). She is trustee of the Christian Evidence Society, The Science and Religion forum and elected fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion.
The Revd Angela Tilby is Canon Emeritus of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford, and a Canon of Honour at Portsmouth Cathedral. She is also a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day, and teaches and lectures on church history and theology.
The Revd Dr Carlton Turner, a native of the Bahamas and an Anglican priest, is a Caribbean Contextual and Practical theologian working as a tutor in Contextual Theology and Mission Studies at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham.
Dr Turner writes and researches on themes around decolonisation, legacies of enslavement, theologies of oppression, and theological hermeneutics as they have shaped and continue to shape postcolonial and post-imperial contexts.
Dr Turner is driven by the need for interdisciplinary methods within theology to better serve the transformation of real-world contexts. He is the author of Overcoming Self-Negation: The Church and Junkanoo in Contemporary Bahamian Society (Wipf & Stock, 2020), and is currently completing an SCM Textbook on Caribbean Contextual Theology.
Alison Webster is General Secretary of Modern Church.
Dr Rowan Williams has taught theology in a number of contexts nationally and internationally, as well as serving as Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. He has written many books on theology, spirituality, and literature including: A Century of Poetry: 100 poems for searching the heart (2022); The Way of St Benedict (2020); Being Human: Bodies, Minds, Persons (2018).
Beth, who joined Sarum in 2022, administers the short course programme.
T +44 (0)1722 424800
E library@sarum.ac.uk
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Jayne (MA DipLib) studied at St Andrews University and University College London. Before coming to Sarum, she worked in a variety of business and technical libraries and then went to sea, as librarian onboard the QE2 and QM2.
Debra joined Sarum College in July 2024.
Her hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
E dedwards@sarum.ac.uk
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Jacquie joined Sarum in June 2024. She administers the Common Awards ministry programmes and is PA to Sarum College Principal James Woodward.
Her working hours are 8am to 4pm from Monday to Friday.
E Gary Gifford
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Gary joined Sarum College in 2020. Previously he was Operations Manager for BMI Healthcare and Catering and Administration Manager with the British Army.
E hgreenough@sarum.ac.uk
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Hayley joined Sarum College in 2023.
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Clair joined Sarum in 2024. She supports students across the learning programmes, administers the postgraduate study programmes in Christian Spirituality as well as the Sarum Course in Spiritual Direction programme.
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E Mark Manterfield
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Mark’s background includes studying for a degree in Hotel and Catering Administration; spending a year as a church volunteer in Manchester; working in various management roles in the hotel industry; and spending a period of time living as a resident at Hilfield Friary, Dorset. Mark joined Sarum College in 1997. In 2008 he completed the CIPFA Certificate in Charity Finance and Accountancy and in 2011 he completed an MSc in Charity Accountancy and Financial Management with Distinction through London South Bank University, gaining ‘the best set of MSc marks for some years’. At Sarum his portfolio includes finance, human resources and safeguarding.
E Christine Nielsen-Craig
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Christine worked in public relations and as a journalist before joining Sarum College in 2008. She has a master’s degree in Communication for Development from Ohio University, USA.
E kitchen@sarum.ac.uk
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E catering@sarum.ac.uk
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Tamy joined Sarum College in 2006. She and her husband run Lee’s Fish & Chips in Salisbury.
