The Revd Andrew Goodhead

Bio:

Andrew Goodhead hails from in the Southwest of the UK and trained for the Methodist Ministry at Wesley College, Bristol. He served the Methodist Church as a circuit minister and Superintendent Minister between 1991 and 2005 when he joined St Christopher’s Hospice as Spiritual Care Lead/Lead Chaplain.

Beyond the day-to-day pastoral role of chaplain, Andrew has focused on how spiritual pain is an important component of distress in individuals and has taught and written on spirituality, pastoral care and faith in hospice care, editing Spirituality in Hospice Care: How Staff and Volunteers can Support the Dying and their Families with Nigel Hartley (JKP Publishing).

Working across disciplines has also featured in his role, supporting other professions in healthcare to understand, address and meet spiritual needs. He wrote ‘The interface between function and meaning’, a chapter in Potential and Possibility: Rehabilitation at end of life, to encourage physiotherapists to identify the spiritual aspects of physical function.

Andrew has researched how bereaved people remember those who have died (often over significant periods of time), through a process of written memorialisation. He has published on this theme on two occasions in the journal Mortality. Andrew’s MSc dissertation with Kings College, London (Palliative Care) focussed on how significant the theological and pastoral education for clergy working within church settings is when exercising pastoral and religious care for the dying. His dissertation was published by Palliative Medicine, titled, ‘I think you learnt as you went along’.

He co-leads the module ‘Applying Psychosocial, Cultural, Spiritual and Ethical Issues’, on the Kings College, London MSc in Palliative Care and is a Visiting Lecturer with Kings College at the Cicely Saunders Institute.

His PhD research with Sheffield University focussed on the development, rise and decline of the Methodist class meeting in Eighteenth Century England. He explored how the class meeting, understood to be foundational to coming to faith and Christian discipleship ceased to have affect for 2^nd and 3^rd generation Methodists. His thesis was published by Wipf & Stock under the title A Crown and Cross: The Rise Development and Decline of the Methodist Class Meeting in Eighteenth Century England.

From September 2026 Andrew will be Superintendent Minister of the North East Somerset and Bath Circuit.