Cardinal Vincent Nichols will be sharing his Reflections on Synodality
Cardinal Vincent Nichols is the eleventh Archbishop of Westminster.
Born in Crosby, Liverpool, in 1945, Cardinal Nichols studied for the priesthood at the Venerable English College in Rome from 1963 to 1970, gaining licences in philosophy and theology at the Gregorian University. He was ordained priest in Rome in December 1969 for the Archdiocese of Liverpool.
On 21 May 2009 he was installed as the eleventh Archbishop of Westminster, following the retirement of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. As Archbishop of Westminster, he is also Patron of the Bellarmine Institute. Cardinal Vincent is also patron of a number of Catholic charities, including the Passage and the Cardinal Hume Centre.
Rev. Dr Helen Cameron will be speaking on The Pursuit of Unity
Rev Canon Helen Cameron was inducted as the Moderator of the Free Churches Group in 2022.
Helen is a Methodist presbyter who currently serves as President of the Methodist Church Conference in Great Britain. Helen formerly served as Chair of the Northampton and Nottingham & Derby Districts of the Methodist Church. She was born in North Yorkshire, to a Methodist family and she began preaching alongside her parents from the age of 13.
Helen trained as a physiotherapist in Edinburgh with a specialism in stroke rehabilitation.
Helen spent many years leading ministerial formation as a staff member of the Queens Foundation Birmingham and helped to form many ministers, including Anglicans, Methodists, URC, Pentecostals and worked with many students from the global South.
Bishop Tedroy Powell will be leading our worship together on the first evening of Forum
CTE Pentecostal and Charismatic President, and National Overseer of the Church of God of Prophecy UK.
Bishop Tedroy Powell was appointed as National Presiding Bishop of the Church of God of Prophecy UK in 2017. He has also been Senior Pastor of the House of Bread, Church of God of Prophecy (COGOP) in London since 1989, and National Overseer for COGOP Belgium and Netherlands since 2004. Bishop Tedroy’s ministry includes a focus on intentional discipleship, leadership development and church planting. He has also established a social enterprise, Hillview Community Services, which provides educational and health support to its community.
Bishop Tedroy has been married for over 40 years and has three children, and six grandchildren.
Bishop Paulina Hławiczka-Trotman will be leading a bible study on the Priesthood of All Believers
Bishop Paulina Hławiczka-Trotman is the CTE President for the Fourth Presidency Group and Head of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.
She comes from the Beskid Mountains in Southern Poland. She graduated from the Faculty of Theology and Ethics at the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw with a thesis on the hope for universal salvation.
She was ordained in London to serve in the Lutheran Church in Great Britain. She took over as pastor of the parishes Trinity Leicester-Nottingham in 2014, St Paul’s Corby in 2015, and Christ the King London in 2021. She is also a chaplain at the University of Nottingham.
Bishop Paulina was consecrated Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain in January 2024 and is married to minister, theologian, activist and racial justice advocate, Rev Arlington W. Trotman.
Archbishop Nikitas will be sharing his Reflections on Synodality
Archbishop Nikitas is the Archbishop of the Oecumenical Patriarchate (Diocese of Thyateira and Great Britain) and one of the Presidents of Churches Together in England.
He was elected as the President of the Conference of European Churches in June 2023.
Archbishop Nikitas serves the Mother Church in Constantinople in numerous important areas including: Coordinator of the Patriarchal Task Force on Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery; Chairman of the Committee on Youth for the Oecumenical Patriarchate; and Co-Chair and Steering Committee member of the Elijah Inter-Faith Foundation. He has also received numerous commendations for his involvement and leadership in interfaith dialogue.
Bishop Mike Royal will be giving the Opening Address at CTE Forum
Mike Royal is the General Secretary of Churches Together in England.
Mike is also the Apostolic Pastoral Congress’s regional bishop for the Midlands Region and bishop for Social Engagement Strategies. He has been in ordained ministry since 1993.
Before joining CTE, Mike was the Co-Chief Executive of the Cinnamon Network. He is a founding Trustee and former National Director of award-winning charity Transforming Lives for Good (TLG) which works with children and young people at risk of exclusion from school. He is a part time Forensic Mental Health Chaplain with Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust. Mike has a BA in Urban Planning from the University of Westminster and an MA in Black Theology from the University of Birmingham.
Elaine Green of the Religious Society of Friends will be sharing her reflections on synodality.
Elaine is the clerk of Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations and currently represents Quakers in Britain on the Churches Together in England Enabling Group.
Elaine holds a MA in Quakerism and the Modern World from Lancaster University. Until 2015, she was a member of the Quaker UN Organisation governance committee in Geneva, after which she served on the Quaker Council for European Affairs in Brussels. Elaine’s professional background is in HR and she chaired the Employment Committee of the national organisation of Quakers in Britain for several years.
Rev Dr Tessa Henry Robinson will be speaking on Racial Justice and Reparations
Revd Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson is a Minister of the Word and Sacraments in the United Reformed Church (URC) and has been Moderator of the URC General Assembly. She is also an Associate Tutor in Womanist Practical Theology at Westminster College, Cambridge.
Tessa is Moderator Elect of the Free Churches Group, a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Practical Theology, and a Womanist Practical Theologian who is interested in the empowerment of ethnically-minoritised communities, women in particular.
Alongside other gatherings of lay and ordained ministers and Church related community workers (CRCW) in the URC, Tessa is one of the founding member of Cascades of Grace (COG). COG is a group set up to empower minoritised women, to be present and audible in the denomination.
Archbishop Emeritus Doye Agama will be speaking on Artificial Intelligence and the Church
Archbishop Doyé Agama came to ordained Christian ministry in 1994 and became a Bishop in the Apostolic Congress of Great Britain ten years later (2004).
Doyé then founded the Apostolic Pastoral Association, initially in the northern part of England to provide specialised training and recognition mainly for minority ethnic church leaders. The APA was later re-named as the Apostolic Pastoral Congress. Doyé was installed as Archbishop during a ceremony in Southwark Cathedral in 2013.
He was a President of Greater Manchester Churches Together, a Member of the Board of CTE from 2010 to 2018 and was Moderator of the CTE Forum from 2012 to 2015.
Archbishop Doyé is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Management, a Professional Member the Chartered Institute for IT (BCS) and has been active in the major digital transformations of several large organisations.
Professor David Wilkinson will be speaking on Artificial Intelligence and the Church
David Wilkinson is a British Methodist minister, theologian, astrophysicist and academic. He was the Principal of St John’s College, Durham (2006-2023), and is now a professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. Since September 2023, David has been the Director of Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science (ECLAS), an international project based at St John’s College. He is the author of several books on the relationship between science and religion, and a regular contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4.
David has a PhD in astrophysics and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Rev Dr Susan Durber will be speaking on The First Ecumenical Council: 1700th Anniversary of Nicaea.
Rev Dr Susan Durber is a minister of the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom, and the World Council of Churches President from Europe. She studied Theology at Oxford University and at Luther Northwestern Seminary in Minnesota, and has a PhD on the parables of Jesus from the University of Manchester. Susan has served local church pastorates in England, as Principal of Westminster College, Cambridge (2007-2013) and as Theology Advisor for Christian Aid (2013-2016).
She has been involved in the ecumenical movement since attending the Fifth Faith and Order World Conference in 1993 and served as Moderator of the WCC Faith and Order Commission from 2014-2022. She leads retreats and short intensive schools for ministers, is regularly invited to speak about ecumenism, to lead Bible studies or to reflect on faith in today’s world, and is increasingly fascinated by the Council of Nicaea.
Bishop Claion Grandison will be speaking on Change in the Church
Bishop Claion Grandison is the current Administrative Bishop of the New Testament Church of God (NTCG) in England and Wales.
Bishop Claion was born in North London and migrated to Jamaica when he was very young. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour at the age of fourteen and attended The New Testament Church of God in Kingston, Jamaica. In 2000, he moved to the British Virgin Islands as Regional Youth & Christian Education Director for the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Guadeloupe, St Kitts and Nevis.
He graduated from Spurgeon’s College in 2017 with a degree in Church Based Theology.
He was promoted to District Overseer of the NTCG in West Croydon, London in 2021 and to Administrative Bishop in 2022. He now leads the National Executive Council, providing spiritual and strategic leadership for its members.
John Cooper will be speaking on The Call for Peace
John Cooper is the Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in England and Scotland. The FoR is a faith-shaped peace, justice and nonviolence movement founded in 1914. Since then branches have grown around the world to form a global network. In his time with the Fellowship they have launched a podcast, seen a growth in membership and started exploring both intersectional perspectives on peace and the links between climate change, war and peace.
Prior to working for the Fellowship, John has worked on questions of peace and justice in different church spaces. He has served through Christian Aid, the Joint Public Issues Team and All We Can. While a lifelong Methodist (and currently a Local Preacher in training), he enjoys ecumenical spaces that allow the fruits and flavours of each denomination and theology to be drawn out, leading to deep learning and enrichment.
He has a strong commitment to a vibrant global church and was privileged to travel with the World Council of Churches in 2020.