CTE staff come from a wide variety of church traditions and backgrounds. They are based across the country and work in a very flexible manner, enabling a broad spectrum of work areas to be covered.
Get in touch with the main CTE office through our Contact page.
Individual staff can be contacted by email using: firstname.lastname(at)cte.org.uk and their bios can be read below.
Mike Royal is the Apostolic Pastoral Congress's diocesan bishop for the Inner Birmingham Diocese 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.
Mike has a wealth of ecumenical experience at local, regional and national level. He led the Street Pastors’ team in Birmingham, the second to be launched in the UK, and worked with Telford Christians’ Together to launch their Cinnamon Faith Action Audit, one of 60 such local initiatives, which have been praised by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as showing ‘the breadth of commitment across the country, the depth of commitment, and above all the strength of experience and good practice.’
Mike lives in Birmingham as has been married to Viviene who is an Alternative Provision School Headteacher for 30 years. He enjoys walking, swimming and listening to soul music.
Jenny Bond is a Catholic lay woman and a trained Ignatian spiritual director.
Jenny is responsible for CTE's general resources, in particular those relating to intermediate (county) and local ecumenism. She is responsible for all events provided for Ecumenical Officers, including County Officer inductions and the annual training course, working with National Ecumenical Officers whose meetings she and the General Secretary service. Jenny is also responsible for CTE's Enabling Group, and for the Forum which is held every three to four years.
Jenny joined the CTE staff in May 2000 as Field Officer for the North and Midlands. In this role she forged strong relationships with Intermediate Bodies and County Ecumenical Officers and developed a wealth of knowledge about local and intermediate ecumenism. Since 2014, CTE no longer has Field Officers, but Jenny still handles most of the enquiries about local ecumenism.
Before joining CTE in 2019, Ben had been in Anglican ministry in Durban (2010-2013) and then Cape Town in South Africa (2013-2018). There he completed a doctorate at The University of Stellenbosch, exploring the idea of authenticity in Fresh Expressions in The Anglican Church of Southern Africa. From 2004-2010 he and his wife were part of a church planting team in rural Cambodia.
In his role, Ben helps bring together church leaders who reflect on mission and evangelism in urban and rural contexts across England. He particularly enjoys seeing and encouraging missional ecumenism at local and county levels. Ben also writes and reflects on Fresh Expressions and missiological topics and is a honorary research fellow at The Queens Foundation in Birmingham. He is currently writing a book for SCM Press titled The Three Mile an Hour God: Reflections on mission with Kosuke Koyama due to be published in 2022.
Ben enjoys running, especially half marathons. He is a musician and plays electric bass and keyboards and is a fan of neo soul, jazz and funk. He is married to Sharon with four children.
Shermara leads CTE's work in the areas of Pentecostal, Charismatic and Multi-cultural Relations, which includes our Pentecostal Charismatic Forum and Racial Justice Working Group.
Shermara is a dynamic millennial Pentecostal leader with experience in community organising, ecumenical engagement, leadership development and public speaking. She is also committed to engaging young people and young Pentecostals and Charismatics by creating opportunities for them to exercise leadership and to enter into service in the public square.
Shermara recently contributed a chapter to the Church House Publishing book Coming Home: Christian perspectives on housing, writing from a Pentecostal perspective. The book proposes a practical and biblical theology of housing provision as an essential part of community building.
In recognition of her ground-breaking work, Shermara was the recipient of the 2020 Exceptional Young Woman award from The Wise Women Awards.
Sarah Ball is our Acting Senior Communications and Media Manager while Lucy is on maternity leave. Sarah manages CTE's website, social media, media engagement and communications.
Sarah works part-time, Monday, Tuesday and Friday are her usual working days. Outside of these times, any urgent media enquiries can be directed to Mike Royal.
Lorraine Shannon is our full-time Operations Manager and manages the CTE office, as well as holding a wide variety of responsibilities including event organisation and finance administration.
Lucy Olofinjana is our Senior Communications and Media Manager (part-time). She manages CTE's website, social media, media engagement and communications.
Lucy is passionate about building multicultural communities and sharing stories from across the rich diversity of the Church. She also loves singing, baking, trips to the cinema and being mum to her toddler. Lucy is based in Essex where she lives with her son and husband Israel.
Lucy is currently on maternity leave. Please contact Sarah Ball instead.