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.
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.
Doral is responsible for connecting with intermediate (county) and local ecumenism and works with the National Ecumenical Officers of CTE’s member churches.
Holding a MA in Contemporary Christian Theology, Doral is currently completing a Doctorate in Practical Theology at Roehampton University, her research focuses on what the churches can learn from the lived experience of interchurch families as they journey towards greater unity.
Doral comes to CTE having recently been the Ecumenical Facilitator for Churches Together in Hertfordshire (a County Ecumenical Officer role), as well as Executive Development Officer for the Association of Interchurch Families (one of CTE’s Bodies in Association).
A licenced lay minister in the Oxford Diocese of the Church of England, Doral regularly preaches and leads worship in her local parish. Doral is married to Declan, a musician, and has two teenage children, she also enjoys singing and walking Seamus, a crazy whippet.
Sarah Ball is our Senior Communications and Media Manager. She manages CTE's website, social media, media engagement and communications.
Sarah is a former BBC radio and TV journalist, who since she left the Corporation has worked in the public, private and third sectors.
She is enthusiastic about good wine and coffee (having worked in these industries). Sarah is a Rotarian and is involved in her local Churches Together group.
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.
Ben heads up the Operations Team at CTE working closely with Lorraine.
He joins CTE after 15 years of working to support voluntary and community sector organisations. In Reading, he ran a network for charities and community groups working with children, young people and families. More recently, Ben ran a not-for-profit company delivering health and care projects in partnership with a range of local charities across Bradford District and Craven.
Ben is a passionate advocate for relational ecumenical partnerships and has seen God move in many ways through unity initiatives as a church youth worker, through the first 24-7 Prayer ‘Boiler Room’ in Reading, and through the practical support, encouragement and grant funding of grass-roots Christian social action projects.
Ben is married to Joanna and serves as a Deacon and part of the Leadership Team at his local Elim church, where he is the Treasurer and coordinates the audio-visual facilities. He enjoys walking in the local countryside, as well as flying over it as a glider pilot.
Ben works part-time (0.6 FTE) for CTE.
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.