As her term of office begins, Rev Dr Tessa (TH-R) spoke to CTE’s Senior Communications Manager, Sarah Ball (SB)
SB: Welcome to the CTE Presidency Rev Dr Tessa. How did your ecumenical journey begin?
TH-R: My ecumenical journey began long before I understood the word. As a child in Trinidad and Tobago, I lived the beauty and complexity of the Christian tradition through my family. My father was born in Tobago and raised in the Methodist tradition. My mother was born in Trinidad and raised in a Roman Catholic and Pentecostal household. I was baptised in the Methodist Church, educated in Roman Catholic and Anglican schools, and worshipped in Pentecostal settings during holidays with my maternal grandparents.
From early on, I encountered difference as a gift. That beginning shaped my lens, and helped me to see the rich variety within the body of Christ as something to honour, not to fear. My journey continues to unfold as one committed to the hard work of shared mission, mutual respect, and spiritual integrity across denominational lines.
SB: What was your first ecumenical experience? How formative was this?
TH-R: My earliest (formal) ecumenical experience came in the early 2000s while I was a member of Christ Church Bellingham. I was part of a small team tasked with building relationships across five local churches. That experience was not only informative. It was deeply formative. It taught me that unity across Christian traditions is not just an abstract hope. It is a relational task that demands presence, humility, and trust.
As I worshipped, dialogued, and shared life with colleagues from a range of denominational backgrounds, I began to sense the Spirit moving in ways I had not seen before. I witnessed how God works through different liturgies, languages, and leadership models. Some tensions surfaced, of course. But they were not held as obstacles, they were used as invitations and opportunities to grow deeper in grace. Ecumenical work has never been about erasing difference, it is about honouring difference, engaging it with love, and letting it stretch us toward fuller faithfulness.
Unity, for me, is the hard and holy commitment to keep choosing one another because of our differences, not despite them.
SB: You are a URC Minister, how has being part of that church influenced your thoughts on Christian unity?
TH-R: The United Reformed Church is itself a living sign of ecumenical commitment. Its very formation brought together multiple denominations in pursuit of a more faithful expression of the Church. To be a URC minister is to have been shaped in the context of being reformed and always reforming in a denomination that not only values being reformed and building unity, but was born from “Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei”, “The church reformed, always being reformed according to the Word of God.” My ministerial formation has been rooted in the conviction that Christian unity matters—that we can be deeply faithful to our own traditions while also working generously across them.
The URC has given me space to live this conviction in practice: through shared worship, collaborative ministry, and openness to the Spirit speaking through other voices and traditions. I have been formed by a community that has moved from just talking about being a multicultural church with an intercultural habit, and becoming anti-racist, to being in the process of seeking, diligently, to embody these principles. This experience has instilled in me a deep hope that visible unity in the Body of Christ is not only possible, but essential to our witness in the world today.
SB: You are also an academic and theologian. You are described in your biography as a ‘womanist practical theologian’ – for those unfamiliar terms what does that mean?
TH-R: As a womanist practical theologian, I read both the world and the Word through the lenses of those often pushed to the margins. My context—shaped by race, gender, history, and faith—deeply informs how I interpret scripture, tradition, and lived experience.
A womanist theologian is rooted in the wisdom and experiences of Black women (and other racialised identities), particularly those whose faith has been forged through struggle, resistance, and resilience. Womanist theology honours the dignity, agency, and spiritual insight of people who are too often silenced or overlooked, yet central to the survival and flourishing of communities.
A practical theologian engages theology as something lived, not just studied. It asks: What does the Gospel mean in daily life — in spaces of pain and protest, hope and healing? It is a theology that listens deeply to real lives and aims not only to understand the world but to transform it.
So, as a womanist practical theologian, I attend especially to the wisdom that comes from the lived experiences of Black women and other minoritised communities—always with the wider Church and world in view. This is a theology that begins in the complexities of real life, listens for the Spirit in unexpected places, and insists that hope is never naïve, but necessary.
SB: You became a CTE President as part of your role as Moderator of the Free Churches Group – what does that involve?
TH-R: As Moderator of the Free Churches Group — an ecumenical body — for the term 2025–2028, I am responsible for overseeing 29 national denominations in the Non-Conformist, Evangelical and Pentecostal traditions that are part of this.
SB: What do you see as the main challenges today for the churches in the Free Churches Group?
TH-R: The 29 member denominations in the Free Churches Group are called to be present in communities facing real hardship. Lack of adequate healthcare, poverty, housing insecurity, and social isolation are not statistics. They are lived realities. They call us to action. At the same time, some of our churches might struggle to articulate a clear purpose. Others may wrestle with internal disagreements that threaten to distract from the Gospel we are called to embody. But none of this is new. The early church knew conflict. What matters is how we face it. When we invest in discipleship through Prison chaplaincy and other areas that is honest, when leadership is rooted in service and vision, and when we stay in conversation across difference, we create room for growth. Not just in numbers, but in spiritual depth. Our relevance in this society will not come from noise. It will come from faithfulness.
SB: It’s early days but how does it feel to be a CTE President?
TH-R: Yes, it is early days, but I have a sense that I have been offered an opportunity of important responsibility. It feels like being entrusted with something sacred. This is not a badge of honour to wear. It is a call to walk humbly, to listen deeply, and to hold the tensions of unity with integrity. I feel both the weight and the joy of it. And I step into it carefully, even though I know that I do not walk alone.
SB: What do you plan to bring to the role?
TH-R: I plan to bring my love for God and my gratefulness that God sent God’s son to live among us and show us how to live in God’s world, my listening ear, my genuine love for people, my strong sense of justice, my boldness, my discipleship love and my unique experiences of and in the world,
In this role, I carry a responsibility to model unity in a fractured world. It is less about status and more about service. It involves listening across traditions, helping to craft collective responses to national events, and nurturing relationships that make genuine collaboration possible. It involves working with colleagues and churches across denominational lines. I take this call seriously. It is a visible reminder that Christ’s prayer in John 17 still calls us. That we might be one. And that our unity bears witness to God’s ongoing work in the world.
I see this as a brilliant opportunity to serve as a visible symbol of Christian unity, enabling me to, not just talk the ecumenical talk, but to also walk it.
SB: What do you think are the current challenges facing English ecumenism? Where do you think there are opportunities?
TH-R: That is an enormous question, I pray I can do it justice. Ecumenism in England is navigating tough waters. The world is changing fast. The Church sometimes lags behind. Our biggest challenge is to stop performing cooperation and start practicing it. There is still too much mistrust. Too many unspoken fears and doubts.
And yet, there is an extraordinary opportunity. I see it in communities where churches work together for housing justice. I see it in shared liturgies that speak to new generations. The reality is that ecumenism is still relevant. And the question is; are we willing to do the honest, sometimes uncomfortable work that makes unity real? When we take that risk, something sacred happens.
Rev Dr Tessa became a CTE President at her installation in May 2025.
Watch Rev Dr Tessa’s keynote speech at CTE Forum 2025 Racial Justice and Reparations.