About

ASSOCIATES

Ekklesia associates are people with particular interests and expertise who periodically contribute to our work and who support the endeavour of engaging transformative theological perspectives with a thoughtful analysis of religion in public life. They broadly identify with Ekklesia's approach, but are not institutionally tied to us.

Savitri Hensman was born in Sri Lanka. She works in the voluntary sector in community care and equalities, is a respected writer on Christianity and social justice, and was a long-standing member of the Jubilee Group, a network of radical Anglo-Catholics and others. She was a founder of the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre.

Vic Thiessen is programme director of the London Mennonite Centre, which offers resources and seminars on peace, reconciliation, social justice and radical Christian discipleship in the Anabaptist tradition. From Canada, his interests include theology and culture, particularly film. He is co-author of the On The Movies weblog.

Sarah Hill has worked in various roles for evangelical agency Tearfund since 1989. She is currently in the Knowledge & Information Management team. A founder member of 'Accepting Evangelicals' she was for several years the conference co-coordinator of the Evangelical Fellowship For Lesbian and Gay Christians.

Vaughan Jones is a URC minister at Bethnal Green Meeting House in East London. He is director of Praxis, a multi-agency NGO working with displaced people in London. With expertise in the role of faith communities in social and political action, he is author of Are Immigration Controls Moral? (Ekklesia, 2005) and Take, Bless, Break, Give (Granary Press, 2003), which features prayers and liturgy from ecumenical and inner city contexts.

Douglas Hynd is a civil servant and also lectures at St Mark's National Theological Centre in Canberra, Australia. He is Vice President of the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ), signatory to a radical biblical statement on Christian confession in today's world, and contributes regularly to Ekklesia.

Michael Marten is an Edinburgh-based historian and political scientist specialising in international issues, with a particular focus on the involvement of Europeans overseas, especially in the Middle East. He has taught Middle East history and politics in the Department of Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and is a guest lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Study, University of Pavia, Italy. He has contributed to the forthcoming Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Christianity and to Christianity and Jerusalem: Theology and Politics in the Holy Land, ed. Anthony O'Mahony (Gracewing: 2007).

David Wood is an Australian-based writer, theologian and commentator. He is author of Poet, Priest and Prophet (CTBI: 2002), an intellectual biography of the late Bishop John V Taylor, one of the most widely acclaimed ecumenical mission theologians of the twentieth century. More recently he contributed to Consuming Passion (DLT: 2005). He is parish priest of Grace Church Joondalup and Anglican Chaplain to Edith Cowan University, Perth.

Giles Fraser is Anglican vicar of Putney in south London. A respected media commentator, he writes for The Guardian and The Church Times. He teaches philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford, and was a founder of the InclusiveChurch movement. His books include Christianity with Attitude (Canterbury Press, 2007), Redeeming Nietzsche: On the Piety of Unbelief (Taylor & Francis, 2002), and Christianity and Violence (DLT, 2001).

Theo Hobson is a freelance theologian and commentator. He writes for The Guardian and The Spectator. A trenchant Protestant critic of institutional religion and 'churchianity', his books include Against Establishment: An Anglican Polemic (2003) and Anarchy, Church and Utopia: Rowan Williams on Church (2005) - both published by Darton, Longman and Todd.

CONSULTANTS

Ekklesia is able to draw on the critical advice and contribution of a wide range of people with expertise drawn from church, academic, social policy, ecumenical, inter-denominational, political, conflict transformation and research backgrounds - both practicing Christians, and those from other faith or non-religious traditions; in Britain and Ireland, and worldwide.

Charletta Erb has worked with Lombard Mennonite Peace Center in Chicago, IL, USA - an organisation which seeks to encourage the non-violent transformation of conflict locally and globally. She was formerly on the staff of Bridge Builders in London, and has written for Mediation UK. She is a musician.

Tim Nafziger has been active with Christian Peacemaker Teams in the UK, USA and Colombia. In 2006 he returned to the USA after working with the Anabaptist Network UK, and supporting Ekklesia and other projects. He is a web developer and writer, and blogs at The Mennonite magazine: http://www.themennonite.org/bloggers/timjn.

Martin Reynolds is a priest of the Church in Wales and director of communications for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.

Joe Baker runs Eleutheria, which offers a full-service design portfolio "dedicated to creating beauty and utility for web design, new media and print design" - including, recently, Ekklesia. He is involved in Peace Church.

Dan Stork-Banks works for the police service and is involved in a professional association of Christian police officers. A convinced evangelical, he is concerned to develop alternative approaches to conflict involving religion and identity in public life.

Janet de Vigne runs the independent publishing company on spirituality and change, Shoving Leopard - http://www.shovingleopard.com/ . She is a singer, actor and impresario.

Rebecca Loader is a researcher for the Office for Public Management Ltd. She works on public policy issues and has an academic background in religious studies at the University of Cambridge.

CONTRIBUTORS

In addition to associates and consultants, over the past five years Ekklesia has published features and analysis from a wide range of commentators including: Johan Maurer (Quaker writer and minister, Portland OR), Patricia Gaffney (Pax Christi), Glynn Cardy (St Matthew-in-the-City, Auckland, Aoteroa), Chaiwat Satha-Anand Foundation for Democracy and Development Studies, Thammasat University in Thailand), Peggy Gish (CPT, USA), Frank Regan SSC (Catholic religious), Chris Cole (Fellowship of Reconciliation), Andrew Copson (British Humanist Association), Chris Rowland (Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford), Hazel Southam (journalist, former editor, Baptist Times), Nick Adams (Lecturer in Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics at New College Edinburgh), Ron Kraybill (professor of conflict studies at Eastern Mennonite University), Sergio Carranza-Gomez (assistant Episcopal bishop in a heavily Latino area of southern California; formerly Bishop of Mexico), Catherine Masden (contributing editor for CrossCurrents, the journal of the Association for Religion & Intellectual Life), Malcolm Duncan (Faithworks, UK), Mark LeVine (Professor of modern Middle Eastern history, culture and Islamic studies at the University of California), Micah Hampson (Epiphany Trust), Jerry Hames (North American religion journalist), Maggi Dawn, (chaplain, Robinson College, Cambridge), Julian Sheffield (Maine, USA), Deidre Good (Professor of New Testament, General Theological Seminary, New York City, USA), Jonathan Dorsett (Peace School, Anvil Trust), Andrew J. Weaver (United Methodist minister, research psychologist, New York USA), Alison Goodlad (St Stephen's, Exeter), Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury), Ted Huffman (pediatrician and political columnist), John Sentamu (Archbishop of York), Martin Marty (University of Chicago), Colin M. Morris (Methodist writer and broadcaster), Juan Michel (World Council of Churches; from the Evangelical Church of the River Plate in Buenos Aires, Argentina), Jerome Eric Copulsky (director and assistant professor of Judaic Studies at Virginia Tech, VA), Jo Rathbone (Eco-congregations project coordinator for England and Wales), Pearl Duncan (writer on slavery, New York), Ann Pettifor (political economist), Peter Tatchell (human rights campaigner and Green politician), Robert P. Baird (managing editor, Chicago Review), Lord Alton of Liverpool, James Walters (parliamentary researcher, globalisation expert), Desmond Tutu (Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate), Will Braun (editor, Geez magazine), Timothy Seidel (Mennonite Central Committee - Palestine), John Dear (Catholic priest and peace activist), William Schweiker (Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School, director of the Martin Marty Center), Jean BlaylockAndrew Bradstock (Christian Socialist Movement), Keith Clements (former gen sec, Conference of European Churches), Justin Thacker (Head of Theology, Evangelical Alliance UK), Robert Rhodes (Mennonite Weekly Review), Ken Tanner (writer, Charismatic Episcopal Church, Chicago), Shawn F. Peters (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), Simon Sarmiento (Thinking Anglicans, UK), Tony Cross (Courage, evangelical lesbian and gay organisation), Claire Shelley (Christian Aid, Scotland), David Ford (Ford-Peacock Consultancy, UK), Mark Vernon (writer, religiously-inspired agnostic), Jane Stranz (URC minister working for the WCC in Geneva), Peter Heslam (Cambridge University / London Institute for Contemporary Christianity), Steve Fouch (Christian Medical Fellowship), Fredrick Nzwili (Kenyan journalist, Ecumenical News International correspondent), Garth Hewitt (Honourary Canon of St George's Cathedral, Jerusalem), Annegret Kapp (World Council of Churches' web editor, member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Württemberg, Germany), Harry Hagopian (ecumenical, legal & political consultant, Armenian Church UK, former MECC), Kevin Boyd (Director of Field Education and Church Relations at the Chicago Divinity School in Illinois, USA), Michael Roberts (Anglican priest, geological scientist), Ben White (writer on Israel-Palestine), Richard Skinner (poet, therapist and researcher on into evolutionary psychology), Kersten Storch (German Lutheran pastor, WCC Faith & Order Commission), Symon Hill (Quaker, Campaign Against Arms Trade), Kathleen LaCamera (United Methodist Church News Service correspondent in England), Tina Beattie (Reader in Christian studies, Roehampton University), Spencer Dew (University of Chicago, USA), Brian Collins (University of Chicago), Walt Wiltschek (Church of the Brethren USA, Messenger magazine), and a range of Christian Peacemaker Teams members: Amy Peters, Jerry Levin (USA), Maureen Jack, Jim Loney (Canada), Harmeet Singh Sooden (New Zealand), Norman Kember, Paul Mukerji, Gene Stoltzfus (USA), David Cockburn, Christy Bischoff, Jan Benvie, Justin Alexander, and others.

Contributors do not necessarily subscribe to all the views expressed by Ekklesia

NEWS REPORTERS

Those who have contributed to the daily news briefing periodically include John Cooper, Mike Crockett, Hazel Southam, Fran Race, Gary Hopkins, Mark Porthouse, Jordan Tchilingirian and Ed Thornton. We are grateful to Stephen Brown and the reporting team of Ecumenical News International, a noted independent world news service, whose material we syndicate alongside other global sources. A significant number of stories are also contributed by the Ekklesia co-directors - these are not bylined.