Appointment of new Ecumenical Officer

John Richardson, the Ecumenical Officer from 2005 - 2015, stepped down at the end of March 2015 and is replaced by Claire Crowley.

Claire lives in Brockley and is a member of The Bear Community Church in Deptford.  She currently works for Springs Dance Company, building relationships with churches of all traditions to develop audiences and participants for performance and workshop projects. She was born and educated in South London, has an MA in Philosophy and Theology from Keble College Oxford, an MA in Dance Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of Durham. She has been a teacher of Religious Studies and an Expert Examiner in the subject, and was the Deputy Director of Dance UK before moving to Namibia with VSO to work with a youth arts NGO. During her career she has gathered a range of ecumenical experiences including the Benedictine community at Stanbrook Abbey, a Pentecostal Church in the township of Windhoek and St Michael's Anglican Church in Paris.   

In her application, she wrote of being passionate about churches working and witnessing together, acknowledging that the path to Christian unity was not straight or swift to travel, she looked forward to recognising and celebrating what we have in common, to promoting the vision of Christian unity and to supporting its outworking in various forms.