The Rt. Rev James Langstaff has been Bishop of Rochester since
December 2010. Prior to this he was the Suffragan Bishop of Lynn in the
Diocese of Norwich and also served in the Diocese of Birmingham in
various parishes for 18 years. Bishop James trained for Ordained ministry
at St John’s College, Nottingham. His first degree was in Philosophy,
Politics and economics at St Catherine’s College, Oxford.
Bishop James has a particular interest in urban regeneration initiatives
and social and affordable housing. He is Chair of Housing Justice.
Of his times as Bishop of Lynn, he says, “I have especially valued and
enjoyed the opportunities to visit parishes and get to know the clergy and
lay leaders. The concept of a Christian presence in every neighbourhood
is one that I value greatly. Financial and other challenges are often
considerable and in many places, people are responding with imagination
and prayerful commitment. Fruit is being borne for the Kingdom.”
Bishop James is married to Bridget and they have two children, Alasdair, a
married chef living in Birmingham and Helen studying Forensic
Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh.
Mark Russell was appointed as Chief Executive of Church Army at the
age of 31 in 2006. In this role he leads a society of over 300 full-time
Evangelists and is an advocate for evangelism in the wider church. He is a
sought-after conference speaker for events such as New Wine, Alpha
Home Focus, Soul Survivor and other national conferences. He has been
a contributor on the BBC’s Heaven and Earth Show, Sky News, BBC
Radio 4’s PM and various BBC regional radio shows. Mark is a natural
evangelist and has led missions in many countries around the world such
as China, Finland, Australia, USA and Sweden.
Mark is a member of the Archbishops’ College of Evangelists, a Reader in
the Church of England, and sits on the Council of Evangelical Alliance.
He is a member of the Council of Reference for Youth for Christ, and for
Fusion student ministry. Mark is also an Honorary Canon of Worcester
Cathedral.
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, says of Mark: “he has an
infectious love for Jesus Christ and a refreshing commitment to
evangelism that the church needs right now!”
Linda McGowan has worked in the housing and homeless sector for over
10 years, including working as a volunteer in a drop-in centre and as a
reading mentor with disengaged children. She has spent over 6 years as a
specialist advisor at the Department for Communities and Local
Government in the Housing and Homelessness Directorate providing
advice and assistance to the government on developing policies as well as
assisting local housing authorities and their partners to develop their
services with a focus on tackling and preventing homelessness;
developing and delivering training staff & management; undertaking
service reviews and facilitating service users groups.
Prior to that Linda worked for the Government Office for Yorkshire and the
Humber, as a programme manager within the strategic housing
department. A professional qualification in Human Resources along with a
Master Degree in Housing Studies adds to her wealth of practical
experience.
Alison Gelder was appointed as the second Director of Housing Justice
(formerly the Catholic Housing Aid Society) in August 2006. After taking a
Law degree at Warwick University (1978) and a Masters in Information
Science at City University (1980) Alison spent several years in senior
management at British Telecom. In 1991 Alison went back to university, to
Lucy Cavendish College Cambridge, where she studied theology and
carried out post-graduate research in business ethics.
In 2001 Alison ran the largest ever survey of church-going in the UK and
then worked as a social researcher specialising in church-based social
action before joining the newly formed Housing Justice as its Director of
External Affairs in October 2003.
John Battle was the first National Coordinator of Church Action on
Poverty and the former MP for Leeds West (1987-2010).
He is currently engaged in Leeds Community Organising and projects with
ex offender rehabilitation
Neil Hewitt of Triodos Bank is responsible for managing a team of
Relationship Managers which collectively provides a total of £420 million
of funding into Social Housing, Charities, Social Enterprises, Health, Care,
Faith Groups and Arts & Culture sectors. In addition to supporting the 460
borrowing customers, the team manages over 600 deposit relationships,
with funds entrusted exceeding £34 million.
This diversity enables Neil to understand the challenges that each of these
very different sectors are facing, both on a strategic and operational level.
Neil is committed to making a difference, and based on the Triodos
banking model, is convinced that with more conscious use of money, we
can deliver a more sustainable future.
Catherine Harrington is the National Coordinator of the National CLT
Network. The National CLT Network promotes and supports the work of
CLTs across England and is hosted by, but independent of, the National
Housing Federation. Prior to joining the Network, Catherine was a Policy
Advisor in Housing Supply at the Department for Communities and Local
Government, and has worked at Notting Hill Housing and at the Institute
for Public Policy Research.
Pastor Pete Cunningham is Founder and Director of Green pastures. He
was born and grew up in London. Born again at 21 after riotous teenaged
living, his early working life was spent in the Share Market. Later, in the
ministry, he pastored several Churches before taking on a small
congregation in Southport in 1993. The Church has grown considerably
since then.
Pastor Pete has always had a heart for the broken and homeless, feeding
them and providing shelter anywhere possible, even in a caravan on the
Church car park. When a desperate young family came along in 1999,
Pastor Pete cashed in his £6,000 pension plan and, he, his son Andrew,
and co-director Vicki Woodley, purchased two flats for cash. This led to
the founding of Green Pastures.
Anyone meeting Pete sees his love for humanity shining through - his
infectious laugh and bright smile light up those around him. This love for
his Saviour, and his taking literally His command to love all men, has
yielded an impressive harvest, by any standards. Green Pastures has
grown from simply loving and caring for people that society forgets. Pete is
married to Linda Jean since 1969, they have six children and sixteen
grand children.
Jon Fitzmaurice started work with Shape Housing Association in inner
city Birmingham, renovating empty properties with young unemployed
people for homeless families. He later moved into mainstream housing
running the NHF ‘s London Region and as one of the directors at London
& Quadrant Housing Trust. Over the years he’s been a member of a
number of housing association boards and a Trustee of Shelter.
His interest in mobilizing people to secure housing for themselves never
waned and seeing community led self-help housing in decline, in 2009, he
set up Self-Help Housing.Org. in partnership with HACT “Quite a few
large housing associations started out as small local initiatives, but over
the years access to funding has become more complicated and exclusive.
However using empty property can provide a starting point from which to
develop new initiatives, without the need for capital finance. The project
supports existing organizations and promotes new initiatives around the
country. In recent months he’s been heavily involved in working with
DCLG on promoting the £30m Empty Homes Community Grants
Programme
www.self-help-housing.org
Robert Morris has worked extensively in the field of housing co-op
support, with organisations such as Co-operatives London, Radical
Routes and Friendly Housing Action.
He is a founder member of The Drive Housing Co-operative in NE
London, and most recently working on a co-operative eco-house project.
Dawn Lonsdale, previously Laity Development Adviser for Derby
Diocese, has been 'Chief Officer' at Unlock since July 2004. Her role is the
strategic management of Unlock, including the development of Unlock
Local Projects and Discipleship Development Worker posts, and
promotion of Unlock's mission and method.
She lives and worships in Heanor, in a former coalfield area in Derbyshire.
Rev Paul Reily works as the Winter Shelter Liaison for Housing Justice
which involves supporting Shelters, developing new ones and working to
bring them all into a wider 'family' of Night Shelters in the UK. Prior to this
he served as a Vicar in the Anglican church for almost 20 years. His work
amongst homeless people started in Waltham Forest, where he was
involved with others in re-establishing the night shelter. His passion is to
see this ministry as an integrated part of our Christian discipleship.
He likes most things outdoors, and has recently run the London marathon
for Housing Justice.
Dave Smith is founder and director of the Boaz Trust, a Manchester
charity supporting and accommodating destitute asylum seekers, and coordinator of NACCOM, the national network of 'No Accommodation'
projects.
His passion is to see the Christian Church mobilised into positive action
for the marginalised, particularly those who are seeking sanctuary in the
UK from persecution and injustice.
Gina Clayton is a non-practising solicitor, chair of South Yorkshire
Refugee Law and Justice and a trustee of City of Sanctuary. She was
involved in voluntary sector housing and homelessness projects in the
1970s and 1980s, and from 1990 to 1994 acted for tenants in public sector
housing litigation as supervising solicitor at Sheffield Law Centre. After
establishing the teaching of immigration and asylum law at the University
of Huddersfield, and writing the Oxford University Press textbook on the
subject, she became involved as a volunteer with ASSIST Sheffield, which
supports destitute asylum seekers including through hosting, gifted
houses, and rooms in managed houses. Since March 2010 she has been
chair of ASSIST.
She is a Buddhist in the Pureland tradition, with a degree in Christian
theology.
Ruth Batty has been Director for CHAS @ St Vincent’s since Dec 2006.
She was originally employed as a Housing Officer for both Selby and York
District Council’s before moving into customer involvement. Ruth has been
employed in the voluntary sector since 2001, originally working for a new
local Charity in York, setting up award winning community services and
facilities. After a short period volunteering in a Sri Lankan orphanage she
became Project Development Manager for CHAS Kirklees. Her passion
for direct community involvement led to her being elected the first Chair of
Kirklees Voluntary Action Network.
Helen Loosemore is Homeless Link's Regional Manager for Yorkshire
and the Humber. She works across the Yorkshire and Humber region
delivering the two Homeless Link goals to:
 raise standards in the services that support homeless people and
tackle homelessness

influence the development of policy, strategy and investment at all
levels of government.
Helen has been the Homeless Link Regional Manager in Yorkshire and
the Humber since June 2011. Before this she worked for Lambeth
Borough Council commissioning homelessness and rough sleeping
services. Helen is originally from Yorkshire and prior to moving to London
to work for Lambeth Council she worked in supported housing services in
both Manchester and Leeds.
Tasmin Maitland is a Good Practice Officer at Homeless Link and leads
on the Day Centres Project, providing service development and good
practice support to day services in England, and promoting partnership
working between day centres, other voluntary agencies and local
authorities.
Since starting as a volunteer in 2003 she has worked in a number of roles
in the homelessness sector, including project manager of a service for
rough sleepers with complex needs.
Tracey Bessant is Coordinator of the Faith in Affordable Housing Project
for Housing Justice.
In 2006, as part of her Community Development degree at the University
of Gloucestershire, Tracey undertook research into the provision of
affordable housing on glebe land, with the aims of contributing to the
development of innovative and effective solutions to rural affordable
housing need and improving the understanding of housing issues in the
Church of England. The findings, Faith Inaction?, were supported by
DEFRA and cited in the Affordable Rural Housing Commission Report
(2006). Since then she has been the Project Coordinator for Faith in
Affordable Housing, led by the charity Housing Justice. In 2009 it launched
a free online guide, Using Church Land and Property for Affordable
Housing, and in late 2010 the project received funding for her to develop
an enabling role with churches for a further three years.
Tracey is a committed local activist and has been involved in conducting a
Parish Plan, a Housing Needs Survey and delivering affordable housing in
the rural community in which she lives. She has also been previously
engaged in consultancy work with the New Economics Foundation on
developing a participatory tool (DEMOCS) for affordable housing and has
trialled a rural Planning for Real© participation tool for the Neighbourhood
Initiatives Foundation. Other projects have included working with housing
associations to support people with mental health issues.
Tracey can be contacted at t.bessant@housingjustice.org.uk or on 01242
620623 (between 9am–1pm weekdays).
Richard Trahair has recently retired from being a Chartered Surveyor in
estate management and Property Secretary for the Diocese of Salisbury,
a role he had held since 1981. He has set up several schemes on glebe
land for affordable housing for local people, with more still in the pipeline.
This led to Board membership of the Churches National Housing Coalition
in 1996, chairing the management group for Church Land and Property,
Regenerate, and their predecessor projects. He is also a member of the
steering group for Faith in Affordable Housing and a Trustee of Housing
Justice.
Richard’s other roles include: Justice of the Peace (South East Wiltshire
Magistrates Bench), Board Member of Wiltshire Rural Housing
Association [to 2008], Chairman of Alvediston Parish Meeting [Local
Authority] and Trustee of the Village Hall, etc. He has also been involved
in the running of the local parish church in a small village on the
Wiltshire/Dorset border since 1978.
Phil Stone has been Director of Scargill House for the last 2 years which
is a home for a Christian community offering hospitality, holidays,
conferences and retreats. Scargill has been working in partnership with
Housing Justice on a couple of projects. Before moving to North Yorkshire
he was a Team Rector and Area Dean in the London Diocese. Before
ordination Phil with his wife Di led two community houses for homeless
people in the East End.
Phil is a life long Spurs fan - someone has to be!
Sheffield Cathedral Archer Project
The Cathedral Archer Project is a day centre where homeless adults can
come that is welcoming, warm and safe. We offer crisis support that
includes hot meals, clothing, access to telephones, showers and laundry
facilities as well as being a postal address. We also offer medical and
dental care and general well being support.
One of our key aims is to help our clients move away from homelessness,
so we support them finding accommodation and signpost them to
agencies that are best able to deal with their many requirements from
benefits advice to drug and alcohol support. However, this is only the
starting point. The Cathedral Archer Project offers occupational and
educational activities to help built skills and confidence towards our clients
changing their lives. They range from table tennis and film club to
gardening and basic DIY. With increased confidence the clients can then
take part in our volunteer development programme which helps them learn
about responsibilities and trust and they begin to work towards being work
ready.
For more details about the Cathedral Archer Project, please visit our
website at www.archerproject.org.uk You can also follow us on Facebook:
Archer Proj or Twitter: @archerproject
Born in 1958 Philip Jakob spent the first 14 years after graduation from
Hull University as a secondary school music teacher in North London and
briefly in Manchester. He also managed to combine these responsibilities
with a variety of organist/choirmaster posts in the Catholic Church and
touring Europe as organ accompanist and soloist.
Since 1994 he has been Director of Music for the Cathedral and Diocese
of Hallam. He presents the cathedral as a model for the diocese with
music for the congregation at the core of his activity. His choice of music
reflects this focus as does also his work in the schools and churches of
the diocese and elsewhere. He is a published composer of liturgical
music.
Philip is in wide demand as liturgical animator at conferences across the
country and has worked on numerous occasions with John Bell and the
Wild Goose Resource Group. Philip is a Member of the Iona Community.