Who s who? Speakers Andy Lester Fiona Wilkinson Simeon Mitchell Alex Clare-Young Kirsty Mabbott

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1 Who s who? Speakers Andy Lester Andy is the Conservation Director of the Christian charity A Rocha UK. Andy is a well known speaker, writer and newspaper columnist with a passion for reconnecting young Christians to the needs of the planet. He is married to Jacqui and lives in Southampton with their four children. Andy teaches kickboxing in his spare time and enjoys paddle-boarding, climbing and flute playing. Fiona Wilkinson Fiona is currently in her third year of a Zoology degree at Swansea University, following a gap year working as Education Officer for A Rocha UK. Her particular interest is in involving young people in caring for nature and developing innovative ideas for looking after wildlife in the UK. Simeon Mitchell Simeon has been the URC s Secretary for Church and Society since January He is passionate about enabling Christians to respond to poverty and injustice, and has previously worked for All We Can, Christian Aid and the Fairtrade Foundation. He lives in Oxford and has three children. Alex Clare-Young Alex (they/them) lives in Scarborough with their wife, Jo, is in their last year of training for URC ministry and is a theologian researching trans theologies of personhood at Birmingham University. As a transmasculine Christian, Alex is passionate about helping others to understand trans identities and supporting LGBT+ Christians. Kirsty Mabbott Kirsty is a Church Related Community Work minister in the URC. Kirsty s gender pronouns are Ze and Hir (pronounced Zee and Here). Ze is a radical liberation contextual theologian and a passionate social justice activist. Kirsty enjoys getting tattoos, piercings and dying hir hair rainbow colours. Ze loves reading and drinking funny smelling tea. 22

2 Worship Leader Katie Gravenor Katie is a primary school teacher from Kent. She has been involved with URC Youth since 2010 and was previously a Youth Executive member. She loves teaching, exploring Kent on the back of her husband s motorbike and leading intergenerational services at her church. Her passion is for everyone to be able to access worship. She is looking forward to seeing in which direction God leads us throughout this weekend. Messy Assembly Leader Hannah Middleton Hannah has a great history with Messy Church projects, school assemblies and holiday clubs. She has a passion for supporting and developing current children s work projects in churches, but also a very keen interest to see how churches can makes links with their local communities. Hannah s ethos is working from the ground up, from the youngest children and their families to the oldest ready to search and deepen their faith at events such as Youth Assembly and summer camps. Communion Leader Carole Marsden Carole grew up in the URC in Burnley exploring faith through FURY camps; inters, seniors and anchors aweigh. After studying music and classics at Keele Uni and a spell at Yardley Hastings Youth Centre, she trained for ministry in Manchester. This was an amazing experience and led to ordination into churches in Stockport in 2001 at the age of 25. Since then, she has been a training officer, ecumenical development worker, peripatetic music teacher and most recently served as a minister in Cumbria for 11 years. Carole is currently living in Shrewsbury serving churches in Oswestry and Shrewsbury whilst enjoying marathon training, brass banding and cake. Music Director Elinor Davies Elinor graduated from Bangor University with a BMus (Hons) Music with International Experience (2018) after spending her year abroad working at Virtuosi School of Music in The Hague. She is now back in the West Midlands working as a Special Educational Needs Teaching Assistant. She has been involved in music at church for a number of years in the West Midlands and more recently playing at Youth Assemblies and General Assembly She is very excited to be leading music at Youth Assembly for the first time and is looking forward to more musical opportunities to come. 23

3 Issue focussed workshops Katherine Buckland Karen Campbell Born to Jamaican parents, Karen is a sister of many, mother of one, Grandma of two. She grew up in Tottenham, North London, and is shaped by the joys and injustices of inner-city, multicultural life. She currently serve as Church Related Community Worker in the diverse, multi faith context of Luton. She is stubborn, resilient, and writes poetry as the output of an ever-active mind. She is the Convenor of Cascades of Grace: Voices of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women in the URC, and has just started a 3 year stint as co-editor of the URC Prayer Handbook. Ali Greaves Tom Hackett Tom Hackett is the Children and Youth Development Officer for Southern Synod. Before this, he worked for an International Development Charity and was a Secondary School Science teacher. He is passionate about social justice issues and is a volunteer visitor at Gatwick Immigration Detention Centres. In his spare time, Tom enjoys going for walks, exploring new places and watching films. Hannah Jones Maria Mills Maria is an elder and local church leader at Pilgrim Church in Plymouth. She was a member of the national equalities committee, served as racial justice advocate for the South Western Synod and now serves on the executive committee for the Synod. Maria works for the Methodist Church running a local outreach centre which offers adult education, a Foodbank, pastoral support and a community hub. She has been married for 42 years and has two sons and seven grandchildren. In 2015, she was awarded the MBE for services to the people of Plymouth, a great surprise and honour which she will never forget. 24

4 Steven Mitchell Steven Mitchell is the CYDO for Mersey Synod. He s been married for 15 years and has two, ever so slightly annoying children. He is also an award winning filmmaker and does visual effects work for music videos and short films in his spare time. He recently saw Matilda: the Musical in London and sobbed his little heart out but please don t hold that against him. Simon Peters Simon Peters has missed only one Youth Assembly in the past 13 years. He feels so old now! He studied Theology at Glasgow before volunteering with the Mission House in Amsterdam, working as a student Healthcare Chaplain back in Scotland and completing his MTh in Groningen. He served as the URC s Children s and Youth Work Programme Officer before taking up his role as project manager for Walking the Way, the URC s emphasis on Missional Discipleship, in January When he s not working, you ll likely find him singing in a choir, on a steam train or practicing being a train announcer. Sam Richards Dr Sam Richards is the Head of Children s and Youth Work for the URC. She was previously a youth worker and trainer. At Youth Assembly she is on a mission to help young people to find ways of praying that fit their personality, passions and lifestyles. She helps lead an all-age fresh expression of church called maybe Community in Oxford. When not plotting a youth take-over of the church, she can be found shouting at rugby and cycling, singing random songs, scoffing posh plain chocolate, and jumping in puddles (occasionally all at once). Leo Roberts Leo is a musical prodigy. At least that s what he thinks the teacher said (it might have been wannabee, we ll never know.) His songs have been recorded by a number of artists that you won t ever have heard of, and have had airtime on local radio and podcasts. He has not cracked America, yet. But neither has Adele. He s a nice bloke, though, and still has time for ordinary people like yourselves. John Sanderson John Sanderson is the minister of Rutherglen URC a church he has served for the past 20 years. At different times he has been involved in a number of community groups most recently the Rutherglen and Cambuslang Foodbank which he helped to set up. He is married to Lindsey and they 25

5 have two daughters, Hannah and Morven, who will also be attending Youth Assembly. John is currently Secretary of the Synod Youth Committee and is a leader of Criss-Cross (Rutherglen URC s youth group). In his spare time he enjoys hill-walking, D.I.Y. and bowling. Kevin Snyman Can you believe that before 2018 Kevin had never tasted the juice from a freshly plucked Amazonian coconut? Incredible. He d also never been the Programme Officer for Global Justice and Partnerships for the URC. Astounding. He is, however, reported to be remarkably skilled at crafting African apple pie and American fridge cheese cake. Rumour has it that Kevin may well be serving samples of his culinary artwork at his upcoming Youth Assembly workshop. You may also see him wandering around the place with a Canon camera. Victoria Turner Victoria is currently studying a Master s in World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh with a particular focus on ecumenism and mission. Although she has moved across the UK for her studies, she has always been part of the lovely National Synod of Wales and will always see her home church in Cardiff as her prime worshipping community. She has participated in many mission programmes with the Council for World Mission. She feels blessed with the opportunities she has had to explore mission with Christians from all around the world who have inspired her to study. She is also a Taekwondo European Champion and British Kickboxing Champion! Ruth White Ruth is the CYDO for Wessex South and enjoys anything creative as long as the emphasis is on it being a quality piece at the end. She has been a member of the craftivist collective for a few years now and enjoys using crafted items to encourage discussion and challenge thinking. Looking forward to getting creative together. 26