Churches Together Announce New Key Appointments

|TOP|Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) has this week announced the appointment of two key personnel, covering interfaith relations and international affairs.

The Revd Bob Fyffe, CTBI’s recently appointed General Secretary, said, “This is good news for Churches Together. With the Revd Canon Flora Winfield and the Revd Peter Colwell in post, together with Mary Gandy as Deputy General Secretary, the reshaped CTBI now has a new team of senior staff.

“We are looking forward to working with the Churches Together bodies in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England to enable the British and Irish Churches to think, work and pray together.”

The Revd Canon Flora Winfield has been appointed to the post of CTBI’s Secretary for International Affairs.

|QUOTE|She will remain Special Adviser to the Secretary General of the World Conference on Religions for Peace, for which she has been Assistant Secretary General.

Canon Winfield said, “The work of Religions for Peace is about conflict resolution, bringing together religious leaders of all faiths to engage in peace processes during conflict and in post conflict situations.”

For instance in March this year it enabled the Inter Religious Council for Iraq, which brings together the most senior religious leaders in Iraq, to meet together in London for five days.

A CTBI statement states: “The emphasis of Religions for Peace is on building trust, developing relations and confidence among people who have lived in intractable conflict. It entails a long patient process, from which may evolve personal commitments to finding solutions in a peaceful way, rejecting violence.”

Canon Winfield was ordained as a deacon in 1989, and ordained as a priest in 1994. She is also Canon Emeritus of Winchester Cathedral and Chaplain to the Forces (Territorial Army). She was county ecumenical officer for Gloucester and then Local Unity Secretary for the Church of England Council for Christian Unity from 1997 to 2002. She has also been a member of the Enabling Group of Churches Together in England.

|AD|In addition to her appointment, The Revd Peter Colwell has accepted the post to be CTBI’s new Secretary for Inter Faith Relations.

Rev Colwell is a United Reformed Church Minister, who was ordained in 1994, and serves as their Adviser on Christian-Muslim Relations.

He has been deputy Director of the London Inter Faith Centre which has involved him in local grassroots inter faith work but also interreligious work both at national and international levels – the latter has taken him to the Middle East, India, Sri Lanka, Korea, Myanmar and Indonesia.

In addition, he has also served as a local church minister, most recently at St Anne’s and St Andrew’s Church of England/URC Ecumenical Partnership.

Rev Colwell said. “Interfaith relations has become a political and religious necessity. International events impact significantly on local communities and as such inter faith relations has risen as a priority for the Christian Churches in their concern for the welfare of society and as they seek to be faithful to the calling of Christ to love our neighbour as ourselves.”

He added, “This obligation to reach out to our neighbour has become more an imperative since the attacks in London on 7 July 2005. The challenge for the future will be to not only support existing interfaith initiatives but to find new and creative ways of encouraging different people and religious groups to engage with one another.”

A CTBI statement has also announced that Mrs Mary Gandy has recently taken up the post of Deputy General Secretary of CTBI, with responsibility for the Church and Society Forum and related work.

She has a social studies degree from the University of Kent and trained and worked originally as a social worker. From 1992 to 2002 she was General Secretary of the Catholic Child Welfare Council, a national umbrella body for Catholic care services to children and families, whose functions were taken over by Caritas–Social Action when it was set up in 2003.

For five years she was also Secretary to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference Committee for Social Welfare. Recently she has worked for the National Council of Women of Great Britain and for English Heritage.

Although a Catholic since the 1980s, Mary Gandy was brought up in the Methodist Church and has broad ecumenical experience.

She has stated her belief that Christians, and those from all faith communities, must not be afraid to engage fully in public discussions about political, social and ethical issues.