General Synod Election Candidates 2026

Election Address
Dear friends and colleagues,
I am offering myself for election to the House of Clergy of the General Synod, looking to
serve the Diocese of Durham with commitment and integrity.
I have served as an Associate Priest since 2007 in the benefice of Durham, St
Margaret’s, Nevilles Cross, St John and Bearpark, St Edmund’s. This ministry has rooted
me in the everyday life of local churches and communities: worship, pastoral care,
listening, prayer, and the steady work of sharing the love of Christ in ordinary places.
Since 2021 I have also served as Diocesan Chaplain working with Gypsy, Roma, and
Traveller peoples. This work has deepened my commitment to social justice and to
racial justice, and to a Church that listens to people whose voices are too often
overlooked. I believe that the Church of England is called to be present with humility, to
challenge prejudice, and to speak and act for the dignity of every person made in the
image of God.
Before and alongside ordained ministry, I have had many years’ experience working in
the National Health Service as a physician with people living with neurological
conditions. That experience has shaped my pastoral and theological awareness of
vulnerability, suffering, disability, care, conscience, and the complex questions now
being raised in society, including those around assisted dying. I would bring to General
Synod a desire to listen carefully, think deeply, and hold together compassion,
discernment, and Christian hope.
My priorities are mission, social justice, and racial justice. I believe mission is
proclaiming afresh the faith in every generation, and it begins locally, in parishes,
chaplaincies, schools, hospitals, estates, villages, and city streets, wherever the
Church is called to be a faithful presence. Whilst General Synod must attend to
national and international issues, it must also keep a clear focus of the realities faced
by local churches and the communities they serve.
I have no hidden agendas. If elected, I would seek to listen well, think pastorally and
theologically, and take account of changing issues within society, at home and abroad.
I would hope to represent Durham clergy honestly and with care. I believe that General
Synod should help our church to become more representative of our times and
communities through its work on doctrine, liturgy, training, and ecumenism, and I would
like to play some part in helping to achieve this.
I would be grateful for your support.

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