accountability,catholic,discipling,electoral roll,evangelical,food bank,housing,mission,pentecostal,safeguarding,tradition,workload,youth

GENERAL SYNOD ELECTION 2026 · DIOCESE OF SOUTHWARK

THE REVD ANDREW TWESIGYE
CANDIDATE FOR GENERAL SYNOD · DIOCESE OF SOUTHWARK

PHOTO

CONTACT
[email protected]
PROPOSED BY
Revd Andrew Beswetherick, Assistant Minister
PTO, St John the Evangelist, Blackheath
SECONDED BY
Revd Joel Soares, Curate, St Peter's, Brockley,
soon incumbent within Southwark
WHO AM I
Married to Sahar, with four children.
Curate in Charge, St James, Kidbrooke,
Charlton Deanery.
Electoral roll 110. Average attendance 84
adults, 30 children.
PREVIOUS ROLES
• Curate in Charge, St James, Kidbrooke Jul
2025 to ongoing
• Ordinand, St Mellitus College Sept 2023 to
Jun 2025
• Leadership Team, St Peter's, Brockley Sept
2022 to Aug 2023
• Associate Pastor, Elim Denomination Jan
2015 to May 2021
• Managing Director, Offbeat (youth org,
Southwark) Sept 2006 to Dec 2015
I am standing for the first time for General Synod, bringing something a little
different: not years of incumbency, but current, frontline experience of
parish ministry in one of Southwark's growing churches, running the food
project, chasing the funding bid, and discipling a congregation week to
week. My own journey to faith has taken me through several traditions,
from a Catholic upbringing, through evangelical and Pentecostal worship as
a teenager, to pastoral leadership in another denomination, before God
called me into the Church of England, a home I found because it holds this
breadth together in one body. I believe Synod benefits from voices shaped
by that same breadth, and freshly and directly connected to what's
happening on the ground in our parishes.
I'd be grateful for your support in this election, and if these priorities
resonate, for your first, or a high, preference vote.
WHY I'M STANDING
I'm standing because of the particular vantage point my own journey gives
me: coming to the Church of England from other traditions, and to Britain as
a young person of African heritage. This has taught me to hold difference
and connection together with care, something I believe Synod desperately
needs more of in this polarised season. I don't want to represent one
faction or one theological tribe. My hope is to represent, with integrity,
parish clergy who are trying, faithfully and often quietly, to build growing,
generous, outward-facing churches, and to make sure their concerns are
heard where decisions are actually made.
OUR COMMUNITY
St James sits at the heart of Kidbrooke. Around 400 people pass through our
grounds each week, through Kids Church, Brownies, Scouts, SEN Focus and
Greenwich Food Bank. Our Friday Food Project reaches 30 families a month.
Our Villages (small weekly groups) and "Host and Roast" gatherings are
quietly rebuilding the parish's relational fabric, one table at a time, and it's
this everyday reality, not policy language, that I hope to bring into Synod's
conversations.

The Revd Andrew Twesigye · 1

GENERAL SYNOD ELECTION 2026 · DIOCESE OF SOUTHWARK
MY FOCUS ON GENERAL SYNOD
Parishes flourishing
Synod's decisions land directly on parishes like mine. I'd love to bring a voice that is closely engaged with the
food project and the funding bid, not just debating them from a distance. My hope is that Synod keeps the
revitalising and growing of worshipping congregations as a central, practical concern, and that resources,
financial and structural, flow more effectively from the national and diocesan level down to the parish, so
growth isn't limited to those already well-resourced.
The Church of England flourishing
I'm conscious of the pain and sensitivity around the Church's current tensions, and recognise they affect
people across every perspective; retreating to easy answers on either side doesn't serve us well. My aim is to
bring humility and honest listening to these conversations, holding the Church's tensions with integrity while
keeping front-line mission and ministry as Synod's central focus.
Clergy flourishing
My hope is that clergy are genuinely equipped, resourced and sustained for the mission they've been given,
rather than worn down by it. This touches workload, wellbeing and housing. It also means safeguarding that
is properly resourced and consistently applied at parish level, holding the Church to the highest standard of
care and accountability for the vulnerable.
CLOSE
I hope to represent the whole breadth of clergy across our diocese: not one tradition or faction, but the full
richness that makes the Church of England what it is. I want to listen carefully, speak honestly, and report
back faithfully after every group of sessions. I'd be grateful for your vote, and if these priorities resonate, for
your first, or a high, preference.
The Revd Andrew Twesigye · 2