About

I’m Deputy Director (Insights and Engagement) in the Church of England’s Vision and Strategy team, where I lead the Insights and Engagement group working on how the Church understands itself in the midst of complexity. My work brings together theology, research, evaluation, and organisational learning to help leaders make sense of what is changing, what is not, and what that means for how we shape the future. A good deal of the job is about resisting overly simple narratives and helping the Church stay honest about the scale and texture of the change it is living through.

That theme — working in complexity — has run through much of my recent work. I have led major national programmes including Living in Love and Faith and Setting God’s People Free, both of which required sustained engagement with contested questions, multiple perspectives, and learning across difference, alongside the slower work of governance and long-term implementation. Alongside programme leadership, I regularly speak at national and diocesan events, synods, and conferences, and work with groups of bishops, clergy, and lay leaders in workshops and learning settings shaped by reflective practice. A current interest is the role of reflective practice in organisations, particularly how structured attention to experience can deepen judgement and sustain learning over time.

I have also worked with dioceses, national church bodies, and international Anglican and ecumenical partners on questions of ecclesial change — not simply how change is described, but how it is formed, resisted, and sustained in practice. This includes designing and leading learning communities for diocesan leaders, and contributing to senior leadership development across the National Church Institutions.

I am a practical theologian by training and inclination. My PhD and subsequent research explore discipleship, formation, and the dynamics of being Church in a secular age — particularly the gap between theological intention and organisational reality. Much of my writing focuses on how churches learn, how they unlearn, and how learning becomes shared rather than siloed. Recent work includes chapters on learning communities and theological education for ecclesial change in Theological Pedagogies (AOSIS, 2026).

Alongside my church role, I am a Visiting Scholar at Sarum College, Adjunct Associate Professor of Ecclesial Change at NLA University College in Bergen, and supervise doctoral research for the Archbishop’s Examination in Theology and the University of Roehampton. These roles keep me in conversation with people who are usually better at asking questions than answering them — which is how it should be.

Outside work, I run Parkrun (reasonably competitively for an older bloke), follow Crystal Palace with a current disbelief that things are actually going rather well, and remain convinced that some of the most useful insights in life arrive when you are not trying too hard to produce them.