Who's Who

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Name: Stephen Roberts

Position: Vice Principal and Dean of Residential Training

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Stephen joined the staff of St Mike's in September 2004, having previously served for 13 years in the Diocese of London as a Curate, Team Vicar and University Chaplain. Previously he studied Theology at King's College London and trained for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. His Chaplaincy experience led to an interest in inter faith relations and related theological questions, and this is where his research interests are currently focussed. Having completed an MA in Christianity and Inter-religious Dialogue at Heythrop College, University of London, he is now working on a PhD in the area of religious diversity in the public sphere, also at Heythrop. Stephen is married to Debbie and they have three children. To keep fit he enjoys playing squash, and for his artistic re-creation he plays Jazz Saxophone. Having spent nearly all of his life in London, he is thoroughly enjoying the very different context of Wales.

Research

Stephen's research interests are in the area of inter-religious dialogue and encounter. He is interested both in the particular dialogues - such as Christian-Muslim, Christian-Jewish and Christian-Buddhist dialogue - and in the more general theological questions relating to dialogue: how does Christianity make theological space for other religions? What is the nature of truth implicit or explicit in different approaches to dialogue? What can be said theologically about the practice of dialogue itself? He is currently working on questions relating to religious diversity in the public sphere, looking at ways in which multicultural societies can be peacefully ordered without religious (and other) convictions being rendered purely private. He is pursuing this question through engagement with liberal and communitarian thinkers in the realm of political philosophy on the one hand, and Muslim thinkers on the other. He hopes to formulate a Christian approach based on a dialogue with these two strands of thought.

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Name: Sheryl Williams-Gascoigne

Position: Course Administrator, Residential Training and Conference and Accommodation Administrator

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Name: Rosemary Aldis

Position: Group Tutor

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Rosemary was born and brought up in Cardiff but has spent most of her working life in South East Asia. For the first 19 years she was based in Indonesia, where she taught physics in government universities and worked with the campus Christian Fellowships. She was also deeply involved with the Protestant Church in West Indonesia, who ordained her as a minister in early 1980.

From 1987 to 1998 Rosemary was based in Singapore as the International Director for Personnel of OMF International, a large interdenominational mission focussing on East Asia and East Asians. She returned to the UK in 1998 and, following completion of an MA in missiology, went back to Indonesia 2 years later to teach in an ecumenical Theological College in West Java.

Rosemary returned to Cardiff in April 2005 and was re-ordained into the Church in Wales (of which she has been a member for over 60 years) in June and December 2005. Rosemary serves as a an honorary NSM at St Mark's, Gabalfa, Cardiff. She joined the staff of St Michael's in September 2005 as an honorary group tutor. Her hobbies include music and swimming and she is an enthusiastic supporter of Welsh rugby

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Name: Helena Cermakova

Position: Group Tutor

Further information

Helena was born in Northampton of Anglo-Czech parents. Her father was a Czech pilot and returned to what was then Czechoslovakia after the second war. For three years Helena lived with her parents and Czech grandmother in a small village called Kostelec until the communist takeover in 1948. With her parents and sister they made their escape and returned to Britain.

Her father rejoined the RAF and eventually settled in Northern Ireland.

In her late teens Helena went to Loughborough Art College obtaining the NDD.

Married in 1965.

Moved to Cardiff 1971.

Children, Stuart, Jennifer and Christopher.

Grandmother Lisa and Alex.

Trained as a Reader 1980-82, Llandaff

Ordained Deacon 1988, Llandaff .

Westcott House 1991-1992.

Assistant Chaplain, University Hospital of Wales 1992-1995,

Chaplain, Bristol Royal Children

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Name: Paul Roberts

Position: Dean of Non-Residential Training

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Information to follow

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Name: Peter Sedgwick

Position: Principal

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Canon Dr. Peter Sedgwick became Principal and Warden of St.Michael's College Llandaff in Easter 2004. He was ordained deacon in the Church of England, in 1974, after training at Westcott House, Cambridge, and became a priest in 1975. He was a curate in East London from 1974-77, an incumbent (in charge of a parish) in Co Durham from 1977- 79, and an assistant priest in Birmingham from 1979-1982. From 1982- 88 he was Theological Consultant to the North East churches, covering all denominations from Middlesborough to the Scottish border. He was involved in many issues such as the 1984 miner's strike; the introduction of IVF treatment in hospitals; the disputes around the theology of Bishop David Jenkins on the Resurrection; and the ecumenical relations between the churches.

His academic life began in 1967 when he studied history at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, for a BA degree, followed by a year at Keble College, Oxford studying religion, foreign policy and public opinion in the United States during the 1930s. He then returned to Cambridge where he took a second degree in theology while training for ordination. In 1977 he began studying at Durham University for a PhD in theology and moral philosophy, which was awarded in 1983. He lectured in modern theology and ethics at the University of Birmingham from 1979-82, and was Course Director at the University of Hull for the MA in Theology and Society from 1988-94. He became a life fellow of the Center for Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey in 1991, and was also awarded a Fulbright scholarship for six month's sabbatical at Princeton. In 1994-5 he was Vice Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge. He has been external examiner at several university departments of theology, including Birmingham, Leeds and Heythrop College, London, and has also examined many doctorates.

Peter Sedgwick has served on many boards and committees of the Church of England dealing with ecumenism, theological training and social policy, and in 1996 he went to work full time for the central offices of the Church of England. He was their policy officer for home affairs from 1996-2004, where he was the link between the Church of England and the Government on mental health, criminal justice and drugs. He also founded and chaired the ecumenical body Churches' Criminal Justice Forum in 2002 , which has worked both with the Home Office and the Prison Service in promoting and coordinating voluntary action in the criminal justice system. In 2004 he returned to academic life as Principal of St.Michael's College, Llandaff. He was Dean of the Faculty of Religious and Theological Studies at Cardiff University from 2005-8, and was Moderator for Church and Society in Churches Together in Britain and Ireland from 2007- 10. He currently is Ministry Officer for the Church in Wales from 2005, and serves on the Doctrine Commission of that church as well.

He edited the journal of Christian social ethics called Crucible from 1998- 2009 and has written or edited about a dozen books, including studies of mission, the church in the city, and social ethics. Current articles over the last three years include an essay in an international symposium on the relation of the political philosophy of John Rawls to religious social thought. ; the formation of ordinands and contemporary ministry; and Anglican theology from Michael Ramsey to Rowan Williams.

Peter Sedgwick supervises three PhD students looking at prison, military and hospital chaplaincy. . He teaches one B Th module on Anglicanism, one on social ethics in the BA, and another module on ethics in the M Th in Chaplaincy.

Research

Peter Sedgwick has degrees in history and theology from Cambridge University, and a doctorate in theology and moral philosophy from Durham University. He has published Mission Impossible: A Theology of the Local Church (Collins, 1990); The Enterprise Culture (SPCK, 1992); The Market Economy and Christian Ethics (Cambridge, 1999); and (with Andrew Britton) Economic Theory and Christian Belief (Peter Lang, 2003), as well as editing five collections of essays on topics ranging from the future of liberal theology, through urban and social theology, to criminal justice. He has published many articles on these subjects in British and Continental journals. A German translation of Economic Theory and Christian Belief was launched at the Kirchentag in Bremen in 2009. The translation was commissioned by the social research department of the German Protestant Church (E.K.D.)

He currently works in five areas:

Contemporary social Issues

  • Criminal Justice, including editing the collection Rethinking Sentencing (Church House Publishing, 2004)

  • Social Ethics, including articles on John Rawls ( 2009); Richard Layard ( forthcoming, 2010) Globalization in The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology (2003), edited by Peter Scott; and 'Wohlfahrstaat, (Welfare State) Theologische Realenzyklopädie, (2002)

  • Economics and Theology, with the publication of Economic Theory and Christian Belief (Peter Lang, 2003: German edition, 2009) with Andrew Britton. Andrew Britton is a former director of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research.

Anglican theology, past and present

  • Modern Anglican Theology, with an article in 2005 on Anglican theology from Austin Farrer to Rowan Williams in the third edition of The Modern Theologians edited by Professor David Ford

  • Richard Hooker and Anglican social ethics

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Name: Andrew Todd

Position: Dean of Chaplaincy Studies and Director of the Cardiff Centre for Chaplaincy Studies

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Andrew joined the staff in November 2006, to direct courses in Chaplaincy Studies and to develop a research centre focusing on the ministry of chaplains and the issues and theology with which they engage. Since June 2008, he has also been Director of the Cardiff Centre for Chaplaincy Studies. Before coming to St. Michael

Research

Andrew is a practical theologian, with the following particular interests:

  • The hermeneutical dimension of practical theology
  • Practical theology in dialogue with the social sciences, especially in relation to research methods
  • Practical theology as public theology

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Name: Stephen Adams

Position: Dean of Ministry Development

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Information to follow

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