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MU's Reg Bailey in New Year Honours

04 January 2013

WINTERSHALL

Honours for angels: a dress rehearsal for the Wintershall nativity. Peter Hutley, who stages this and other religious productions, is appointed OBE

Honours for angels: a dress rehearsal for the Wintershall nativity. Peter Hutley, who stages this and other religious productions, is appointed OBE

HONOURS for the Chaplain-in-Chief of the RAF, the chief executive of the Mothers' Union, and the Chief of Staff at Lambeth Palace are among those in the New Year list announced last Saturday.

There is a knighthood for Robert Rogers, who formerly chaired the Hereford Cathedral Perpetual Trust. He becames a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) for parliamentary and public service. He is the Clerk and Chief Executive of the House of Commons, but continues to serve the Church in Hereford - not least as a parish organist for 35 years.

Stephen O'Brien CBE, a former vice-chairman of the Church Urban Fund, becomes a Knight Bachelor for services to health care and to the community in London - for his chairmanship of Tower Hamlets NHS Primary Care Trust, and as chief executive and then chair of London First. He has chaired Barts Health NHS Trust since last year.

A CB is announced for the Ven. Raymond Pentland, RAF Chaplain-in-Chief since 2009, and Anglican Archdeacon for the Air Force since 2006.

The chief executive of the Mothers' Union, Reg Bailey, has been awarded a CBE, for services to children and families. He carried out an independent review of the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood for the Department of Education, which reported in 2011.

The Chief of Staff at Lambeth Palace, Chris Smith, also receives a CBE, for services to the Church of England. He was general manager of Hoare's Bank in 2003, before he took up this appointment to free the Archbishop to spend more time on uniquely archiepiscopal duties.

Professor Muriel Robinson, who oversaw the transition of Bishop Grosseteste University College in Lincoln to a full-status university during its 150th anniversary last year (News, 30 November 2012) is awarded an OBE for services to higher education.

Peter Hutley MBE, who for more than 20 years has staged theatrical productions about the life of Christ and the apostles at his home, the Wintershall Estate, near Guildford, has been awarded an OBE for charitable services and services to Christian understanding.He also stages Passion plays in Trafalgar Square.

Canon Ian Francis, who chairs Coventry Diocesan Board of Finance, receives an OBE for voluntary service to law and order and to the C of E in Warwickshire. Canon Francis was appointed a member of the Warwickshire Police Authority at its formation in 1996.

Tearfund's Jennifer Evans, who heads the agency's Eurasia, Latin America and Caribbean region, receives an OBE for services to international humanitarian aid.

Dr Robert McManners, who led the campaign for the retention of the Zurburán paintings at Auckland Castle, the residence of the Bishops of Durham, receives an OBE for services to the heritage of the north-east and to the community in Bishop Auckland, where he chairs the Bishop Auckland Civic Society.

Dr Dick Reid, a master stone- and wood-carver, whose work features in churches, and who worked on the memorial to the late Princess of Wales at Althorp House, and the reconstruction of Windsor Castle after the fire, receives an OBE for services to heritage and restoration.

Rabbi Herschel Gluck, founder of the Muslim-Jewish Forum, is awarded an OBE for services to interfaith understanding.

Robert Yeomans, former head teacher of St John's C of E primary school in Walsall, West Midlands; also receives an OBE. There are MBEs for Alison Borgese, assistant head of All Saints' C of E Junior School in Maidenhead, Berkshire; and Dorothy Buchanan, who chairs the governors of the Blue Coat C of E Infant and Junior Schools' Federation in Walsall; and Mary Gerrard, caretaker and governor at Hollinsclough C of E Primary School in the Staffordshire Peak District. Dubbed the smallest school in the country, Hollinsclough pioneered a flexi-schooling approach to home education.

Professor Linda Woodhead, who holds a chair in sociology of religion at Lancaster University, and has often reviewed for the Church Times, is awarded an MBE for services to higher education. Since 2007, Professor Woodhead has been director of the Religion and Society project, co-ordinating a £12-million research investment over 75 separate projects, including the Westminster Faith Debates.

A former Archdeacon of Dromore, the Ven. William Scott, receives an MBE for services to the Air Training Corps in Northern Ireland, where he has been an ATC chaplain since 1980.

Professor Brian Gates, of St Martin's College in the University of Cumbria, receives an MBE for services to interfaith relations and to the Religious Education Council of England and Wales, which he chairs.

The BBC's media correspondent Torin Douglas receives an MBE for services to the community in Chiswick, where he is active at St Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park, leading the church's communications activity.

Canon Paul Denby DL JP, who retired as Subdean of Manchester Cathedral in 2007, and now serves as Chancellor of the Priory of England and the Islands of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem and its sister organisation, the St John's Ambulance Service, is awarded the MBE for services to the community in Greater Manchester.

A specially arranged quarter-peal was rung at Stoke Minster to mark the MBE awarded to Geoff Burton for services to bell-ringing in North Staffordshire. He has been tower captain at St Peter ad Vincula for more than 55 years, and is Lichfield dioesan bell adviser.

David Cherry, composer and arranger of the Boys' Brigades marching bands, received an MBE for services to children and young people.

The organist and organ-builder Trevor G. Tipple receives an MBE for services to church music in Worcestershire, where he is a member of the local branch of the Royal School of Church Music.

A man described in a congratulatory House of Commons motion as the longest-serving organist in the country in May 2000 is still serving today at the age of 97. Arthur Smith has been organist and choir master at Christ Church, Walmersley, near Bury, since 1922 and receives the recently reintroduced British Empire Medal for services to the church.

John Heighway, a lay clerk at St George's Chapel, Windsor, receives the Royal Victorian Medal (RVM).

A BEM is also awarded to Geoffrey Winter, for services to music and to the community in Grantham, Lincolnshire, where he has been organist and choirmaster of St John's, Manthorpe, for 52 years. He has also been musical director of the Grantham Singers and founder of both Grantham Operatic Society and the Grantham Music Festival.

Joan Evans, founder of Rotherfield St Martin, a Church-in-Community project, based at St Denys's, Rotherfield, to provide on-going social support, care, and well-being for local pensioners, receives the BEM; as does Canon Ann Barwood, vice-chair of the Cathedral Libraries and Archives Association, for volunteer services to Exeter Cathedral, where she is Canon Librarian.

Riaz Ravat, the Muslim deputy director of the St Philip's Centre in Leicester, an ecumenical partnership to "equip the churches to be more confident in ministry, service, and witness in a multifaith world", has been awarded the BEM for services to interfaith understanding in Leicester.

In the Solomon Islands, there is an OBE for the Rt Revd Thaba James Philip Mason, for services to the Anglican Church of Melanesia and community affairs; and an MBE for Chief Ambrose Huhugu Bugotu, for services to the Anglican Church of Melanesia Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood, and to community affairs.

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