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.