THE secretary and chief executive of the Church Commissioners, Andrew Brown, and the former chief legal adviser for the C of E, Stephen Slack, were among the people recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours List, on Friday. They were appointed OBE and CBE respectively.
Mr Brown is due to retire at the end of January (News, 14 June). He was appointed chief executive in 2003 after eight years as the Commissioners’ first chief surveyor. The First Church Estates Commissioner, Loretta Minghella, said on Saturday: “Andrew has given a remarkable 25 years of dedicated, generous, and unstinting service to the Church.”
Church of EnglandThe secretary and chief executive of the Church Commissioners, Andrew Brown, was appointed CBE
Mr Slack retired in April after 18 years of service to the Church, including as head of its legal office, official solicitor to the Church Commissioners, and chief legal adviser to the Archbishops’ Council and the General Synod. The Secretary General of the Archbishops’ Council, William Nye, said: “This award to Stephen Slack recognises a career of considerable achievement.”
The newly installed Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, formerly chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, was appointed MBE for services to young people and the C of E. Bishop Hudson-Wilkin, who was born in Jamaica, was the first woman to be appointed speaker’s chaplain, in 2010. She was appointed a Chaplain to the Queen in 2008, and a Prebendary of St Paul’s Cathedral in 2013.
She said on Friday: “I am surprised and deeply humbled. . . I am committed to giving — and will continue to give — my best in serving all those entrusted to my care, whether I encounter them just once or many times — from the young person on the street to the formal setting of a classroom, politicians making our laws, or those I meet here in my new role with the diocese of Canterbury.”
Canon Michael Pilavachi, who founded the Christian youth festival Soul Survivor, which closed in June after 26 years, was appointed MBE for services to young people (News, 13 September).
The National Police Chaplain, Canon David Wilbraham, was appointed MBE for services to policing.
PAThe new Dean of Westminster, the Very Revd Dr David Hoyle, was appointed MBE, pictured on 19 June 2019
A former Dean of Bristol, the Very Revd Dr David Hoyle, was also appointed MBE for services to faith and to vulnerable communities in the city. He was installed as the Dean of Westminster in November. A former Head Steward and the gardener of Bristol Cathedral, Norman Sage, was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to the Cathedral and the community in Bristol.
A Holocaust survivor and retired Anglican parish priest, the Revd John Fieldsend, was awarded a BEM for services to Holocaust education. He was born in Czechoslovakia in 1931 and was a beneficiary of the Kindertransport project in 1938 after his parents gave him up for adoption to save him from the Nazis. They later perished in Auschwitz.
PALeft to right: the Revd Eugene O’Hagan, the Revd Martin O’Hagan, and the Revd David Delargey, who formed the singing group The Priests, were awarded MBEs. Their debut concert was in St Patrick’s, Armagh, on 9 September 2008
The musician and composer Alan Tavener, who is currently the director of music at Strathclyde University, in Glasgow, was awarded a BEM for services to choral music in Scotland. The musical director Dr Roy Wales and the conductor and leader of the South Holland Singers in Lincolnshire, Robin Carter, were also awarded BEMs for services to choral music.
John Thomas Lord, 83, a dentist from Grantham who has been a churchwarden for 60 years, and the Jurisdictional Bishop of the Calvary Church of God in Christ in Bedford, the Revd Alvin Blake, were awarded BEMs for services to the community.
The headteacher of St Stephen’s Primary School in Newham, Neena Lall, was awarded an OBE for services to education. In 2018, she banned the youngest pupils in the school from wearing the Islamic headscarf in class (News, 1 February 2018).
The chief executive of the Samaritans, Ruth Sutherland, was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for services to vulnerable people. The chief executive of the homelessness charity Shelter, Mary Jane Neate, who is known as Polly Neate, was appointed CBE for services to homelessness.
The chief executive of the Scouts, Matthew Hyde, was appointed OBE for services to young people. The chief executive of Age UK in Oxfordshire, Paul Cann, was appointed OBE for services to tackling loneliness in older people. The headmaster of King’s College School, Wimbledon, Andrew Halls, was appointed OBE for services to education.
Three Roman Catholic priests who formed the classical musical group, The Priests, in Northern Ireland — the Revd Eugene O’Hagan and the Revd Martin O’Hagan, who are brothers, and the Revd David Delargy — were all appointed MBEs.
Soul SurvivorCanon Michael Pilavachi speaks to crowds at the final Soul Survivor festival, in August
Another RC priest, the Revd Stephen McBrearty, of the parish of Holywood in Co. Down, was also appointed MBE for services to criminal justice, in recognition of his prison chaplaincy work. Fr Patrick Mullan, who supported bereaved families after the 1998 Omagh bomb, was awarded a BEM for services to “inter-church collaboration and community relations” in Northern Ireland.
In Wales, the chaplain for the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, the Revd Wynne Roberts, was awarded a BEM for charitable services after raising £250,000 with an Elvis tribute act over the past six years. He first performed for his late mother when she was in a nursing home with dementia.
The Treasury Solicitor and Permanent Secretary of the Government Legal Department, Jonathan Jones QC, who is a lay clerk of Ely Cathedral, was knighted for public service.
Other notable recipients this year included Sir Elton John, who was appointed a Companion of Honour for services to music and charity. The chief executive of the NHS in England, Simon Stevens, was knighted for his 31 years in the health service. The actor and singer Olivia Newton-John was appointed a Dame for services to charity, Cancer Research, and entertainment. The cricketer Ben Stokes, who was part of the England squad that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup, was appointed OBE.
PAOliva Newton-John, who received a Damehood for services to charity, pictured at La Trobe University, Melbourne, on 14 May 2018
The cellist, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who was the first black musician to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year award in 2016, and who played at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018, was appointed MBE. The cellist Professor David Strange, who head of strings at the Royal Academy of Music until 2011, was also awarded an MBE for services to music.
The former Conservative leader and work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, who designed the Universal Credit scheme (News, 18 November 2018), was also knighted. The decision was criticised by Labour.
Women represented 51 per cent of the Honours list this New Year; 9.1 per cent of people honoured came from a BAME background; and 11 per cent identify as having a disability.