THE chair of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), Margaret (Maggie) Swinson; a former Archbishops’ secretary for appointments and development, Caroline Boddington; and the director of partnerships for the Church Urban Fund Near Neighbours programme, the Revd Elizabeth Carnelley, have all been appointed OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list, published last Friday.
Ms Swinson, who is a lay canon of Liverpool Cathedral and vice-chair of the Board of Trustees of Christian Aid, is being honoured for services to the Church of England and to the Anglican Communion. She was elected chair of the ACC in 2023 (News, 24 February 2023).
Ms Boddington, who left the national church institutions in 2021 after 17 years (News, 5 November 2021), is also honoured for services to the C of E. She has been senior non-executive Chapter member of Wells Cathedral since 2023.
Wells CathedralCaroline Boddington, appointed OBE
Ms Carnelley, a former senior adviser to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, is honoured for services to community cohesion. She has held her present post since 2011
The Dean of Clogher, and Rector of St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen, the Very Revd Kenneth Hall, and Mgr Peter O’Reilly are also appointed OBE for services to reconciliation and peacebuilding in Enniskillen and County Fermanagh.
There is a knighthood for the social campaigner Professor Patrick Vernon, for services to racial equality. Professor Vernon convened the Windrush 75 network set up to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush. He was also on the oversight group advising the Church Commissioners on the creation of its impact investment fund to aid communities harmed by transatlantic chattel slavery (News, 8 March 2024).
The founding president of the Holocaust Educational Trust, Professor Robert Rubin, is appointed CBE for services to interfaith relations and to charity.
Appointed MBE are Philippa Penney, the founder and chair of the Association of Ringing Teachers (2012-16) and an expert in season one of the podcast Fun With Bells, for services to church bell-ringing and to young people; the group chief executive officer of the Oasis Charitable Trust and founding member of the Women’s Faith Forum, Joy Madeiros, for services to education and faith relations; Rabbi Dr Norman Solomon, who was a fellow in modern Jewish thought at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, for services to the Jewish community and to interfaith relations in Oxfordshire; and the Revd Alexander Cairns, a Church of Scotland minister, for services to the communities of South Scotland.
A voluntary railway chaplain, the Revd Christopher Henley, is awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the South Western Railway Network.
The Revd Eustan Commissiong-Jones is appointed a Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) for services to Anglicanism, Christian fellowship, and community work.
In the Bahamas, the Revd Benjamin Pratt is awarded the British Empire Medal (Civil Division) for services to religion.
The Scottish composer, conductor, and Professor in the School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews, Sir James MacMillan, who is a practising Roman Catholic and a contributor to church music of various levels of difficulty, is appointed to Scotland’s highest order of knighthood the Order of the Thistle. He was already a Knight Bachelor.
The Garter King since 2021, David White, is appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. On 10 September 2022, he proclaimed the King’s Accession at St James’s Palace. He later proclaimed the late Queen Elizabeth II’s “achievements”, her styles and titles, at her committal.