KAIROS PALESTINE - Key Persons

Enid started teaching in 1968 and has taught all ages from reception to 2nd year 6th. She then trained in Birmingham to become a Methodist Minister. She first visited Palestine/Israel in the summer of 1968 and was shocked to visit refugees who had been in camps for 20 years and had never been allowed to return to their homes. She has since visited another 13 times, once for 3 months serving for the World Council of Churches as an Ecumenical Accompanier.

Singer/songwriter and author Garth Hewitt founded the human rights charity Amos Trust and was its Director for 35 years. He is a Canon of St George's Cathedral Jerusalem, a Patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and ABCD Bethlehem, and for 25 years was a Board member of Greenbelt Festival, helping to shape the festival's direction. Garth's songs, prayers and liturgies raise awareness of issues of injustice throughout the world and challenge people of all faiths to speak up and call for justice, reaffirming the dignity, rights and values of each human being as made in the image of God.

Jenny Richardson lives in inner city Sheffield, with her husband and is part of the local Anglican church. After her first visit to Palestine in 2010 with the Amos Trust, she became involved with the local Palestine Solidarity Campaign. From this, she and her husband drew together an ecumenical group in Sheffield, concerned for Justice and peace in the Holy Land - and Kairos Sheffield emerged. Jenny brings to the Board experience in enabling adult learning and contextual theology, in the church and in voluntary organisations; a commitment to faith-full action with Sabeel-Kairos; and a conviction that justice is what God's love looks like in public.

Job Titles:

• Chairman of the Sabeel - Kairos UK Board of Trustees

Karen's background is law, community education and project development and she has a strong belief in the rule of law and the universal application of human rights. She is a member of the Church of England. Karen's interest in liberation theology was triggered by the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre in Jerusalem and the wonderful teachings of the Rev. Naim Ateek. She discovered Kairos Palestine by chance when sharing breakfast with a group of American pilgrims in a hostel in Beit Sahour. They let her join their meeting with a Kairos Palestine representative and she realised that this was a very important movement, relevant to us all if we care seriously about Christ's message of love and justice.

Kate lives in Ayrshire in Scotland. She is a member of the Church of Scotland and also a Quaker attender. While on the Kirk's Church and Society Council Kate was their representative on the Kairos Forum. In the past she has worked in Ghana, and more recently she was an EA (Ecumenical Accompanier) in East Jerusalem. Kate is also a member of the Iona Community Network on Israel/Palestine. In addition she is involved with a Quaker Network interested in the development of Community Justice in Scotland.

From 1988 to 1999 Lesley was on the staff of Bethlehem University, teaching physiotherapy and occupational therapy students. During that time, she worshipped at Christchurch Anglican Church in the Old City in Jerusalem for a while, then at St George's Cathedral in Jerusalem and latterly with the De La Salle Brothers in their chapel at BU. It was during this time that Lesley began to be involved with Musalaha, Sabeel Jerusalem, Bethlehem Bible College and Action around Bethlehem Children with Disability (ABCD). On her return to teach in the UK, and then to retire, she continued these links and became a member of the then Friends of Sabeel UK, The Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust and the British Palestine Friendship and Twinning Network. Lesley has been involved in regular visits to Palestine with Living Stones (during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity), once on a Witness tour with Sabeel-Kairos and most years since 1990 has returned to teach at BU, Al Quds University and Arab American University in Jenin. She also did an evaluation visit to Gaza for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).Lesley is a life member of the Palestinian Physiotherapy Association and she is on the Parish Church Council of Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Eastbourne, where she worships regularly.

Lynn lives in Southport in the NW of England & attends an Anglican church in Liverpool. She has been a member of Friends of Sabeel UK, now Sabeel-Kairos, for about 15 years. Her journey towards advocating for Palestinian rights began in the early 2000s with the arrival of a Christian Aid report through her letter box. It stirred something in her, and she wanted to find out more. As is often the way, shortly afterwards, she was presented with an opportunity to do exactly that when Naim Ateek was a keynote speaker at Greenbelt. Lynn believes that revealing the truth of what is going on in the land we call holy, to members of the various Christian denominations, is so important and one of the reasons why she is wholeheartedly committed to the work of Sabeel-Kairos.

Miranda is the daughter of a secular Jewish refugee from the Sudetenland. Her mother was bitterly opposed to what was happening to the Palestinians supposedly in her name, as a Jew. Because of her, Miranda, now a retired Social Worker and practising Christian, spent 3 months in Hebron and the South Hebron Hills in 2009 as part of an international group monitoring the situation and accompanying Palestinians through checkpoints and to school (https://eappi.org/en) and has returned almost every year since. She is an active campaigner for human rights and international law and works with several organisations in that field as well as having produced a film, ‘From Balfour to Banksy- divisions and visions in Palestine' www.balfourtobanksy.com.

Job Titles:

• Accountant
• Treasurer of the Sabeel - Kairos UK Board of Trustees

Peter is a qualified accountant with 38 years of varied experience in Local Government finance. Most recently, until retiring in January 2019, he supported Adult Social Care and Public Health services at Birmingham City Council. He is a Local Preacher in the Methodist Church and Treasurer of The Church at Carrs Lane. Peter is involved with several organisations supporting human rights in Palestine and Israel and visited in 2006 and a number of times since. He enjoys gardening, hiking and stone carving.

Job Titles:

• Founder and Director of Peacemaker Trust
• Trustee of Southampton

Stephen is the founder and director of Peacemaker Trust, a registered charity dedicated to peacemaking, especially where minorities are persecuted, where justice is denied, human rights are suppressed or reconciliation is needed.