BRIDGE BUILDER MINISTRIES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Trustees
- Mediation Partner
Jo Williams helps to lead our Mediating Inter-personal Conflicts course. She is a Baptist minister with a conflict transformation portfolio in the Baptist Union, and is also a community mediator in North West England. Jo has extensive experience of training others in mediation and Christian ministry. She lives in Burnley.
Liz Griffiths joined the staff as Director of Training in May 2017, having previously been one of Bridge Builders' team of Training Partners. Liz's role includes overall responsibility for the training programme, leading courses and workshops and providing consultancy, facilitation and mediation services.
Liz is an Anglican Priest, was ordained in the Church in Wales and has served in city centre and urban estate parishes in both Wales and England. Liz has also worked in theological education as Vice-Principal of the Eastern Region Ministry Course, helping to train ordained and lay ministers.
Liz lives with a gorgeous cat called Myla, another temporary (?) feline lodger called Lydia and is a doting auntie and great auntie. She loves wildlife, is a keen birdwatcher and will talk endlessly about red kites, nightingales and bumblebees. She is also a lover of opera, and follows sport of all kinds, although she admits her days of playing cricket are now behind her and has been replaced by (very slow) running, and an ongoing project to walk the Wales Coast Path.
Liz has been passionate about issues of peace and justice since her student days and sees the work of Bridge Builders as part of her vocation in living out of the Gospel of reconciliation.
Job Titles:
- Administrator and Communications
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Relationship and Development Manager
Rob currently works as the Relationship and Development Manager (Midlands) for Frontline, a government funded charity that seeks to recruit and train new Children's Social Workers on a two year fast track Masters programme. Rob works with 15 Local Authorities across the Midlands to ensure the programme is set-up and delivered effectively for around 110 students each year
Rob previously worked at Jaguar Land Rover for 30 years in a number of roles - latterly as Director of Process Engineering. He has many years of experience in business and programme management, delivering organisational transformation programmes and leading complex problem-solving and process improvement teams.
Outside of Frontline Rob has co-founded Touchstones Child Bereavement Support - a local charity that supports children and young people who have lost a parent, sibling or significant other person in their lives. He is the business manager for Touchstones, and a volunteer, working directly with some of the children on either a one to one or group basis.
Rob has an Engineering degree and a MBA from the University of Warwick.
Rob is married to Vicki and has three grown up children. He lives in Worcestershire, and is a long standing member of St Johns Church (CofE) in Redditch - where he is the lead for children's work, and takes occasional services.
Job Titles:
- Member of the International Association of Facilitators
- Training Partner / Edinburgh
Rupert Ward helps to lead our Transforming Church Conflict course. He is a leader of Community Church, in the centre of Edinburgh, and offers training and facilitation to leadership groups in other churches & charities.
Rupert is a member of the International Association of Facilitators and has also trained in Counselling and Theology.
Ruth is a minister of the United Reformed Church, currently serving the Landsker Pastorate in Pembrokeshire (five small chapels).
From 2013 - 2023 she was Moderator of the South Western Synod of the URC. Before this she had pastorates in Woodford Green, Oxford, Abingdon and South Cambridgeshire - a range of churches from suburbs to market towns and small villages - all of which had a strong ecumenical component.
Ruth feels that she has benefitted greatly from Bridge Builders training and values highly the skills of mediation and conflict-resolution which are vital for every kind of ministry, especially at a time of rapid change in the church.
Job Titles:
- Training Partner / Glasgow
Steve is minister of Lawrence Saunders Road Baptist Church in the city of Coventry. He and the church are passionate about the Gospel and its power to transform lives and communities. Prior to that he was pastor of a church in East Lancashire where he did his ministerial formation.
Before entering ministry, Steve worked in the aircraft industry for over 30 years and has a wide experience of national and international programmes.
Steve is married to Sandra and they have two sons. For relaxation Steve loves films and books. He also sails whenever time allows!
Job Titles:
- Training and Mediation Support Officer / Oxford
Sue has been part of the Bridge Builders team since 2015, first as a Training Partner and now as a part-time member of staff. She lives in Oxford, where she has been involved in restorative justice and community mediation. Previously Sue led a Mennonite Church in London, where she first came across the work of Bridge Builders, and she has also been a lay leader in the small Baptist church to which she now belongs. Sue is excited that her work with Bridge Builders offers the opportunity - and the challenge - to continue in the Mennonite tradition of working towards reconciliation.
Sue and her husband recently completed an eighteen-year project to walk a very wiggly route between John O'Groats and Land's End. She lives near the Thames and is learning to paddleboard.