Image credit: Daniel Andrade / Unsplash
GRATITUDE is a vital component of hope. It is the food that sustains us in good and tough times alike. So we are immensely grateful to all who have contributed to the activity, work, thought and provocations of Ekklesia over the past 22 years, both paid and (mostly) unpaid. They will continue to journey with us in all kinds of other ways in the future, we are sure.
Our founder, Jonathan Bartley, who conceived the idea in 200/2, deserves particular mention. He was joined in 2003 by Simon Barrow, who became a co-director in 2005 and director from 2016. Then there are all our associates – past and present – plus our former Chief Operating Officer, Virginia Moffatt, and administrator, Henrietta Cullinan. Our most recent associates have included Savitri Hensman, Doug Hynd, Harry Hagopian, John Gillibrand and Jake Cunliffe. Deep appreciation also to Vaughan Jones and Kate Guthrie, who were both contributors and company directors. Tim Nafziger, Sarah Hill, Stephen Brown, David Wood and Vic Theissen were also of immense support. Symon Hill was a valued associate and co-director. To Carla J Roth, endless gratitude.
A very special thanks to Bob Carling, who has managed our web and publishing operations for a long time; to Jill Segger, who has written comment on a variety of topics and overseen editorial matters with real diligence; to Bernadette Meaden, who has also contributed comment on social justice and disability issues and provided the great majority of content for our news briefing service in recent years; and to Sean Reilly at CanMarket, for his expertise in handling website migrations.
Our contributors number in the hundreds since 2002. Some of the past ones are listed below here. We should specifically mention those who have contributed since 2021: Alison Phipps, Brian Draper, Cameron Boyle, Cristian Mezei, Graham Adams, Iain Lothian, Jonathan Morgan, Joyce McMillan, Julia Bicknell, Mick McAteer and Nicolas Adams, as well as those mentioned elsewhere here for additional reasons. Then there are our book authors and editors: Graham Kings and Ian Randall, David Atkinson, Iain Whyte, Mike Small, John Paul Lusk, Jayne Ozanne, Janet Fife, Gilo, Andrew Francis, Sharon Caton Rose and Anna Bland among them.
In terms of finances, we have always rejected the idea of corporate or ecclesiastical sponsorship. Not that we ever had to reject any! Instead we have been sustained, among other ways, by small contributions (some of them regular) from over 500 people since 2002. They kept us alive at various points. The Andrews Trust made a substantial contribution to our work over four years, too. We would especially like to thank the Rev Willard E. Roth, Alice M. Roth, Frank Strang and Bishop David Atkinson for their kind support in helping to make this site and our publishing sites possible.
If there are others we should have mentioned by name here, please accept our sincere apologies. If you have read thus far, you almost certainly deserve our thanks somehow.
To and with one and all… Deo gracias.