Martyn Percy - Apostolic Women, Apostolic Authority: Transfiguring Leadership in Todays Church

Clare Amos is Director for Theological Studies in the office of the worldwide Anglican Communion. She has particular responsibility for work in the areas of theological education and interfaith concerns. Clare studied theology at Cambridge University then did postgraduate work in biblical studies at the cole Biblique Jerusalem. She has taught biblical studies in Jerusalem, Beirut, Cambridge, London and Kent.

The Revd Canon Rosalind Brown is Residentiary Canon at Durham Cathedral, where she has responsibility for its nave, or public, ministry. The author of books on ministry and of many hymns, she was a town planner prior to ordination and also lived for a few years in the USA.

Sr Anita Cook is a member of the Community of the Sisters of the Church, which she joined in 1967. She has recently completed 11 years as the International Leader and UK Provincial, after serving as Provincial in Canada. She was ordained as a priest in 2007.

The Revd Dr Jenny Gaffin is Assistant Curate at St Peter's Parkstone, Poole. Prior to training for ordination at Ripon College Cuddesdon, she was a lay worker in London for almost seven years, working particularly with homeless people and in Soho's gay community. She holds a doctorate in lesbian and gay interfaith dialogue.

The Revd Lis Goddard is Chair of AWESOME, a group for evangelical ordained women in the Church of England. Since ordination she has worked as Chaplain of Jesus College, Oxford, a tutor at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, assistant minister of St Andrew's, North Oxford, and associate vicar of St Mary's, Stoke Bishop.

The Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley is Tutor in New Testament at Ripon College Cuddesdon and holds a research fellowship at Harris Manchester College, Oxford. She is also Associate Priest in the Parish of Littlemore, Oxford. She studied theology at the University of St Andrews, Princeton Theological Seminary and Oxford. She is a member of the Commission for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion.

The Revd Dr Jane Hedges has been a Canon of Westminster Abbey for the past four years and has oversight for the ministry of welcome and hospitality to over a million visitors a year. Previously she has served as a team rector, canon pastor, stewardship adviser and team vicar. She is married with two teenage sons.

The Revd Dr Elizabeth A. Hoare is Tutor in Prayer, Spirituality and Mission at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Her interest in spirituality leans towards its historical aspects. She was ordained deacon in 1987 and was among the first women to be priested at Durham in 1994. Early on she felt drawn to the ministry of spiritual direction and it has remained a constant in her life.

Mrs Elizabeth Loweth is the Provincial Link for Canada to the International Anglican Women's Network, an official network of the Anglican Consultative Council. She has served as Human Rights Officer for the national programme of the United Church of Canada, and worked for interdenominational coalitions on Native Land Rights, the Immigration Act and World Population.

The Revd Canon Dr Charlotte Methuen is Lecturer for Church History and Liturgy at Ripon College Cuddesdon and University Research Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford. She has taught at the universities of Hamburg and Bochum, and served as Diocesan Director of Training in the Diocese in Europe. She is Canon Theologian of the Cathedral and Diocese of Gloucester and currently assists in the Old Catholic parish of Bottrop, Germany. She has written extensively on the Reformation, ecumenism, and on the history of women's ministry.

The Revd Emma Percy is Chaplain and Welfare Dean, Trinity College, Oxford. She was ordained deacon in 1990 and priest in 1994. She has worked in parish and university posts, spending seven years as Vicar of Holy Trinity Millhouses, Sheffield. She is the Chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford. Married to Martyn Percy, she is the mother of two teenage boys and is currently working towards a PhD through Nottingham University.

Revd Canon Professor Martyn Percy is Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon and the Oxford Ministry Course. He is also Honorary Professor of Theological Education at King's College London, Canon Theologian of Sheffield Cathedral, and an Honorary Canon of Salisbury Cathedral.

Christina Rees is a writer and religious commentator and a theologian working in the area of women and religion and contemporary Christian spirituality. She recently stepped down as Chair of WATCH (Women and the Church), a position she held for 13 years, and is a member of the General Synod and the Archbishops' Council. She is also a communications and media consultant and is the author of several books, including The Divine Embrace (HarperCollins, 2000, revised for DLT, 2006).

The Revd Kirsten Rosslyn-Smith is coming to the end of her curacy at St James', Tunbridge Wells. She is an artist and mother of three. Her husband Piers is thankfully an able family juggler and is at present a 'Dad at home'.

The Right Revd Catherine S. Roskam has been Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of New York since 1996. She is engaged in ministry with congregations at home and, in concert with Anglican partners, in mission efforts around the globe, particularly, although not only, with regard to women and children.

The Most Revd Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA in June 2006. She serves as Chief Pastor and Primate to the Episcopal Church's members in 16 countries and 110 dioceses. She joins with other principal bishops of the 38 member provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion, seeking to make common cause for global good and reconciliation.

The Revd Canon Dr Jane Shaw was appointed as the new Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in June 2010. She was Dean of Divinity, Chaplain and Fellow of New College, Oxford, and Reader in Church History in the University of Oxford. She is also Canon Theologian at Salisbury Cathedral, and an Honorary Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. She is the author of Miracles in Enlightenment England (Yale, 2006) and co-editor of The Call for Women Bishops (SPCK, 2004).

Canon Jane Steen is Chancellor of Southwark Cathedral and Director of Ministerial Education in the Diocese of Southwark. She developed an interest in leadership when reading Visitation Sermons for her PhD and subsequently serving as the Bishop of Southwark's Chaplain. She has been Canon Chancellor of Southwark Cathedral since 2005 and is responsible for diocesan continued ministerial education. She has particular concern for the newly ordained.

The Ven. Dr Joy Tetley, lately Archdeacon of Worcester, has been involved for many years in both ministry and theological education. She specializes in New Testament studies and ministerial theology, and has long had a passion for the Epistle to the Hebrews and its continuing significance. She is now based in Oxford, engaged in a ministry of prayer, writing and counsel. The Revd Rosie Ward is a leadership development adviser at the Church Pastoral Aid Society, where part of her role is to encourage and equip women as leaders in the Church. She previously served in three parishes in Bristol diocese, having been ordained in 1994. She has written several booklets and books, the most recent being Growing Women Leaders (BRF, 2008).

This book grew out of an extraordinary gathering at Ripon College Cuddesdon in the run-up to the Lambeth Conference in 2008: the Transfiguring Episcope Conference to which one hundred women in positions of leadership around the Anglican Communion were invited.

There are many people to thank both in relation to the conference, and to this book. First, special thanks are due to the entire staff team at Ripon College Cuddesdon for the planning and the hosting of the conference, and especially to Sophie Farrant for her facilitation of the event. And to all the volunteers who made it possible, including Julia Baldwin, Hannah Cleugh, Allie Kerr, Helen Rengert, Rosie Woodall, and many others. Second, to our Steering Committee who shaped the conference: Clare Amos, Faith Claringbull, Paula Gooder, Judith Maltby, Rosalind Paul and Flora Winfield, with additional input from Vivienne Faull, June Osborne, Jane Shaw and Sheila Watson. Christina Rees and Martyn Percy co-chaired the group. Third, to the very generous individuals and institutions that supported the conference, enabling all one hundred participants to attend on full bursaries, and especially Virginia Theological Seminary, St Andrew's Trust, The Foundation for Church Leadership, the Revd Robert Parker (a Governor of Ripon College Cuddesdon) and the Community of the Sisters of the Church. Fourth, to the Revd Dr Jenny Gaffin for all her help in the preparation of this text. Fifth, and finally, to all our authors not all of whom were able to attend the conference but have nonetheless helped share and shape our vision and hopes for transfiguring leadership in the Church today.