Our board of trustees
Their role is to oversee the programme and govern Near Neighbours by establishing its policies and objectives, ensuring the legal duties of the charity, its finances and operations, are carried out properly.
SUE CHALKLEY, OBE, FCIH - CHAIRMAN
Sue is a retired housing association Chief Executive.
Sue is passionate about social housing, rural communities and the environment. She helped establish the Homes for Cathy group of housing associations that work to prevent and address homelessness.
Sue’s other interests include a community link with Tanzania and chairing her local Flood Group.
Sue was previously inaugural chair of the Rural Housing Alliance; co-chair of the Rural Housing Network; a Trustee of the National Flood Forum; Chair of the Association of Retirement Housing Managers and Chair of Gordon House Association (charity for compulsive gamblers).
Sue’s church is St Andrew’s, Paddock Wood, where she is lay Chair and was warden for seven years. Sue chairs the Bereko Community Partnership (church, schools and Town Council) and its parish link with Bereko, Tanzania. Sue also chairs Rochester Diocese’s Clergy Houses Committee and its Kondoa Companionship Group.
Rev Cate Allison
The Rev Cate Allison is an Assistant Curate at St James and Emmanuel church in Didsbury, South Manchester. Before ordination in October 2020, she worked in a variety of roles in the voluntary sector (Citizens Advice Bureau) and in local government and between 2011 and 2019 she was the CEO of Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH), a charity supporting female sex workers, including migrant women.
She is involved in delivering Places of Welcome in her parish, and is also a trustee of Home Community Café, an independent charity providing welcoming space for individuals and grass roots organisations in Didsbury.
She brings her experience of working with families and women from different background and of dealing with the complexities of working with different communities.
Revd Canon Dr Malcolm Brown
The Revd Canon Dr Malcolm Brown has been Director of Mission and Public Affairs for the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England since 2007, responsible for the team which leads the church’s work with government and Parliament and on social and public ethics. He worked with colleagues in the MPA team to help set up Near Neighbours and other publicly, and charitably, funded projects in fields as diverse as social cohesion, freedom of religion and belief and combatting modern day slavery.
Malcolm was formerly a parish priest and industrial missioner in Southampton, Executive Secretary of the William Temple Foundation, and Principal of the Eastern Region Ministry Course. Deeply involved in inner city ministry at the time of Faith in the City, he was part of the team in the Diocese of Winchester which helped raise the initial funding for what became the Church Urban Fund and developed one of the first projects based on a CUF grant.
Malcolm has taught Practical Theology and Ethics for a number of universities and is currently an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Bath.
REV JESSICA FOSTER
The Rev Jessica Foster is the Bishop of Birmingham’s Chaplain and a tutor at The Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, where she teaches Christian approaches to different faiths to ordinands.
Between 2011 and 2016 she worked as Near Neighbours Coordinator in Birmingham, and since then has been involved in different roles in many organisations and community-based interfaith activities. Before ordination in 2015, she worked in journalism and PR, latterly as communications director for Birmingham Diocese.
She is passionate about creating relationships that cross religious and ethnic boundaries and has an excellent network of contacts from different faiths both nationally and regionally.
The Very Revd. Rogers M Govender
For the past fifteen years the Very Revd Rogers M Govender has served as Dean of Manchester, where he has learnt much about how a city and diocese operates and the importance of networks and partnership working to achieve the purposes of God in mission, ministry and outreach to the community.
He is convinced that partnership working is crucial if we are to serve well and develop both Church and society for the common good.
He is married to Celia and has two children Jonathan (34) and Claire (29), he is a keen cook and enjoys walking and fishing, in addition to reading books of history, biographies, spirituality, theology, and leadership. He also enjoys travel and over the past few years has travelled to the US, Israel, Palestine, Finland, Barbados, Portugal and Australia.
Katie Hodkinson
Katie Hodkinson is training for Ordained Ministry in the Church of England and currently serves in a local church in Boscombe, whilst studying for a Masters in Theology.
From 2014 to 2019 she worked in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Inter Religious Affairs Team at Lambeth Palace and has been working with a range of voluntary and faith networks at local level.
She is a trustee of Embrace the Middle East, a Christian charity serving people of all faiths in the Middle East.
REVD DR RICHARD SUDWORTH
Archbishop of Canterbury’s Secretary for Inter Religious Affairs and National Inter-Religious Adviser for the Church of England. Richard was ordained in 2010, after working for 10 years for CMS in North Africa and then Birmingham where has been in parish contexts committed to ministry and the common good amongst other faiths. Richard has a doctorate in Christian-Muslim Relations from Heythrop College, University of London and is one of the Church of England’s leading practitioners in inter faith matters. He was appointed to his present role in July 2018.