Caption: Pauline & Graham Dodds

Graham was born in the north east of England in 1958. He took his first degree in music at Trinity College, London. He trained there as a singer, pianist and conductor.

He felt a call to be ordained as early as 7 years of age, when attending a Roman Catholic primary school. After coming to an adult faith he joined a Baptist church in the north east. While in London, he met Pauline, a violinist, and they attended All Souls Langham Place, and latterly a small urban church in Kilburn. He and Pauline, as music students were part of a project in Drury Lane to write musicals with disadvantaged adults. After college, they married and moved to York where they worked in 6 rural churches a few miles from the city in the Vale of York, while pursuing PGCEs at St John's. After studying theology at Trinity, Bristol Graham was ordained in Southwark Cathedral in 1984.

He served in St Mary's Church, Reigate, Surrey as curate, then Director of Lay Ministry and moved to  Bath to be Rector of Walcot Parish Church in 1991. In 1996 he began work in ministry development in Bath & Wells from his new base in The Old Deanery, Wells. He completed a masters degree in Adult Education and Theology in 2001 which involved a dissertation on Reader education. He was made Prinicpal of the Bath & Wells School of Formation in 2007. Graham was made a Prebendary of Wells Cathedral in 2003. He completed a PhD in theology, particularly ecclesiology, in 2008 at Bristol University, supervised by Dr Mervyn Davies and Professor Gavin D’Costa.

Graham was made Canon Treasurer in Wells Cathedral in January 2010 and serves as Director of Learning Communities in the diocese (80%) and as part of the Cathedral Chapter (20%).

Pauline has been a primary school teacher, and from April 2008 now works full time as a Schools Advisor for the Education Department in the Diocese of Bath & Wells. They sometimes meet for lunch! They have two daughters, Helen and Rosie, also with ambitions to teach.

Caption: Catherine Wright

Catherine was brought up in Essex and Kent, and moved south-west to study English Literature and Language at Bristol University. Following completion of her degree, Catherine trained as a solicitor in London, returning to Bristol in the late 80’s to work in commercial litigation. Medieval manuscripts had more of a draw than issuing writs and Catherine worked to complete first a Master’s degree in Medieval Studies and then a PhD (2000). A call to ordination came out of the blue, at a time when the nature of women’s ministry was very much in the spotlight.

Catherine trained at Ridley Hall, Cambridge which allowed her to continue academic work in medieval and reformation history, theology and spirituality as well as a broad range of practical training in preparation for ordained ministry. Catherine was ordained in 1997 and served her title in Highworth, Swindon before marrying Geoff Boucher and moving to Tavistock, Devon for a short while. Since coming to the diocese of Bath and Wells in 2001, Catherine has enjoyed a spell as an ordained non-stipendiary priest in the Althelney Benefice as well as taking on responsibilities in the vocations team and as Dean of Women Clergy. In January 2010 Catherine was licensed as Diocesan Director of Vocations and Director of IME 4-7.

Catherine writes: ‘The key question that underpins my work with enquirers about vocation is this: ‘What is your passion’? When a person discovers that, they are on their way to discerning their true calling. I suppose I am a curious person, which helps doing this role. I am curious about people, their hopes, their dreams and longings for God. More than that, I am curious to know and experience more of God. I am curious about God’s activity in the world. I am curious about texts and ideas, open to discovering new truths and energised by doing that with others.’
 

Caption: Jennifer Cole

Jennifer was born in Shaftesbury in Dorset. She grew up in southern Germany and returned to England in her early 20s. She is married to Brian, a civil engineer and his work has taken them to live for short periods in Kuwait and Hong Kong.

They have two children; Alex who is now studing Maths after being a bass guitar player in the Bath based band ‘X is Loaded’ and Louise who works for the MoD and enjoys riding her horse Millie.

Jennifer started working for the church as administrator of Walcot Parish in Bath. She joined the diocesan office in Wells in 1996 and is part of the School of Formation. During this time she explored her gifts in administration and completed a Masters in Business Administration with the Open University in 2004. The study has enabled her to reflect on management theory and practice and, where appropriate, apply this to her work.

Jennifer was ordained deacon in June 2009 and is a curate at St Nicholas, Radstock. In her role as Education for Discipleship Officer  she is involved in all aspects of lay training and as part of this she directs the Exploring Christianity course and manages Reader training in the diocese.  In her spare time she enjoys working on her allotment, walking, particularly in the Austrian mountains, and skiing.

Caption: Steve Annandale

Steve graduated in business studies and then qualified as an accountant. In 1980 he decided his working life lay in education and training and he was then appointed Head of Finance Training for the UK Water Industry.

He moved to the NHS in 1985 and for the next fifteen years worked in a number of roles including nationally as Deputy Director of Management Development, nationally as Director of the Hospital Engineering and Estates Management Training Centre and regionally in South West as Deputy Director Non-Medical Education and Training, covering nursing, professions allied to medicine, finance and administration staff and all managers.He has an MA in organisational learning and has now worked as a health care consultant in personal and organisation development for several years and runs his own company. His work has taken him to Spain, Rumania, China and USA, as well as all parts of UK. His clients include World Health Organisation, Department of Health, Strategic Health Authorities, NHS Trusts and Primary Care Trusts. He began working with Bath and Wells Diocese in 1999 running parish away days, leading parish weekends and providing lay training courses in listening skills, visiting skills, leading house groups, practising prayer and team work.

Caption: Yvonne Guerin

Yvonne works in Continuing Ministerial Development (CMD) as Conference Manager and PA.  Prior to joining the Diocese of Bath & Wells, Yvonne held a number of challenging and demanding roles in commerce and the public sector.  These included being Executive Assistant to members of the Clark Family in C & J Clark Limited, Publicity Executive with Courtaulds Ltd, Project Manager with Cap Gemini working on multi-million pound IT projects, and Lecturer of Information Technology, Communications and Business Skills in Further Education.

Joining us 10 ago, Yvonne felt her role encompassed her skills into one position, which would enable her to make a difference to the Christian education and training in the diocese. She is responsible for, managing the CMD programme of conferences and courses, the IME 4-7 programme, managing the Soul in Europe conference, which comes under the auspices of the Southern Regional Institute and which is held both nationally and abroad, creating and editing publications to promote the conferences/courses, and for handling all the related administration.

In this role, Yvonne meets a wide range of  people, and the ever changing topics and content of courses means that her role has great variety with no week ever being the same.

Yvonne worships at Wells Cathedral as well as  her local church, Walton Holy Trinity, of which she is a member of the Diocesan and Deanery Synod and PCC.  Amongst her many interests, Yvonne enjoys classical and jazz music, opera, theatre, the arts, golf, walking, and keeping fit. She also enjoys being a governor of Walton Church of England VC Primary School.