Principal

The Revd Canon Trevor Pitt MA, STM, Dip.Post.Comp.Ed. is Principal. He has overall responsibility for the curriculum, and directs the formational and self-assessment element of it. He works with the Personal Tutors to the Course, and with the Council and its committees.

His first degree was in Theology from the University of Hull, and his post-graduate work there was in liturgical studies, completing a thesis on aspects of the Book of Common Prayer. 

Before moving to the North East in 1991, he worked in parish ministry for 20 years, first in Sheffield, and latterly in Kent, where he was half-time Vice Principal of the Canterbury School of Ministry. 

After his degree he undertook further study in systematic and philosophical theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York, and trained for ordination in the Church of England at Lincoln Theological College. He has subsequently undertaken further study in adult education with the Open University. 

He served his title at the University Church in Sheffield, before moving to become Team Rectory of a large council estate. While there he worked in local broadcasting as assistant producer of religious programmes.

After ten years he moved to Kent as half-time incumbent of three rural villages, and began his current work in theological education. He was also a Six Preacher in Canterbury Cathedral, and preaching and communication remains a particular interest. 

He is married to Linda, who is a freelance artist and book illustrator, and they have two grown-up children. His interests include walking, photography, poetry, cricket and listening to music - and a secret passion for railways. 

Director of Studies and Academic Development

The Revd Dr Michael A Chester, BA, PGCE, STM, PhD, is the Director of Studies and Academic Development. Born and raised at Southall in West London, he worked as a chemist in industry and local government, before training for the Methodist ministry at Wesley College, Bristol. After receiving a BA in Special Theology from Bristol University, he was WCC scholar at St. Andrew’s College, a theological college of the United Church of Canada and part of the University of Saskatchewan. He completed his STM dissertation whilst studying at Oxford University for a PGCE in Religious Education and Chemistry. He was ordained in 1974.

Pastoral Ministry in Middlesbrough [1973-78], Leicester [1978-86], Wantage [1986-94] and Bath [1984-2000], included an exchange year in New Zealand [1983-4], and sabbatical leave spent as visiting lecturer at Sia’atoutai Theological College, Tonga. In Middlesbrough his ministry included hospital chaplaincy and part-time secondary school teaching, in Leicester it included work-place chaplaincy, and in Bath university chaplaincy. In Wantage and in Bath he was the Superintendent Minister. His PhD was awarded by the University of Birmingham [2000]. Before joining NEOC he was senior lecturer in theology at Kenya Methodist University.

A systematic theologian, with a particular interest in theological anthropology, Michael’s PhD is in Jewish theology, and his book on the life and work of Abraham Joshua Heschel, Divine Pathos and Human Being, was published in 2005. He has a developing interest in the theology of religions and interfaith dialogue.

He is married to Heather, an Occupational Therapist, and they have two adult children: Naomi is a materials scientist, currently a full-time mother, living in York, and Ben is a traditional craftsman, living in Leicestershire.

Among his other interests Michael includes boating, vegetable gardening, walking, international travel, and, more recently, grandparenting. He is keen to be involved in music and drama, and is a compulsive reader.

Residential Tutor

Elizabeth Harper BA/LLB, BA, MA is the Residential Tutor. She is a New Zealander in her 40s. She originally trained in law and computer science but after 3-4 years of work came to England to study theology. After her MA (concentrating on the Psalms and chapter 2 of Micah) she became a theological educator for WEMTC which trains ministers for the Anglican and Methodist Churches in Bristol. She teaches OT, NT and Homiletics.

She is interested in the (new) Literary and Postmodern Criticisms especially narrative studies in bible and preaching. Her study arises from the question of why the Primeval story gives so much space to the telling of the Flood Story(ies). In the process she is also looking at the telling of these stories in the ANE. For more details see http://www.eharper.nildram.co.uk/phd.html

Practical Theology Tutor

The Revd Rachel Wood BA, BD, MA, is the Practical Theology Tutor. She was born in Irvine, Scotland in 1971 but moved down to Yarm when she was 4 and her parents still live there. She left at 18 for Birmingham University and it was here she experienced a renewal of her faith via the Christian Union and after graduation took part in a USPG Root Group Scheme near Walsall, living in community and working in the parish.

The vote to allow women to be priested in the C of E was the same year and it was then that she began to feel that this might also mean her! She worked in Manchester and Rochdale before starting training for ministry at Queen’s College Birmingham. She served her first title at Darnall, Attercliffe and Tinsley parish in Sheffield and then did a second curacy at a very different kind of parish in Roundhay, Leeds. While in Leeds she married Jon whom she had met at Queen’s.

Jon got a job at St Hilda’s Hartlepool in 2004 and Rachel began a PhD in women’s working rights and the Church of England. She also taught Doctrine 1 for NEOC which has led to Rachel’s becoming practical theology tutor for this year. She and Jon also now have a son, Samuel, born in October 2006.

Administrator

Candace Nolan-Grant MA, is the Administrator. She was born and brought up in the San Francisco bay area where she earned her undergraduate degree in English literature from the University of California at Berkeley. After graduation, she began working full-time at Berkeley's summer school programme for children, interrupted by a year at the University of Durham to earn her Master's degree.