Presenters
Emcees
Georgia Clarke
Georgia is a speaker for Catholic Voices and studied Philosophy and Theology at Oxford. She recently completed an MA in Medical Ethics and Law at King's College London.
Fr Paschal Uche
Fr Paschal is a priest of the Diocese of Brentwood. As a young person Fr Paschal welcomed Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI to Britain on behalf of the young people of England and Wales at an event in the piazza of Westminster Cathedral.
Keynote presenters
Bishop Robert Barron
Bishop Barron is founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Bishop of Winona-Rochester. Bishop Barron has been invited to speak about religion at the headquarters of Facebook, Google, and Amazon as well as giving an address at the Library of Congress in October 2019 to a Bipartisan group of Senators, Representatives and Capitol Hill staffers.
Tom Holland
Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, biographer and broadcaster. He is the author of a number of books, including most recently, Dominion: The making of the Western Mind. Tom is also co-presenter of the #1 ranking history podcast in Europe, The Rest is History.
Brenden Alejandro Thompson
Brenden is the CEO of Catholic Voices and a trustee of the Bible Society. Brenden completed his Masters in Theology at Oxford University and has made multiple appearances on TV & Radio including on the BBC, Sky News & Al Jezeera.
Breakout Presenters
Monsignor Michael Nazir-Ali
Mgr Nazir-Ali is a Pakistani-born British Roman Catholic priest and former Anglican bishop who served as the 106th Bishop of Rochester from 1994 to 2009 and, before that, as Bishop of Raiwind in Pakistan. He is currently the director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue.
Sarah De Nordwall
Sarah de Nordwall is a poet and a Bard who has been entertaining and inspiring audiences across the world with her unique poetry and stories.
Monsignor John Armitage
Mgr Armitage is a priest if the Diocese of Brentwood who served as Rector of the National Basilica of Our Lady of Walsingham from 2014 to 2020. He is currently the Master of the guild of Our lady of Ransom and parish priest of St Margaret’s, Canning Town.
Dr Hannah Vaughan-Spruce
Dr Vaughan-Spruce is Executive Director of Divine Renovation UK. She read Theology at Cambridge and was awarded her PhD from St Mary’s University, Twickenham in the area of sociology of religion and theology. She has published a number of books, including, ‘Why Catholics Leave, What They Miss and How They Might Return’ (Paulist Press, 2019) and Handbook for Catechists (CTS, 2018). She is a consecrated virgin of the Archdiocese of Southwark.
Dr Susan Longhurst
Susan is Lecturer in Religion and Ethics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. Susan’s doctoral research focused on Catholic conversion and the dominant sociological factors at work in early spiritual awakening; her research is entitled ‘Who joins the Catholic Church and Why? Susan also works as Mission Development Manager for Sycamore, an informal course about the Christian faith and its relevance for life today.
Andrew Petiprin
Andrew is Fellow of Popular Culture at the Word on Fire Institute. He is an author and former Anglican cleric who came into full communion with the Catholic Church on January 1, 2019. He earned an M.Div. from Yale University and an M.Phil from Oxford University.
Dr Michael Ward
Michael Ward is an English literary critic and theologian. He works at the University of Oxford where he is a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion. He is the author of the award-winning Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (Oxford University Press) and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis (Cambridge University Press).
Dr Holly Ordway
Dr Ordway is the Cardinal Francis George Fellow of Faith and Culture for the Word on Fire Institute. She is also Visiting Professor of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University. Her writing, speaking, and teaching focus on imaginative and literary apologetics, and on the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Professor Francis Davis
Professor Davis is Professor of Leadership and Head of the Catholic Digby Stuart College at University of Roehampton, Professorial Fellow at the Oxford Institute on Population Ageing where he is working on health, social care in complex setting settings and also Professor of Religion at Birmingham University. He's also a governor of Sacred Heart Primary in Roehampton and Woldingham School in Surrey.
John Pontifex
John Pontifex has been Head of Press & Information for Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in the UK for 18 years, visiting Nigeria, Sudan, India, China, Eritrea, Cuba and Iraq. He went to Syria four years running during the conflict. John is researching the abduction, forced marriage and conversion of girls from minority faith backgrounds in Pakistan.
Ryan Christopher
Ryan serves as director of ADF (Alliance Defending Freedom) UK in London, and acts as a liaison for politicians, media, and other NGO allies working on shared mission issues. He has worked within the UK Parliament on equality legislation and is a trustee of the Christian Heritage Center at Stonyhurst. He maintains a passion for Christian education and is currently establishing a Common Good Scholarship to enable young people to serve as articulate Christian leaders in public life.