St Michael & All Angels

A growing and inclusive church in North Oxford

 

Church Events

Church & Community

Who's Who

Vicar

The Revd Gavin Knight has been the Vicar of St Michael's since September 2011. He and his wife Jo, and their three sons, live in the vicarage near the church in Summertown.

Gavin's contact details here.

Download a profile of Gavin.

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Associate Priests

The Revd Dr Nicholas Bradbury

Nicholas is originally from Yorkshire but was a chorister at Christ Church, Oxford. After a year in New Guinea and five at Oxford he was ordained in 1973 as a curate at the Elephant & Castle. His ministry has included three years with the Jesuits in New York, incumbencies in Tottenham, Wiltshire and Bristol and five years as Director of Pastoral Theology at Salisbury and Wells Theological College. In 2002 he became a Senior Fellow of the King's Fund and he has just stepped down as Head of System Leadership for the NHS Leadership Academy to run his own company, Humanum. He has made over 130 BBC broadcasts and written a book on the Inner City and, in 2015, on practical theology and the C of E. His PhD is on the French Dominican, Pierre-André Liégé, a Vatican ll. pioneer. Nicholas is married and lives in the parish. Music, the Hindu tradition and France are particular passions.

The Revd Mary Gurr

Mary was born in London during the war (WW2 in case you were wondering). Prior to ordination she worked for Yellow Pages and Courage the brewers. She served her title at Easthampstead, Bracknell and was latterly vicar of St Anne's and St Peter's High Wycombe. She retired in 2009 and moved to Oxford. She quickly fulfilled one of her retirement ambitions: to work with the homeless, having experienced such work at two successive winters with Crisis at Christmas in London. She founded and is chair of trustees of the Oxford Winter Night Shelter (OWNS). As well as running a night shelter for rough sleepers, during the coldest months of the year, OWNS also runs The Living Room, a day centre, open 4 days each week all year round which caters for homeless people, both rough sleepers and the vulnerably housed. TLR enables them to benefit from an intimate atmosphere, and where they can have a shower, wash their clothes and use a computer. Most importantly there is a team of volunteers who are available to serve refreshments and listen to them. Her husband Mike died in 1993 after a long illness. Their offspring are Ben, Emma and Jake; between them they have produced 6 grandchildren: all girls. Precious time spent with her family, good conversation with friends, laughter, eating, drinking (preferably wine), opera and holidays are her pleasures.

The Revd Alyson Peberdy

Alyson recently retired from 17 years as vicar of St Saviour, Brockley Hill, Lewisham, following a curacy in Windsor Team Ministry. Before studying on the Oxford Ministry Course her academic background was in Sociology and Anthropology (Durham, Reading and St Antony’s Oxford) and she was for ten years research fellow and lecturer in Health and Social Welfare at the Open University. She has also taught in Nigeria, and in Papua New Guinea researched the relationship between indigenous and western medicine. More recently she studied Systematic Theology at King’s London, writing her M.A. dissertation on "Trinity and Inter-faith Encounter". She has a strong interest in social justice and Community Organising, is a volunteer with Refugee Resource, an honorary Chaplain at Ripon College Cuddesdon and chair of the MB Reckitt Trust. She enjoys walking, poetry, exploring new ideas and being with husband Max, children Morag and Conrad and grandsons Alexander and Felix.

The Revd Peter Silva

Peter came to the UK in 1998 from South Africa. He studied in the USA after leaving school. When he returned to South Africa, he began studying for a medical degree before being called to the ordained ministry. He studied Theology at St Paul's College in Grahamstown, and then went on to study History, Sociology and Politics at Rhodes University. That was followed by post-graduate study in History and Education. After ordination in 1974, he worked as a priest in a cathedral, priest in charge of several country parishes, a city parish priest, as a school and university chaplain, teacher, and university and Theological College academic. He also served as Director and CEO of charities and an Arts Foundation, and as a Management Consultant. His work in Apartheid South Africa led to his family being subjected to many of the repressive actions of the apartheid government, culminating in his home being burned down by a right-wing activist in 1991. His passport was restored after the free elections in 1994 which allowed him to travel abroad again. In the UK he worked as a parish priest in Abingdon. Then as a CEO of an education charity, retiring in 2010. He was granted Permission to Officiate in 2002 and has supported parishes in the Chipping Norton and surrounding deaneries since then. He also served as a House for Duty priest in the Tews and Wortons. His wife retired in 2010 after working as Deputy Chief Editor and Director of the Oxford English Dictionary and now works as a freelance editor. Their four children work in law, education, publishing and film, and have produced eight wonderful grandchildren.

The Revd Dr Susanna Snyder

Susie is Departmental Lecturer in Applied Theology at the University of Oxford. Following a curacy in London, she has worked in theological education and universities in the UK and US. Her research has focused on church engagement with refugees, as well as on theologies of social justice, spirituality and the arts, and she's currently working with others to explore understandings and practices of hope. Susie is a trustee of First Light, a charity that supports survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse. She is married to Michael and has two children, and enjoys edible gardening, running and being creative.

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Churchwardens:

Graham Kerr

I was born in Edinburgh in 1952. I started work at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, under the control of the Science Research Council as it was then, doing several clerical jobs; wages, contracts, paying bills and expenses claims. I was posted from there to our outstation in Australia where we had a telescope taking photographic plates of the southern sky. After a three year "tour of duty" there I returned to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory working mainly in Finance for the rest of my full time working life. I now work part time for City & County Bowls club on the Marston Ferry Road. As a youth I was a member of the Church of Scotland and then lost my faith for many years until I returned to St Michaels a few years ago and have been attending on a regular basis since. Outside of work I play bowls and write poetry. I have also been in various amateur drama and singing groups in the past. Contact Graham by email: manager@oxfordbowls.co.uk.

Patrick O'Meara

Retired 14 years ago and since February 2025 living with his wife Di in Summertown, Patrick O’Meara is Emeritus Professor of Russian and former Master of Van Mildert College, Durham University, where he worked from 2004 to 2011. After studying at Keele and Oxford, he taught in the Russian Department in Trinity College, Dublin University for 30 years (1974 to 2004), was a Fellow for 19 of them, and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the College in 2013. He has held visiting fellowships at the Kennan Institute, Washington D.C., the Australian National University, Canberra, and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (in 1997 and 2016). He was appointed interpreter to An Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Charles Haughey for the visit to Ireland of President Gorbachev in April 1989, and then to Albert Reynolds for the (unrealized) official visit of President Yeltsin in September 1994. He was awarded the Russian Government’s Pushkin Medal for services to Russian culture in Ireland in 1992. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on the political history of the reign of Tsar Alexander I with a primary focus on the Decembrists. The most recent is a revised, paperback edition (2020) of The Russian Nobility in the Age of Alexander I (Bloomsbury, 2019), which has since been published in a Russian edition in Moscow (in 2023). Patrick has been an organist since school days and still plays and practices regularly. He has sung in St Michael’s choir for well over a decade and is, or has been, a member of various other Oxford choirs. In retirement he has added Italian to his language portfolio and is now enjoying exploring Italian literature. Contact Patrick by email: pjomeara0@gmail.com.

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Parochial Church Council

St Michael's PCC meets seven times a year and is responsible for the wellbeing, practical as well as spiritual, of the church, church members, and the church buildings. The PCC members for the year 2025/26 are:

There are presently three vacancies on the PCC; if you would be interested in to know more, please email emma.wilkinson@stmaa.org.uk for details.

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Management and Administration:

Steve Hunter - Chair of the Buildings Team

Email: stevehunter182@gmail.com

Ali Jones - Spaces Manager, Church & Halls Bookings

Telephone: 07450 592235 email: bookings@stmaa.org.uk.

Paul Sawyer – Caretaker

Telephone: 07572 631725 email: caretaker@stmaa.org.uk.

Caitlin Beswick - Parish Manager

Telephone: 07476 476713 email: office@stmaa.org.uk.

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Music:

Duncan Saunderson - Director of Music

Duncan started his musical life as a parish church chorister in the beautiful Saxon church in Worth, Sussex. He fulfilled an early ambition to sing in a cathedral choir when he won a gap choral scholarship in Norwich Cathedral Choir. Before graduating from The Guildhall School of Music, he was deputising in the choirs at Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral and later became a permanent member of the choir at St Bride's, Fleet Street, under the Tallis Scholar Robert Harre Jones. In 1990 Duncan moved to Oxford to become countertenor, then bass lay clerk in the famous choir at New College under the esteemed choral trainer Edward Higginbottom. With this choir he travelled extensively around the world and recorded over 50 discs. Duncan teaches singing at schools in London, and has conducted Summertown Choral Society since 1996. "I am excited about my first church Director of Music job, and I am looking forward to continuing the tradition of singing glorious music in the outstanding acoustic at St Michael's!" Email: music@stmaa.org.uk.

Duncan Angwin - Organist

Duncan is Professor of Strategic Management and Director of Executive Education at UCL School of Management. Prior to joining UCL, he was the Dean of Nottingham University Business School, professor of Strategic Management at Lancaster University and previously spent twenty years at Warwick Business School. He is currently Associate Editor for the journal LRP (Long Range Planning), and sits on the Toulouse School of Management (TSM) International Advisory Board, France. He has also been an investment banker, based in London and Paris. His original degrees were from the University of Cambridge. Duncan lives with his family in Summertown and plays the organ at St Michael's as often as his academic schedule allows. He has been organist here since 1998.

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