Terry Puttick
en staff
Date posted: 9 Dec 2025
Tributes have been paid to Terry Puttick, a London City Missioner, who has died.
Writing on X, Graham Miller, LCM CEO, wrote: “Loyalty, love, selflessness, good news, humour and perseverance were visible in all that Terry did.
Allan Beckett
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 6 Dec 2025
Biblical Counselling UK (BCUK) has welcomed Allan Beckett as its new Chair of Trustees. He succeeds Mike Warren, who served in the role for more than a decade.
Steve Midgley, Executive Director, told en: “We are so very grateful for all the ways that God has used Mike in this leadership role.” Warren has been described as “instrumental” in establishing BCUK. “We are also delighted that Allan Beckett, who has been serving on the board for five years, is succeeding Mike as Chair,” Midgley continued.
Simon Austen
Wycliffe Bible Translators
Date posted: 3 Dec 2025
Wycliffe Bible Translators has appointed Simon Austen as its new Director for Ministry Partnerships.
In this part-time role, Simon works with individuals, churches, and other agencies – along with those who are working to engage people with the translated Scriptures around the world – to help raise the profile of this important work, and to encourage involvement in it.
Bake Off winner Jasmine Mitchell's Christian faith
en staff
Date posted: 1 Dec 2025
This year’s Great British Bake Off winner has shared how the pressure of participating in the series helped her faith in God to grow.
Jasmine Mitchell, 23, spoke to Premier Christian News about her time in the tent, and how her “faith has become stronger and stronger over the last year”, as she relied on God in the busyness and stress of competing on Bake Off while studying for a medicine degree. Jasmine shared how the pressure of the show “really pushed me to rely on Jesus, on God, because there were a lot of situations where I just felt completely unequipped”.
Graham Rowles
Paul Eddy / en staff
Date posted: 30 Nov 2025
One of Bristol's most loved and respect Baptist Lay Pastors has died, aged 89. Graham Rowles played a pivotal role in churches and mission for over 50 years.
Among other things, he arranged for satellite broadcasts of Billy Graham missions elsewhere in the UK to be beamed live to audiences in Bristol. He was also greatly involved with a Luis Palau mission. Rowles was instrumental in bringing into being the South Bristol Christian Centre, was a lay preacher at East Street Baptist Church, and Lay Pastor at Dundry Baptist Chapel.
Noted international art historian and author dies
Anne Roberts
Date posted: 21 Nov 2025
Many of the international Christian arts community were saddened to learn that the art historian and author Dr Graham Birtwistle had died at his home in Amsterdam on 6 October.
Originally from Accrington, Graham had an international career, starting as a lecturer in art history at Leicester Polytechnic. Later, his name became linked with that of the Dutch Professor Hans Rookmaaker (1922–1977), whose work, as Graham wrote, “left an indelible impression” on his life. Rookmaaker’s visits to England in the 1960s and 70s had an immense impact on British art students, particularly when his book Modern Art and the Death of a Culture was published in 1970. Graham was one of a number who travelled to study with him at the Vrije Universität (Free University) in Amsterdam. Another Englishman studying under Rookmaaker was John Walford, who went on to become Professor of Art History at Wheaton College, Illinois. The two became housemates and the cottage they and others shared was a significant “hub” for students and artists seeking to work out a Christian worldview within the arts.
Mark Prentice - new minister of ANiE church
en staff
Date posted: 2 Nov 2025
An independent Anglican church outside the Church of England has a new minister. St Thomas’s Church in Corstorphine, Edinburgh recently saw the licensing and institution of Mark Prentice.
St Thomas’s was constituted in 1844 as an independent Anglican church and is currently part of the Anglican Convocation of Europe, part of ANiE.
‘Mother of modern Bible translation’ dies
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 29 Oct 2025
Wycliffe Bible Translators has paid tribute to one of its long-serving missionaries who has died at 87.
Dr Katharine “Katy” Barnwell served with Wycliffe for over 60 years. Barnwell pioneered locally-led Bible translation: after helping to see the New Testament published in the Mbembe language in 1985, she found that the Mbembe people wanted more translation – the Old Testament as well as translation into other Mbembe dialects – and so concluded that the best way to do this was to get some Mbembe speakers trained. “And so began the revolution in training local Bible translators that has led to the huge growth in Bible translation today,” says Wycliffe Bible Translators. Barnwell’s textbook Bible Translation: An Introductory Course in Translation Principles – first published in 1975 and now in its fourth edition – is the primary training resource for Bible translators worldwide.
Sam Solomon, Christian Concern co-founder, dies
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 26 Oct 2025
Sam Solomon, Christian scholar, apologist and a co-founder of Christian Concern (CC), died on 3 October.
A statement on the CC website says: “Sam was more than just a scholar. He prayed intensely, laughed freely, and brought the grace of God to countless people and situations in the United Kingdom and around the globe.
New Equipping Pastors Worldwide role
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 25 Oct 2025
Equipping Pastors Worldwide has welcomed David Bhadreshwar as its new Head of Resourcing and Partnerships.
Bhadreshwar and his wife, Naomi, spent almost 20 years in Peru as missionaries – serving indigenous churches through preaching, teaching, discipleship, and pastoral ministry in villages and cities across the jungles, highlands, and coast. Registered with Global Training Network (GTN), Bhadreshwar has remained actively involved in overseas missions training since returning to the UK in 2023.
Steven Bartlett's spiritual curiosity
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 20 Oct 2025
Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett has said he’s “almost back to being curious” when it comes to matters of faith.
On an episode of his popular podcast “The Diary of a CEO,” Bartlett hosted an extended discussion between a “spiritual thinker,” an atheist and Christian Greg Koukl.
J.K. Rowling filled with a 'God-shaped vacuum'
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 19 Oct 2025
Joanne Kathleen “J.K.” Rowling has said she has a “God-shaped vacuum” inside her.
In a post on X, the Harry Potter author wrote: “I've struggled with religious faith since my mid-teens. I appear to have a God-shaped vacuum inside me but I never seem quite able to make up my mind what to do about it.”
WEA appoints new Secretary General and CEO
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 5 Oct 2025
Botrus Mansour is the new Secretary General and CEO of the World Evangelical Alliance. From Nazareth, Mansour is an Arab-Israeli with Palestinian heritage. He will step into his new role in October at the WEA’s General Assembly in Seoul.
Council Chair Dr Goodwill Shana, who has held the position during the six-month search for a new leader by WEA’s International Council, said Mansour would provide “servant leadership and strengthen collaborative efforts” of the alliance, which stands for 600 million evangelical Christians in 148 countries around the world.
The new UK CEO of Operation Mobilisation
en staff
Date posted: 4 Oct 2025
Richard Langmead is the new Chief Executive Officer of Operation Mobilisation (OM) in the UK. He will start his new position on 1 October.
Writing on social media, OM said: “Richard is from Poole on the South coast, but grew up on OM’s ship Doulos (Brazil, Mexico, Caribbean), where he developed a deep passion for justice, international outreach, and a lasting sense that life with Jesus is an incredible adventure.” Over the years, he has served as a church pastor, and as CEO with Urban Saints, among other roles.
New National Director for OMF International UK
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 3 Oct 2025
OMF International UK has appointed Irene McMahon as its new National Director. Irene and her husband, Wilson, have served with OMF since 1989, both in the Philippines and the UK.
In the Philippines, McMahon worked on a church-planting team, trained Sunday School teachers, served as Chief Operations Officer at Koinonia Theological Seminary in Davao, and was Director of Transition for the OMF Philippines Centre. In the UK, she has worked at Belfast School of Theology, All Nations Christian College, and been Regional Co-Director for OMF in Ireland.
Evangelical Alliance NI's new Public Policy Officer
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 2 Oct 2025
Amy Scott has been appointed as the new Public Policy Officer for the Evangelical Alliance Northern Ireland.
“We’re so excited to welcome Amy Scott as our new Public Policy Officer,” Evangelical Alliance NI posted online. “We can’t wait to see how God will use her gifts and experience to serve our members and engage with local representatives here in Northern Ireland.” “I’m delighted to be part of the Evangelical Alliance NI team,” said Scott. “I look forward to representing our members in the public sphere and equipping them to engage with the issues that matter most in Northern Ireland.”
The Church Mission Society's new CEO
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 1 Oct 2025
Andy Roberts has been appointed as the new CEO of the Church Mission Society (CMS).
Roberts – a former mission partner and CMS director of mission – is originally from York and has lived much of his life in Brazil. There, he spent several years serving vulnerable children and young people, alongside his wife, Rose. The couple launched ReVive – a charity providing shelter and holistic support for girls affected by abuse, exploitation and neglect. In 2021, Roberts was awarded an MBE for his work with vulnerable children in Brazil.
Themelios welcomes new editorial board members
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 30 Sep 2025
Themelios – an international, evangelical, peer-reviewed, theological journal that “expounds and defends the historic Christian faith” – has welcomed two new members to its editorial board.
Greg Lanier is Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) Orlando, and N. Gray Sutanto is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at RTS Washington, D.C. Themelios began in 1975 and ran initially as a print journal in the UK, before becoming a digital journal operated by the Gospel Coalition in 2008.
