Revd Dr Sahr Yambasu
Revd Sahr John Yambasu, PhD Cantab, is a Methodist minister, serving in Ireland for the last 27 years. Originally from Sierra Leone, he is the author of two books and several articles. He is the ex-President of the Methodist Church in Ireland and co-founder of the Africa Centre in Ireland.
He is a member of the City of Sanctuary Movement and sits on several other charitable boards. He currently serves at St Patrick’s Methodist Church, Waterford, Ireland. He is married to Clodagh with whom he has three adult children: Abbie, Fayia, and Sahr Jnr.
Zrinka Bralo – CEO at Migrants Organise
Zrinka Bralo has been the CEO of Migrants Organise since 2001.
Migrants Organise is an award-winning grassroots platform where migrants and refugees organise together for dignity and justice. Migrants Organise provides direct access to justice and support for the most vulnerable individuals and families and facilitates numerous shared campaigns such as the Patients Not Passports campaign for access to health care, Promote the Migrant Vote campaign to build electoral power, and the most recent Solidarity Knows No Borders community and the Fair Immigration Movement Charter, a call for dignity, justice and welcome for all migrants, refugees and communities of arrival.
Zrinka is a refugee from Sarajevo, where she was a journalist and where she worked with leading war correspondents during the siege of Sarajevo in the 90s. She is a founder of the Women on the Move Awards, which celebrates the achievements of migrant and refugee women, and winner of the 2011 Voices of Courage Award by the Women’s Refugee Commission in New York. Having learned from the US immigrant justice organisers, in 2014 she pioneered a new model of grassroots migrant organising in the UK, which combines organising and campaigning for systemic change with direct access to justice – advice and support for people affected by the Hostile Environment immigration policy. Zrinka holds an MSc in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and is a 2014 Churchill Fellow. In 2022 she was awarded an honorary doctorate (DLitt) by the University of Exeter.
Professor Katy Hayward – Queen’s University, Belfast
Katy Hayward is Professor of Political Sociology at Queen’s University Belfast and a Senior Fellow of the UK in a Changing Europe thinktank, where she leads a major ESRC-funded project on the topic of the future and status of Northern Ireland after Brexit. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2020), an Eisenhower Fellow (2019) and a Fellow in the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University.
Professor Hayward is an internationally recognised expert on Brexit and Northern Ireland/Ireland, particularly with respect to the Irish border. She was appointed to the technical expert panel of the UK government’s Alternative Arrangements Advisory Group on Brexit (2019) and has given written and oral evidence before many parliamentary committees in the UK, Ireland and EU. She is also the author of over 300 publications, including academic articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Background reading:
The Future of the Irish Border (written in Sept 2018)
Northern Ireland, 1921-2021: new borders, old tensions, June 2021
Why the protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland matters, March 2021
The Border after Brexit, Oct 2021
Short podcast on the book on the Irish Border
Dr Torsten Moritz – Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe
Torsten Moritz holds a PhD in political sciences from the Free University Berlin, Germany. He was involved in the leadership of various pan-European youth networks in the late 1990s. Since 2002 he began working for the Churches´ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME), and from 2018 as its General secretary. In this capacity he also co-chairs the European NGO platform on Asylum and Migration.
Revd Dr Inderjit Bhogal
Revd Dr Inderjit Bhogal OBE is a leading theologian and Methodist Minister. He is founder and President of City of Sanctuary, a former President of the Methodist Conference, and the former Leader/CEO of the Corrymeela Communty. His work in interfaith relations was recognised with an OBE in the 2005 New Year’s Honours List. Inderjit was also the recipient of the 2018 World Methodist Peace Award.
Read Inderjit’s introduction to Sanctuary in the Context of Borders, the subject of his workshop.
Rt Revd Dr John Perumbalath – Bishop of Bradwell
Dr John Perumbalath is Bishop of Bradwell in the Diocese of Chelmsford (Church of England) and Bishop-elect of Liverpool. Dr Perumbalath was born in India and ordained in the Church of North India in 1994. He was previously the Archdeacon of Barking. As Bishop of Bradwell he has oversight of 182 churches in an area covering mid and south Essex consisting of six boroughs/District Councils and two unitary authorities.
Dr Nicola Brady, General Secretary, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
Dr Nicola Brady is the General Secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. She was formerly the General Secretary of the Irish Council of Churches, and Joint Secretary of the Irish Inter-Church Meeting. Dr Brady has experience in faith-based peace-building both in Ireland and internationally, her work having included human-rights advocacy, support to victims and survivors, community engagement with policing, and research and publications. She is a Director of Christian Aid Ireland and of the Maximilian Kolbe Foundation.
Richard Reddie – Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
Richard is the Director of Justice and Inclusion at Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. He is a writer, researcher, cultural and religious commentator and broadcaster. He is the author of three books and the editor of the new publication, Race for Justice (Lion/SPCK – 2022).
Jonny Clark – Programme Manager at Corrymeela for Public Theology
Jonny Clark is the Programme Manager for Public Theology for the Corrymeela Community, Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation organisation.
Prior to his work at Corrymeela he was director of a faith-based charity for many years. This became a platform for the launching of multiple peace building initiatives in Ireland and around the world. His work has been instrumental in the blossoming of organic peace organisations in Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, and South Africa, as well as supporting multiple projects and people in post-conflict societies such as Burundi, Rwanda, Bosnia and India.
In 2018 he produced the documentary film Guardians Of The Flame which tells the story of three victims of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. This film and the accompanying forty-plus hour-long podcasts explore the role of religious faith in both fomenting conflict and nourishing reconciliation. His podcast has interviewed multiple theologians, activists, ex-combatants, victims, peacebuilders, politicians and musicians.
Jonny also has significant experience in mediation as well as in facilitation of a series of high level gatherings of faith leaders in Ireland, and an ongoing gathering of former senior Irish politicians.
Read Jonny’s introduction to The Bible and Borders, the subject of his workshop.
