Moderator

Getting to know: Rev Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson

Churches Together in England welcomes Rev Dr Tessa, Free Churches Group CTE President for 2025 to 2028.

As her term of office begins, Rev Dr Tessa (TH-R) spoke to CTE’s Senior Communications Manager, Sarah Ball (SB)

SB: Welcome to the CTE Presidency Rev Dr Tessa. How did your ecumenical journey begin?

TH-R: My ecumenical journey began long before I understood the word. As a child in Trinidad and Tobago, I lived the beauty and complexity of the Christian tradition through my family. My father was born in Tobago and raised in the Methodist tradition. My mother was born in Trinidad and raised in a Roman Catholic and Pentecostal household. I was baptised in the Methodist Church, educated in Roman Catholic and Anglican schools, and worshipped in Pentecostal settings during holidays with my maternal grandparents.

From early on, I encountered difference as a gift. That beginning shaped my lens, and helped me to see the rich variety within the body of Christ as something to honour, not to fear. My journey continues to unfold as one committed to the hard work of shared mission, mutual respect, and spiritual integrity across denominational lines.

SB: What was your first ecumenical experience? How formative was this?

TH-R: My earliest (formal) ecumenical experience came in the early 2000s while I was a member of Christ Church Bellingham. I was part of a small team tasked with building relationships across five local churches. That experience was not only informative. It was deeply formative. It taught me that unity across Christian traditions is not just an abstract hope. It is a relational task that demands presence, humility, and trust.

As I worshipped, dialogued, and shared life with colleagues from a range of denominational backgrounds, I began to sense the Spirit moving in ways I had not seen before. I witnessed how God works through different liturgies, languages, and leadership models. Some tensions surfaced, of course. But they were not held as obstacles, they were used as invitations and opportunities to grow deeper in grace. Ecumenical work has never been about erasing difference, it is about honouring difference, engaging it with love, and letting it stretch us toward fuller faithfulness.

Unity, for me, is the hard and holy commitment to keep choosing one another because of our differences, not despite them.

SB: You are a URC Minister, how has being part of that church influenced your thoughts on Christian unity?

TH-R: The United Reformed Church is itself a living sign of ecumenical commitment. Its very formation brought together multiple denominations in pursuit of a more faithful expression of the Church. To be a URC minister is to have been shaped in the context of being reformed and always reforming in a denomination that not only values being reformed and building unity, but was born from “Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei”, “The church reformed, always being reformed according to the Word of God.” My ministerial formation has been rooted in the conviction that Christian unity matters—that we can be deeply faithful to our own traditions while also working generously across them.

The URC has given me space to live this conviction in practice: through shared worship, collaborative ministry, and openness to the Spirit speaking through other voices and traditions. I have been formed by a community that has moved from just talking about being a multicultural church with an intercultural habit, and becoming anti-racist, to being in the process of seeking, diligently, to embody these principles. This experience has instilled in me a deep hope that visible unity in the Body of Christ is not only possible, but essential to our witness in the world today. 


Induction Service of the Revd Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson as Moderator of the Free Churches Group

FCG Moderator's Induction Service and Reception at the American International Church, on Sunday, 13th April 2025, 6:30 PM

 We look forward to seeing you at the induction Service for the Revd Dr. Tessa Henry-Robinson, who will succeed Revd Helen Cameron, this evening.

It promises to be an inspiring service, where we will formally welcome the Revd Dr. Tessa Henry-Robinson in her new role, spend time in worship, offer prayers, and hear from the Revd Dr. Tessa Henry-Robinson as she delivers her first formal address as Moderator. We will also take the opportunity to express our gratitude to Revd Helen Cameron for her service and dedication as Moderator of the Free Churches Group over the last four years.

Please do try to join us as we would love to see the Chapel full on this special occasion. The Service of Induction will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, 13th April 2025, at American International Church, 79a Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TD.

For those unable to travel to London, the service will be live-streamed. Please follow the link HERE.

We look forward to seeing you in person or online.

Travel Information updated on 13th April 2025, 10:30 AM:

Please note that Tottenham Court Road is currently closed due to construction work involving a large crane just a block away. Buses are also on diversion. Additionally, Goodge Street Station is now closed, although it may open at midday on Sundays, depending on staffing availability. We would recommend that you monitor TFL for the latest updates. Alternative stations nearby include Warren Street, Euston Square, or Tottenham Court Road, which are all within a 10-minute walking distance.

Induction Service for Revd Dr. Tessa Henry-Robinson, the next Moderator of the Free Churches Group, 13th April 2025

We are delighted to invite you to the induction Service for the Revd Dr. Tessa Henry-Robinson, who will succeed Revd Helen Cameron as the Moderator of the Free Churches Group.

This promises to be an inspiring service, during which we will formally welcome Revd Dr. Tessa to her new role, spend time in worship, offer prayers, and hear her first formal address as Moderator. We will also take the opportunity to express our gratitude to Revd Helen Cameron for her service and dedication as the Moderator of the Free Churches Group over the last few years.

We hope many from across the Free Churches community will join us for this special occasion. The Service of Induction will take place at the American International Church, 79a Tottenham Ct Rd, London W1T 4TD, on Sunday 13th April 2025, 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.

Please register for this free event via Eventbrite page HERE.

We look forward to welcoming you. Should you have any questions, please contact Sabina Williams via email at: sabina.williams@freechurches.org.uk

NB: Photographs will be taken at the Reception and after the Service of Induction.

Revd Paul Rochester

General Secretary of the Free Churches Group

Revd Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson elected as Moderator-elect to serve from April 2025

We are delighted to welcome Reverend Dr. Tessa Henry-Robinson as the new Moderator-elect of the Free Churches Group. Tessa will support the current Moderator, Reverend Canon Helen Cameron, in her first year before assuming the Moderator’s role in April 2025. The Free Churches look forward to working with Tessa over the coming months.

Tessa said, “I welcome this opportunity to work collaboratively in an ecumenical capacity. My background and work within the United Reformed Church (URC), which is itself an ecumenical union of churches, have uniquely prepared me for this role, emphasising my leadership capabilities as well as my commitment to ecumenism, inclusivity, and justice.

Tessa has just completed her year as Moderator of the URC General Assembly and continues to have pastorate responsibility for four URC congregations in east London. Her work as the Moderator of the URC General Assembly involved engagements both in the UK and internationally. She has significant experience in church operations, making her well-placed to navigate and lead complex discussions and initiatives across Free Church denominations. Her ministerial and professional journey includes significant milestones that align closely with the values and objectives of the Free Churches Group. As the first Black and/or ethnically minoritized woman to serve in her current roles, she is committed to diversity, empowerment, and racial justice.

Luke 5: 18 -19 - Through the Roof

“Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,[e] 19 but, finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle of the crowd[f] in front of Jesus.”


Reflection from Revd Helen Cameron, Moderator of the Free Churches Group

One of the most enjoyable things about being Moderator of the Free Churches Group is the connections that can be made. I was glad to travel to Wales to join my sisters and brothers in Free Church leadership there for conversation and careful listening about their perspectives and context particularly concerning issues of language and culture. It was an interesting day not just to talk to a wide range of leaders in Free Churches in Wales but also to see a frontline project addressing poverty in creative ways. I was then asked that day If I would be willing to lead a workshop for Welsh Baptist Ministers addressing themes of rest and restoration. Someone heard a recording of that webinar and then made contact with me directly. This was Katie Mobbs – Through the Roof Roofbreaker Team Leader and Co-ordinator for Wales, West and South West of England

Katie is Team Leader for the Through the Roof “Roofbreaker” project which aims to equip, encourage and resource volunteer disability champions in churches and ministries across the UK. She also has a particular focus on reaching churches in Wales, West and South West England. Katie is based in Cardiff and has Cerebral Palsy and is a wheelchair user. She has a background in health and social care law and disability advocacy in the public and third sector. Katie works alongside people with a range of disabilities and access needs, through her work with Through the Roof and in her local church. 

Contact and conversation with Katie and her colleagues allowed me to reflect personally about issues of access, belonging and inclusion in the life of the local Church as well as issues of policy and advocacy around full participation of all people in the life of the church at every level. In the webinar I led I had spoken quite personally about how issues of neurodivergences for someone close to me affected how they could ever feel included, welcome and be confident that they belonged at work, at leisure and perhaps most importantly for them, at church and in their faith and spirituality. I was used, as a former physiotherapist, to considering how someone with reduced mobility might need church to create flat and level paths, entrances and worship spaces. I was also used, as a teacher, in ministerial formation to consider carefully how students who were visually or hearing impaired might access their learning equally with their peers. Dyslexic students explained to me what would help them learn and how their patterns of thinking enabled a profound creativity. I was enriched in my teaching by what they asked me to consider. My fairly clear diction when speaking results, I remain convinced, from the fact that my mother for many years while I was learning to preach was profoundly if temporarily deaf. She would sit near the front and lip read. I learned not to cover my mouth or turn away to utter an aside. 

Photo courtesy from Throughtheroof.org.

What Katie helped me consider is what it takes for us to raise our voices as champions, as advocates and as those willing to become “Roofbreakers”, those willing to dismantle barriers to inclusion. Personal experience may alert us to some blockages and barriers but the kind of change and transformation required seems to require our whole attention to the imperative provided to us by God in terms of God’s will and purpose for the whole of creation. So in Isaiah 1:17 ( NIV) we read the words of the prophet to the people,

“Learn justice, do what is right and defend the oppressed”.

Our faith must be a lived reality others can experience. Love is what justice looks like in public.

So I have signed up to become a Roofbreaker, an advocate for the full participation of people in our churches and I wonder if you might too. A free webinar is offered to churches when a member signs up as a Roofbreaker advocate.

I wonder too if you mark Disability Awareness Sunday in your church?

In 2023, the date publicised for Disability Awareness Sunday was Sunday 17th September. But any Sunday can be Disability Awareness Sunday! So it is never too late to celebrate, and join the hundreds of churches across the UK - and the world - to share about church disability inclusion. There are 16 million disabled people in the UK (Family Resources Survey 2021-22) who need to know churches are supportive places to experience God’s love.

Over 20% of the UK's population are disabled people (Family Resources Survey, 2021-22). Not all disabilities are visible, but disabled people are still under-represented in UK churches – especially in positions of responsibility.

I am so glad that Katie Mobbs contacted me, so glad to be able to invite the Free Churches Group to consider this issue and to encourage you to draw on the excellent free resources of the Through the Roof Trust.

Find out more about the blessings and benefits of joining over 600 Roofbreaker disability champions in UK churches here.

 Helen Dixon Cameron

Moderator of the Free Churches Group