Meet the team
Advisory Board
The Advisory Board exists to ensure that the Centre for Church Planting is effective in its mission to resource church planting and church revitalisation through training, national church planting projects and direct support of church planting in the North of England.
Christian Selvaratnam is the founder and Dean of the St Hild Centre for Church Planting. He has nearly thirty years' experience of church planting and is a former Head of Alpha in the UK.
Lizzy Woolf is the Rector at St George's Leeds and the Chair of the Advisory Board. She has been involved in leading multiple church plants including St George's, which is a resource church for Leeds Diocese.
Alex Harris is Director of Baptist Church Planting at the St Hild Centre for Church Planting and Regional Minister for Church Planting and Pioneering for the Yorkshire Baptist Association. Alex and family are also planting a micro-church collaboration in north Leeds which also forms the focus of his doctorate studies.
Ric Thorpe is the Bishop of Islington and Director of the Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication. He serves the Church of England and other denominations to develop strategies for church planting.
Jill Duff is the Bishop of Lancaster, a former Director of St Mellitus College, North West and the lead bishop for church planting in the Diocese of Blackburn.
Mark Powley is the Principal of St Hild College, providing overall leadership to the College. He leads modules in Biblical Theology and Leadership.
Daniel McGinnis is Vice Principal of St Hild College. He has a background in leading student ministry and planted a church in Sheffield in 2005, which he led and developed for 8 years.
Raj Saha is Lead Elder of Jubilee Church Teeside, a multiethnic church that is part of the ChristCentral Newfrontiers family of churches. He is also a local GP, having worked in deprived and hard to reach populations, and he trains GPs of the future.
Matt Hatch is the Senior Pastor of Mosiac Church Leeds. Mosiac is one church that meets across 3 sites in Leeds. He is also Catalyst Team Leader.
Rachel Malyk is a Leader of Vision Church Leeds and Dewsbury. She has worked there for the past 17 years and in that time has pioneered several different missional home\cafe groups and evangelistic outreaches.
Mark Hudghton leads Vine Church Wynyard, a church plant in Stockton-on-Tees planted in early 2020. Wynyard has never had a church community of its own; the church has a partnership with Wynyard Primary School and meets in the school building.
Emily Hudghton leads Vine Church Wynyard, a church plant in Stockton-on-Tees planted in early 2020. Wynyard has never had a church community of its own; the church has a partnership with Wynyard Primary School and meets in the school building.
Mark Carey is the Vicar of Christ Church Bridlington, Prior to this, he planted a Deanery mission initiative called Kairos Network Church in Harrogate. He is a trustee of Kairos Connexion, an interdenominational network equipping churches.
Associate Trainers
Our Associate Trainers play a vital role in training and equipping others involved in church planting and church revitalisation in the North of England. They are experienced practitioners and bring a wealth of wisdom to the Centre for Church Planting.
Christian Selvaratnam is the founder and Dean of the Centre for Church Planting. He has nearly thirty years of experience in church planting and is a former Head of Alpha in the UK.
Joshua Cockayne is Team Leader at Holy Trinity Boar Lane: a Church with a midweek ministry to love and serve workers in the heart of the city. He is also an honorary lecturer in the School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews and a tutor at Westminster Theological College. He previously led the G2 Central church plant in York from 2016–2017.