Who’s Who
Meet our steering committee:
Fr Marcus Walker
The Rev’d Marcus Walker, rector at St Bartholemew the Great in the City of London, was ordained in 2011 and served for three years in London. Born in Jerusalem, he spent his childhood in the Holy Land, Moscow and Cairo. For four years Marcus was Deputy Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, the Anglican Communion’s embassy to the Vatican.
He is co-founder of the Save the Parish movement and acts as its Chairman.
Rev Canon Giles Fraser
Giles Fraser is a parish priest, journalist and broadcaster. He is currently vicar at Saint Anne’s in Kew.
Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent KCB CBE
After reading mathematics at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent served in the Royal Navy for 37 years, latterly as Second Sea Lord and then Commander-in-Chief Fleet, retiring in 2007. He commanded the conventional submarine HMS OLYMPUS, the nuclear submarine HMS CONQUEROR, the frigate HMS BRILLIANT and the aircraft carrier HMS INVINCIBLE. He saw active service in Northern Ireland, the Cold War, Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan. After leaving the Navy he undertook non-executive roles in the private and charity sectors. He was awarded an operational CBE in 1999 for inspirational leadership during operations in the Gulf and was knighted in 2004 for taking a leading role in diversity.
Until recently a Churchwarden in one of a 6 parish rural benefice in Devon, a member of the Exeter Bishop’s Diocesan Council, Deanery Synod and a Local Worship Leader, he has now turned his energy to Save the Parish. His objective in doing this is to persuade the Church of England, in its various forms, to place parish ministry higher in their priorities.
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson (Steering Committee) studied Law at Cambridge University and is a former City solicitor at a leading law firm, now a freelance journalist and charity trustee. She has had pieces published in the Spectator, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Times, Sunday Times and Church Times, as well as specialist publications. Emma is also a rural parish volunteer, running her village church choir, cooking parish lunches and organising community events such as food bank collections and litter picking. She is a St Albans Diocesan Synod and Deanery Synod representative.
Prudence Dailey MBE
Prudence Dailey has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) from Merton College, Oxford. She has been a member of the General Synod since 2000.
She was National Chairman of the Prayer Book Society from 2006 to 2020 and has at various times been a Churchwarden, church choir member, Sunday School teacher, City Councillor and Parliamentary candidate. She worked in NHS administration, and as a business systems analyst. Her experience in the Synod has suited her well to being STPs point person on everything Synod.
Rev’d Canon Professor Alison Milbank
Alison Milbank is Professor of Theology and Literature at the University of Nottingham and Priest Vicar and Canon Theologian at Southwell Minster, a parish church cathedral. She is the co-author with Andrew Davison of For the Parish: A Critique of Fresh Expressions (SCM, 2010) and co-editor of Preaching Radical and Orthodox (SCM, 2017). Her most recent academic monograph is God and the Gothic: Religion, Romance and Realism in the English Literary Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2018).
Rev’d Angela Tilby
Angela Tilby is a writer, broadcaster and theological educator. After working for the BBC for over twenty years she was ordained in 1996 and taught at Westcott House in Cambridge. She was vicar of St Benet’s Cambridge for five years and then Diocesan Canon at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Now retired she is a Canon Emeritus of Christ Church and a Canon of Honour at Portsmouth Cathedral.
Conta Rowan Hamilton
Conta Rowan Hamilton is a Cambridge Natural Science graduate and spent 14 years working in the City as a director in an international bank. She has also spent time in the Third sector, running a charity in London and in a rural Wiltshire parish.
Francis Clarke
Honorary Treasurer
A Graduate in History from Fitzwilliam College Cambridge. Spent the next forty years working in the City of London as an Analyst and Investment Manager investing in Global Equities. He has recently become a Churchwarden in his local Parish Church in Cambridgeshire.
Richard Arens
Richard is a Politics graduate from Durham University and now works in central London. Formerly head chorister at Leicester Cathedral, he is the Deanery Synod representative for St Andrew’s, Jarrom Street, Leicester, and a member of Diocesan Synod.
Robert Zampetti
Robert Zampetti, Church Commissioner, is a semi-retired Partner of EY with over 30 years of experience consulting to global enterprises in Human Resources and Change Management. He has lived at various times in the U.S., France, Canada, and Hong Kong and has worked in countries around the world. Robert has been a member of the General Synod member from 2021, when he was elected on a Save the Parish platform. He is also a Churchwarden at St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden (the Actors Church). He is an avid theatregoer, amateur historian, and lover of long walks.
Matthew Barrowes
Matthew Barrowes is a master’s student at The Courtauld, specialising in the art of the Italian Renaissance. He previously read English Literature at Durham University. He is also a bellringer at his local church.
Debbie McIsaac
Debrah Ball McIsaac worked as a barrister and solicitor in Alberta and Ontario Canada and as a solicitor in England and Wales. For some years, she was a consultant to international law firms and solicitors’ regulatory and representative bodies in the UK and, as an elected member of the Law Society Council, chaired its Education and Training and its Ethics and Standards Committees. A member of General Synod since 2010, she taught Ecclesiology and Scriptural Interpretation at Sarum College, has had every job going in her local rural church and chaired the local Parish Council. Debbie is a Licensed Lay Minister.
Elliot Grainger
Elliot Grainger is a strategic communications specialist with seventeen years’ experience designing and delivering high-profile campaigns for governments and international organisations, from national communications work in the UK through to award-winning international programmes across the Middle East and Central Asia. Most recently he has led a global diplomatic campaign for ratification of the High Seas Treaty. He has also worked extensively on counter-disinformation and national security communications for EU and UN institutions, and more recently on the governance of artificial intelligence.