1-6 Essex Street

London, England, WC2R 3HU

Phone Number

This is the home of the Unitarians in London and the South East formally known as the London District and Provincial Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches or the LDPA for short. We provide pastoral care and practical support for 27 Unitarian congregations in the South East.

Your Custom Text Here

Programme Leaders

Each year we draw upon talented individuals within our community and beyond. They bring their thoughts, methods and spiritual insights to enrich our community.

Theme Speaker

Hanna Yaffe

Hanna Yaffe describes herself as an ardent peacemaker, who uses stories and music to foster healing, peace, love and unity. She collaborates with Christian, Hindu and Muslim musicians and storytellers in the UK and in Israel/Palestine, weaving together diverse traditions.
Her acclaimed works, Lullabies from Jerusalem and Birth in a Time of Bloodshed, are poignant anthologies that resonate with the universal emotions of mothers worldwide, while Return Again presents a collection of Hasidic tales and melodies. Born into a Rabbinic family in London, Hanna leads prayers at her synagogue while maintaining an observant Jewish lifestyle. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and near to her seven grandchildren.

For Workshops

Michael Allured

Michael Allured is minister with Golders Green Unitarians in North West London. Before training for ministry at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, he had a full-time career in the Civil Service, which he now combines for part of the week with Unitarian ministry. Michael is a keen meditator and since the pandemic has offered daily online meditation to his Civil Service colleagues. He is currently the chair of the governing Council of Unitarians in London and the South East and serves on the committee of the Unitarian Peace Fellowship and the Summer School panel. His most recent contribution to Unitarian thought is his essay on the purpose of education in Cherishing the Earth – Nourishing the Spirit, the recent Lindsey Press book. Michael is married to Rev’d Feargus O’Connor, a fellow Unitarian minister, who is equally crazy about cats.

Eleanor Chiari

Eleanor Chiari is an Associate Professor at University College London and project investigator on a collaborative pedagogical project on ‘creative visual methodologies’ with the Department of Graphic Design at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. She has been leading Unitarian workshops and services in London and the South East since 2016, and is on this year’s planning team for the Unitarian Summer School at Great Hucklow in August, where she will co-lead an engagement group with Rob Oulton.

Stuart Coupe

Stuart Coupe is part of a small team of willing volunteers who give up a great deal of time and effort to make sure that the chapel at Billingshurst, West Sussex, is a place where everybody who turns up can feel at home. He loves acoustic music and runs a folk club at the chapel.

Kate Dean

Kate Dean is minister for Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, an open-minded spiritual community in Hampstead, North West London. She has a creative background, having studied product design at university, and has organised creativity and spirituality groups. Before training to be a minister, she had careers in toy and games design, project management and youth work. Kate has served on the planning panel for the Hucklow Summer School, an all-ages religious education programme for Unitarians. Her earth-centred spiritual approach was cultivated by a childhood in Somerset and she has lived in London all her adult life. She holds an MA in Abrahamic Religions as part of her ministry formation.

Sheena Gabriel and Rob Oulton

After a 12-year ministry with Godalming Unitarians, Sheena Gabriel continues to be active; as a worship leader, a tutor for Unitarian College, and a spiritual director. She also co-ordinates online services for the Unitarian Christian Association, and co-facilitates ‘Together in Meditation’ sessions. Sheena previously worked in further/special education, and as a group facilitator and counsellor within the NHS.
Rob Oulton is a retired GP, and a member of Godalming Unitarians. He is an active member of Extinction Rebellion, the Unitarians for Climate Justice group, and a trustee of ‘What Next’ – a climate emergency centre in Godalming. Rob co-facilitates ‘Together in Meditation’ sessions, and is a member of the Healing Trust – chairing their South East England group.

Lizzie Kingston Harrison

Lizzie works for our General Assembly as Congregational Connections Lead – finding new ways to share resources and inspiration to help strengthen the fabric of the movement. She is also a ministry student. Originally from Norwich, Lizzie now lives with her family in Suffolk and has found a spiritual home with the congregation in Framlingham.

CJ McGregor

CJ McGregor has been Minister to New Unity congregation in north London since September 2022. He hails from the United States where he served as a Unitarian Universalist minister to congregations in Florida, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He was a professor of Ministerial Formation at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. CJ describes himself as a spiritual humanist, with a worldview that reveres all spiritual traditions.

Heather-Jane Ozanne

Heather-Jane is a member of Sevenoaks Unitarians and her professional background is in social work. For over 20 years she’s worked in peace and community building, founding the charity Spirit of Peace and developing training for Pathways for Human Flourishing (see www.spiritofpeace.co.uk and www.flourishing.global). She has co-authored: Awakening to a New Awareness: Stories of Contemporary Christians and Voices of Contemporary Christians: Towards the Universal.

Jennifer Sanders

Jennifer Sanders is the Minister Elect at Brighton Unitarian Church. With a background of working in residential social work and mental health, she trained as an interfaith minister in 2012. Before being called to Unitarian ministry, Jennifer worked as a funeral celebrant and took services in the South East. She’s also a wellbeing practitioner for mental health and nature connection, and an avid sea swimmer.

Sue Sinnamon

Sue Sinnamon has retired from from parish ministry, and her ministry today is spiritual direction. In this work, she sees individuals and facilitates small groups, while her consulting group trains religious leaders in Community-Based Spiritual Direction. She was a Unitarian Universalist Minister in the United States, serving three large congregations and the UUA over a 35-year career. Two years ago she moved to the UK with her husband, the Rev’d John Maxwell Kerr, to be closer to family.

Sarah Tinker

Sarah Tinker retired from congregational ministry a few years ago and remains passionate about our Unitarian movement and what it can offer. With a bit more free time she appreciates ever more the value of getting outdoors. Living now on the edge of Epping Forest, she’s getting to know lots more trees and is noticing the ways their life cycles mirror our own.

Jacqueline Woodman

Jacqueline Woodman is a member of Manchester College Oxford Chapel Society and is President of the London District Council (LDPA). She is a former Council member of the LDPA and served previously on the Unitarian General Assembly Executive Committee. She is an NHS Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist and Professor at the Warwick medical school. She is of South African heritage, is an active member of Cape Town Unitarians and is involved in interfaith initiatives in the UK, South Africa and the Republic of Georgia.

For Prayers and Meditation

Richard Bober

Richard Bober is leader of the Meditation Fellowship, and is a trained teacher of meditation and mindfulness. He currently teaches at the Buddhist Society, Middlesex University and in the Unitarian movement. He is a member of Golders Green and Hampstead Unitarian chapels.

Please note the programme may be subject to change.