Huge congratulations to one of our OPs, Russell Rook, on being awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours.

Russell was awarded the honour for 30 years of service and social action. This started in his gap year, following graduation from PGS where he signed up for a year working with The Salvation Army. 18 years later, Russell was still there working as an evangelist and youth worker.

Since then he has been involved in a number of charities and social enterprises, mainly at the start up stage. Russell is currently a partner at The Good Faith Partnership, which brings leaders and organisations from different sectors together to tackle intractable problems. At GFP, Russell has worked with government and civil society groups to help co-create the Community Sponsorship Programme which enables faith and community groups to resettle refugees. They have also worked with the UN, Canadian Government and University of Ottawa to help governments around the world to develop similar schemes. 

A main focus for Russell at GFP includes YourNeighbour.org, an effort enabling c.1500 churches to support vulnerable people through the Covid crisis, and the ChurchWorks Commission for Covid Recovery, which draws together all of the mainstream denominations in England to work with the government to accelerate the recovery of our most disadvantaged communities. Alongside this he oversees a range of projects looking at religious freedom and peace building in the Middle East. 

Russell currently serves as a parliamentary aide to Rev Baroness Sherlock, Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions in the House of Lords and is living in London with his wife Charlotte, a cellist, and their two teenage boys, Joe and Toby.

Amazingly, Russell is due to be ordained in the CoE in July -  Congratulations!

Thank you Russell for sharing your story with us. We wish you the best of luck and huge congratulations for you incredible achievements.