Our Trustees

Trustees of the Othona Charity

The following provides a brief background of our Trustees:

Steve Barnes
( Link Trustee since 2020 )

Steve grew up in Grays, Essex, and began his career in civil engineering, with four years spent in South Africa. Sensing a call, rather push, into church ministry in 1979 he walked into a collection of sheds behind the trees off the sea wall in Bradwell and entranced by an amazing hall with log stove, shiny polished floor and shelves loaded with books he discovered Othona. “What is this place? I’ve found heaven!”

It was five years later, while a curate in Chadwell Heath, that he next visited, in response to an advert in the Chelmsford diocesan newspaper. It was a lifesaver finding people open-minded enough to explore and question orthodox faith, and he’s been a member ever since. In the meantime Steve has been deanery youth chaplain in Barking and Degenham, team vicar in Crawley, Sussex, then, for 19 years, hospice chaplain in Milton Keynes until ‘retirement’ six years ago.

Steve is married to Pauline, continues to live in Milton Keynes, keeping an allotment under control, lends a hand in conducting church services, helps with winter night shelters and pilots a tandem with a partially sighted gent with special needs.  “It is a privilege to still be associated with such a ‘motley’ crowd which is the Othona Community.”

Mark Macdonald
( Trustee and Board Secretary since 2021 )
Mark is a retired science teacher and has been a Head of Science and Assistant Headteacher in various large secondary schools.  He has also served as a school governor at three different schools.  Mark continues to provide supply teaching now in the Cambridge area. He is living in Great Cambourne. Brought up in Leeds as a Catholic, his faith has moved to the free churches, URC, and Methodists, and he now embraces the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Cambridge.  Mark went to university in London, at Kings College and also Keele University. He is a Leeds United fan.  He first visited Othona, Essex, several times when his three children were younger. They’re now all grown, but his commitment to Othona continues, and he serves as board secretary for the charity.

Michael Hunt
( Treasurer and Trustee since 2021 )
Michael has had a link to Othona since the late 1980’s when his then fiancé and soon to be wife, shared a house with an Othona regular regaling tales of her visits and experiences. A few years later Othona West Dorset became a regular feature of school holidays with the children. Visits have not been as frequent in recent years due to changed circumstances, including the sudden death of his wife in 2003, but Michael continued to be a member keeping in touch with developments.  He joined the board of trustees in 2021.

Michael is an accountant by profession and an ordained priest in the Church of England. His main day job is as College Accountant of Ripon College Cuddesdon, an Anglican Theological College, where he has worked for the last 8 years.  Michael lives in Buckinghamshire with Margaret, together with whom they have six children most of whom have ‘flown the nest’. Relaxation is usually a good walk in the Chilterns with the dog, meeting up with family or pottering in the garden.

Chris Jones
( Trustee since 2022 )
Chris Jones first visited Othona Bradwell in the Summer of 1989 and throughout the intervening decades, Othona has been one of the cornerstones of his life with countless holidays and working weekends, periods as a member of the core team, meeting my wife Cathrin and celebrating their wedding, watching their kids thrive and grow in the freedom and care of community, serving on the centre committee and most recently as a link trustee.  The daily rhythm of life at Othona never fails to bring with it a deep sense of peace, foster authentic relationships and provide the context for those intimate conversations through which we hear the voice of God.

Chris works as a mechanical engineer specialising in the field of engineering analysis and simulations in the field of nuclear fusion. Over the last decade and a half, he has moved into line management and is currently lead to a group of some 30 engineering analysts and structural engineers.  Chris regularly serves both the community and my home church in this way. “I am profoundly aware of the potential of music to facilitate and enrich our spiritual life and have been involved in leading worship since learning to play the guitar in my early 20s”.

Jane Pearse
( Trustee since 2021 )
Jane first visited the Community in 2006 when she went to Bradwell for the Pilgrimage weekend.  Her connection to Othona goes back further through family connections to the Othona West Dorset site.  Together with her partner Catherine, Jane leads quiet weeks at both the Bradwell and West Dorset centres.  “The sense of fellowship & spirituality combined with the beauty of the natural environment immediately appealed to me & I have been drawn back many times”.

Jane lives in Felixstowe and is qualified as a solicitor & practising in Ipswich before adopting 2 lovely children.  In 2009 she was ordained as a minister in the Church of England and is now retired so have a little more time to encourage my own & others’ Christian spirituality particularly through offering retreats & quiet days.  Jane loves gig rowing, sea swimming, walking, poetry & involvement in the local community.  Her voluntary experiences include being on the village parish council, a housing association board & twice being a school governor.

Mark Ringrose
( Link Trustee since 2024 )
Mark first became aware of Othona through his wife Ulrike, who in the early 1990s’ visited Othona on a cycle trip from Hamburg organised through one of Othona’s German links, Martin Riemer.  It wasn’t until 2005 this time cycling a far shorter route from Witham, Essex, that Mark first visited Othona in Bradwell and since then it’s become an ever greater feature of his life either for the working weekends or during the summer or autumn with his family.

Mark is originally from the UK but currently lives in Germany.  Formerly a senior manager at KPMG Corporate Finance until 2014, he now runs his own financial modelling business.  Mark is married with three children, and spends his free time either in his allotment, bird watching, wood working or helping out with the local church community.  An ever growing connection to Othona and its christian principles, inclusiveness, working together, and simple open prayer saw him join the board of Trustees in February 2024.

Chris Wilson
(To be updated)
Chris is great but hasn’t provided a bio yet!