Biographies of Council Members
Mufti Yusuf Akudi, Muslim lives in Dewsbury, holds a qualification in Theology and graduated as a Mufti. He is currently employed as a specialist 'Islamic advisor' at Indian Muslim Welfare Society working with both the Muslim and the Non-Muslim community. He has extensive knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence and substantial experience in community work. He offers specialist Islamic training packages to organisations and Muslim representation at local, regional and national bodies/forums. He is an integral link between public and private sector organisations in Kirklees and is at the forefront of interfaith relations with many communities in the district.
Kiran Bali, is a practising Hindu and has been involved in Interfaith activities for many years. She currently chairs the Interfaith Council Huddersfield, is the General Secretary for the Hindu Society of Kirklees and Calderdale and a Director of the Active Faith Communities Programme and Kirklees Racial Equality Council. Kiran has been an active volunteer in the areas of health, faith, equality, and sport for over 10 years and in 2005 was given two national awards in recognition of this. Underpinning all her work is a fundamental belief in developing a socially cohesive society based on the principles of equality, diversity and social justice. She enjoys teaching Karate and has recently been appointed as a Justice of the Peace.
Neil Bishop, Christian lives in Wakefield. He is a Methodist minister but during the week he works for a secular organisation, the Darnall Community Forum, promoting community and faith cohesion in a multi-ethnic part of Sheffield. .Previously he worked in South Leeds where he was the secretary and development manager of a project called Faith Together in Leeds 11. He was also the Chair of Voluntary Action Leeds, the Leeds Council for Voluntary Service, for six years. he was one of the two Christian representatives to the inter-faith Steering Group which helped to set up the Faiths Forum.
Rowan Blake-James, Christian has lived in the market town of Pocklington, in the East Riding, for more than 30 years and has been a local Councillor, first for Humberside & now for the East Riding, since 1988; She has been especially concerned with Health & Social Care, Education, & Social Inclusion. She is also a member of SACRE, for Religious Education. Her voluntary work has included the National Childbirth Trust, the Miscarriage Assoc. & the Sue Ryder Home. Every year she goes on pilgrimage to Lourdes with sick pilgrims, including her very handicapped little grandson Gregory.
Helen Brand, Christian was born in Bradford and grew up in Menston. Studied BA Hons in Humanities and Social Studies at University of East Anglia, taught English abroad for 10 years. Worked at British Council and various universities and ran own teaching business. In 1999 , came back to UK to work in English Language Department at Bradford College. Became a member of Abundant Life Centre, and involved with international students and refugees. In 2003 became the Urban Networker at Scargill House co-ordinating the award-winning MythBusters community cohesion project for Bradford District. Now in York doing project work for The Higher Education Academy.
Revd Graham Brownlee, Christian has a degree in Chemistry from Leeds, and taught briefly before training for the Christian ministry in the Baptist Church. His first churches were in Birmingham and Teesside. He now lives in Ossett near Wakefield. He set up charitable and regeneration initiatives with the churches, local council and community groups during his time in Teesside and worked with a number of local faith groups in their involvement in the community and regeneration. From 2002 to 2005 he was the Chief Executive of the Churches Regional Commission for Yorkshire and the Humber advocating the significance of faith. Graham also worked on the development of the Faiths Forum supporting the Multi-faith Steering Group.
Revd Canon Michael Cooney, Christian was born and brought up in rural Suffolk, He came to North Lincolnshire via London, where he studied economics; Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire where he trained for the priesthood of the Church of England; Coventry, where he was ordained; and Lincoln, where he served as a parish priest. Until September 2005, he worked for fifteen years as a parish priest in Scunthorpe. He is now Chaplain to the Economy in North Lincolnshire and Area Dean for Scunthorpe and The Isle of Axholme. Michael has been a member of the North Lincolnshire Multifaith Partnership since it was founded.
Revd John Davis, Christian is an Anglican minister currently working as Senior Chaplain of the Selby Communities and District Industrial Mission – an ecumenical agency providing chaplaincy in a workplace setting. Prior to this, he worked as a parish priest in a variety of town and country settings. He also acts as a Rural Officer within the Diocese of York and Chaplain to Askham Bryan College of Agriculture and Horticulture. He is particularly interested in what is now labelled "Celtic Spirituality". His hobbies include surfing and digital photography.
Patricia Farrell, Christian is a mother of four, child of God, consultant, governor, magistrate and active member of her community. She has been blessed over the past fourteen years to be a representative, working in France, Germany and the Netherlands on Inter-Cultural Relations and Inclusion. Wherever she has worked, or travelled, she has tried to take Christ-like values with her. She is representative for West Yorkshire African Caribbean Council of Churches on Leeds Faith Forum.
Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Jew was a baby in the Holocaust in Budapest. She has lived in Sheffield since 1991 and has been a magistrate for over 20 years. Since 1997 Agnes has beenthe Deputy for Sheffield at the Board of Deputies of British Jews and is currently the Chair of its Regional Assembly.She was a member of the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy at Sheffield Hallam University for several years. Agnes is a trustee of the national Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. In 1998 she recieved a MA in Holocaust Studes and has since undertaken considerable researchon Holocaust rescuers. She was a member of the Steering Group which examined teh feasibility of creating the Faiths Forum for YHA from January 2003.
Daryoush Mazloum, Baha’i was born in Iran and lived in England since 1970. He has been an elected member of the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of York since 1971 and has represented York Baha'i Community on activities related to race relations, interfaith, peace, UNA, environment and education. He is currently a member of York SACRE and York Racial Equality Network. He is also a retired Community Psychiatric Nurse and counsellor.
Nahida Majid, Muslim has experience of project management in a number of different areas of work. Her work has involved working on many pilots in learning, training, housing stock transfer and Offender Management. She has also carried out research and community consultation in the public and private sector. Recently she managed one of five national pilots,looking at involving the Voluntary and Comunity Sector in delivering Criminal Justice services. Nahida is the Regional Development Manger for United Religions Initiative (URI) UK and also works as an independent facilitator on various areas of work. Including understanding Islam and women's rights in Islam. Other interests include philosophy and education.
Dominic Moghal, Christian is Panjabi by ethnicity, Muslim by culture, Christian by faith and British by residence; and believes that he is a global citizen, responsible and accountable to the people of all cultures and faiths. He is the Programme Director of Bradford Churches for Dialogue and Diversity and is training part time to be a priest in Church of England. His main areas of study, work and interest are religion and society. He works to prove that although religions have often caused a great deal of pain and misery to the peoples of the world, they are still part of the solution to our present day troubles. His main work has been in the area of Christian-Muslim relations.
Rabbi Ian Morris, Jew has been the rabbi of Sinai Synagogue in Leeds since 1996. Born in Melbourne, he has served congregations in Perth and Adelaide. He has been involved in, and concerned with, interfaith activities wherever he has worked. In Perth, he was a founding member of the Council of Christians and Jews in Western Australia, and in Adelaide he was the founding Chairman of the Multi-faith Association of South Australia. He studied for the Rabbinate at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and Jerusalem and is past chairman of the Assembly of Rabbis of the Movement for Reform Judaism in Great Britain.
Christina Moss, Buddhist is a graduate of Manchester University and a mother of four. She has studied and practised since 1980 under Lama Jampa Thaye, regent of Karma Thinley Rinpoche, a master of the Kagyu and Sakya schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Christina has been associated with the Dechen Community and its publishing arm Ganesha Press, in London, Bristol, Manchester and for the last twelve years, Yorkshire; and is a trustee and outreach instructor. She is an active member of the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education and worked on the North Yorkshire 'Revised Agreed Syllabus for RE' published in 2004.
Joniah Parthasarathi, Hindu was born in South India, educated at Madras University and worked in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, New Delhi. He came to the UK in 1964. He holds a Diploma in Community Religious Studies from Bradford and Ilkley Community College and worked for the Bradford LEA as an RE teacher in Hindu Dharma in the Interfaith Education Centre until he retired in 2001. He has compiled and edited Guide to RE Teachers – Stories from Hindu Dharma for Religious Education. He is spokesperson for Inter-faith dialogue for the World Council of Hindus (Yorkshire).
Satwant Rait, Sikh was born and brought up in India, and worked as a librarian for Directorate of Education before coming to this country. She came to Leeds in 1968 as a result of arranged marriage and gained her PhD from Loughborough University. She served as a Justice of Peace on the Bradford Bench from 1986-2005 and has served on management committees for community organisations. After retirement, she wrote two books on the lives of women – a subject close to her heart. She is a Sikh by faith though she strongly believes that all religions are good if interpreted rightly and will support any project which is good and beneficial for the community as a whole.
Revd Tony Robinson, Christian taught Mathematics and Computer Studies for two years before training to be a priest. His first parish was in Tottenham, London. He then moved to Leicester to a large team parish with three urban priority areas. During his time in Leicester Tony helped establish four community projects. The parish embraced the largest Hindu community in Britain as well as people from other faith communities. In 1997 he moved to Yorkshire and in 2002 he was consecrated Bishop of Pontefract in the Diocese of Wakefield. He is very active in developing Inter Faith work in Wakefield, North Kirklees, Huddersfield and Halifax.
Harbans Singh Sagoo, Sikh was born and brought up in Kenya and worked as an Air Traffic Control Officer for nearly two decades. He retired and came to the UK in 1973 and set up a family business (Auto Engineers) from 1975 -2004. He has been involved in inter-faith work since 1976 with Concord and now with Leeds Faith Forum. Currently working with Leeds Voice and South Leeds District Partnership. In his own community, he was appointed leader of Gurudwara Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (UK) Leeds in 1976. The organization has national and international bases and is actively engaged in interfaith/world peace/poverty initiatives.
Sajda Shah is a Muslim British woman with 15 years of experience of working both in a paid and unpaid capacity in the voluntary and community sector. Her experience also extends to working in the private and public sectors. She is passionate and committed to ensuring that faith communities play an active part in the region, that there is recognition for the invaluable services that they provide to the economic development in our region and that all faith groups/communities from local, sub regional and regional levels have accountable and transparent representation in the region.
Inderjit Singh Bhogal, Director is a leading Theologian and Methodist minister. He is a former President of the Methodist Conference. He was born into a Sikh family in Nairobi and came with them in 1964 to live in Dudley, West Midlands. He took his first Degree in Manchester and his Masters Degree in Oxford.
Inderjit lived in Wolverhampton for 8 years where he helped to establish one of the first Inter Faith Groups in UK, and was Co-ordinator of the Group 1984 – 1987. Inderjit lives in Sheffield where he has worked in Multi- Faith inner city contexts. He established a Christian – Muslim Group out of which has grown the Sheffield Inter Faith Group. He has organised Christian – Muslim Peace walks in the City. He helped to start Sheffield’s Homeless and Rootless at Christmas Project. This has involved several hundred volunteers.
Inderjit has also worked as Director of the Urban Theology Unit and Consultant Theologian for Christian Aid. He is a Patron of several organisations, including the Bradford Churches for Dialogue and Diversity. He has been a member of the Race Equality Advisory Panel [Home Office], and is a Trustee of the Multi Faith Centre at the University of Derby where he is also a member of the Governing Council.
Inderjit was awarded the Hon. Doctor of University by the Universities of Oxford Brookes [2001] and Sheffield Hallam [2002]. He was awarded the OBE in the New Year’s Honours List 2005 for his work in Inter-Faith relations.