Our Team

Email: Adam.Scott@lutherking.ac.uk

My hometown is Dublin, but I’ve lived most of my adult life studying and working in the UK in Scotland, London and Manchester. I grew up in the Church of Ireland, with Presbyterian and Roman Catholic family influences, so ecumenism is something I hold dear. This is also reflected in my ministerial calling, as I trained at Spurgeon’s College and was ordained in the Baptist tradition, moving to the roll of URC ministers.

My ministry has been worked out in chaplaincy, community and urban church settings in London and Manchester. I love our URC expressions of what it means to be church, but also am passionate about finding new ways to share the message of God’s love and acceptance with those who do not connect with traditional forms of Christianity.

After some time in local church ministry I felt a call to further study and completed a Doctorate in Counselling Psychology at the University of Manchester. I have experience of working in clinical and third sector settings as a chartered psychologist, and have been a manager, therapist and clinical supervisor, all the while seeking to sensitively maintain my identity as a minister of Word and Sacrament.

My areas of academic interest are in psychological resilience, trauma resulting from sexual abuse, pastoral care, mental health, the applications of mindfulness and spirituality.

I live in Manchester with my husband and two dogs.

Email: learningmentor@nwsynod.org.uk

I was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, just about a hundred miles from our ancestral home on the Lower Tanana River. The highest mountain in North America, Denali (Athabascan for “The Great One”) watches over the landscape of my ancestors. When White people moved into Alaska, names began to change or disappear: “Denali” became “Mount McKinley” and “Yidokodiltona” (my last traditionally named ancestor) became “Little Henry”. But it wasn’t all one way: the first White person in my family history was “christened” by my village as “Whiskey Jack” – the name he is remembered by to this day.

Better known to me than Denali’s profile is that of Eyak Mountain and Mount Eccles in Cordova, Alaska, the small fishing village of my early childhood. You probably don’t recognise the name of the first mountain, Eyak (it’s named after the tribal group I’m registered with), but you will probably recognise “Eccles” – presumably after the market town in Salford. I don’t know the history of that connection, but colonialism may have something to do with it.

That’s a little about me (and maybe us?)… as a theologian who thinks about preaching and the interpretation of texts for community, I am interested in the way we read, our process of interpreting what matters most, what we sometimes “see” and even more important what we do not see or cannot see because of our location or assumptions.

As one who teaches, I try to convey something of the heart of the gospel as it has taken hold of me and as I hope it might take hold of us in the preaching moment. We live in the stories of the Bible, or by them we know we live, and perhaps even why we live. Or the stories flow through us, sometimes like a mighty stream (Amos 5:24) or perhaps, in a season of drought, like the Cherith Brook of Elijah (1 Kings 17:2-4).

People say that I have a poetic way of writing and preaching but I also strive to be practical in my approach: in myself, I say, mystery and poetry of the preaching moment, always, but please also support us in the way to do it. Through personal narratives and then theological reflection or theological reflection with anecdotes of how it went when I tried this or how it didn’t go quite as planned when I did that… it’s like sharing a map, saying this is where I was then and that’s how I got there, or who helped me, or how, on that day, we never made it to the trig-point… but today, maybe we will.

Email: noel.irwin@lutherking.ac.uk

I grew up in Belfast…I think I have lost my accent, but no one else agrees with me! My initial studies were in philosophy and political science. Afterwards my ministerial training, for the Methodist Church, was all in Queen’s University Belfast. In my theological studies I focused on the Hebrew Bible and language with the highlight of undertaking a course in Jerusalem. I served in two appointments in Ireland (one in the north and one in the south) both of which were a mixture of church and university chaplaincy work.

I moved to inner city Sheffield in 2000 to work as a community outreach worker for the Church of England and then became Superintendent of the Methodist Mission in the centre of Sheffield. Meanwhile I was doing my PhD and I began training and teaching people for Methodist ministry through the Urban Theology Unit. Initially I combined my ministerial duties with working at UTU; I was then seconded to Luther King House to work for Hartley Victoria College and then Northern College.

My academic passions are political and public theology. I am very excited to be working with the Church-Related Community Work ministry programme which, hopefully, will keep me away from anything that looks like an ivory tower.

I relax by running (mostly up and down mountains), doing martial arts and working on my modern Hebrew. I am so chuffed to be part of Northern College!

Email: paul.barrett@lutherking.ac.uk

Since starting my first job at 14, I have held a number of varied positions including cinema projectionist, theatre box office, marketing assistant, arts administrator, activities co-ordinator, script writer… to name but a few. I started my journey with Northern College in October 2021 but have worked closely with them since 2014 when I was employed as the Assistant Registrar at Luther King House (the move was easy; just two doors down the corridor).

In my spare time I am an eager amateur baker and I enjoy reading, knitting, gardening (although with minimal success) and writing. I also have a keen interest in classic films and golden age detective fiction.

I have lived with my partner in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire since 2022; enjoying the rejuvenating qualities of good food, long walks and grey cloud that only the Calder Valley can conjure.