Authors

Coventry Press has a number of Authors. Below you will find a short biography on each one.

John Bottomley

John is a retired Uniting Church minister with a track record in the are of the dignity of work and its connection with the gospel.

Margaret Ghosen

Dr Margaret Ghosn is a Maronite Sister of the Holy Family. She graduated as a Doctor of Ministry and has completed a Master of Theology, Master of Education, Bachelor of Theology of Theology and Bachelor of Science (Hons). Margaret’s first book was Instrument of your peace (Challenge Books, 2012). She has published other books including Encounters between Jesus and Women, Models of Discipleship, along with numerous articles. She is currently Principal of the Maronite College of the Holy Family in Harris Park, NSW.

James Houston

James Houston was born in Sydney in 1932, son of a labourer. He studied Arts & Education at the University of Sydney before pursuing a career as a teacher of foreign languages in Australia, Britain and Germany. On return to Australia he became a member of the Commonwealth Public Service in Canberra where, based on Australia wide field research, he pioneered the concept of multiculturalism, serving within several Departments and agencies. Ordained an Anglican minister in later life, he served in a poor, multicultural parish and also in various ministries across the Churches, embodying a distinctive Christian interpretation of his enthusiasm for a multicultural Australia.

Jim is married to Marjorie. They have four adult children and four grand children. They live in Melbourne. He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2001.

John E Ryan

John Ryan is a retired priest of the Diocese of Sandhurst. John pursued post graduate studies in Pastoral Theology in Rome and in Spirituality in St Louis USA from 1972 to 1974.

In 1977 he helped establish the Educational Centre for Christian Spirituality and in 1982 he founded the St Peter Centre for Clergy Education which led to introduction into Australia of the Ministry of Priests and Ministry to Religious Programs and later the Catholic Institute for Ministry.

In 1995 he worked as a counsellor in the Archdiocesan Office of Centacare and in 199 helped establish the Humanita Foundation, an Australian Foundation for Integrated Christian Living whose aim was to stimulate renewal in the CHurch's understanding of human development and sexuality.

Geoffrey Lilburne

Geoffrey Lilburne is a Minister of the Uniting Church in Australia, a theologian and poet, with qualifications in counselling and professional supervision.

Kevin Treston

Kevin Treston graduated BA (Hons), MA (Hons), MEd, PhD (University of Notre Dame USA) and pursued post-doctoral studies in Washington, Chicago and Boston. He was Visiting Scholar at Boston College and is a member of the Association of Practical Theology Oceania. He has worked in ministry across Australia and several countries.

Kevin was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to Catholic Education. He lives with his wife Kathryn in Brisbane, Australia.

Denham Grierson

Denham Grierson, a retired Uniting Church Minister, first had poems printed in his school magazine. Over the years in his writings and speaking engagements the occasional poem appeared, but only in retirement from thirty years of tertiary teaching, and forty years of ministry, has the time been available to focus on poetry, that access into the depths of our lives, as Denham describes it. There is still time for golf, family, and travel but they too are resources for writing poems, a small selection of which is collected in this volume, Turning in Time.

Rex Hunt

Rex A E Hunt is a retired minister in the Uniting Church in Australia. He was Founding Director and is a Life Member of The Centre for Progressive Religious Thought Canberra, Founder of The Network of Biblical Storytellers in Australia and New Zealand and past Chair of The Common Dreams Conference of Religious Progressives in Australia and New Zealand. His web site of Liturgies and Sermons is visited regularly by people from more than 85 countries around the world.

Noel Mansfield MSC

Noel Mansfield MSC is a Catholic priest and a Missionary of the Sacred Heart (MSC) whose ministry has been mostly in secondary Education in colleges in Australia and Papua New Guinea. He completed post graduate education at Fordham University in New York and trained to be a Spiritual Director at Heart of Life Centre in Melbourne, He now lives in Sacred Heart Parish, Hindmarsh-Findon, Adelaide