The Chaplains

The Chaplains

The Chaplaincy Team 2011–2012

from right to left

Fr Simon Bishop SJ Fr Simon was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (an interesting co-incidence given the chaplaincy’s recent link with Mwanza in Tanzania) and then brought up in Fiji in the South Pacific (no his father was not an international rugby player but an educationalist for UNESCO) before going to school with the Jesuits at Stonyhurst, Lancashire. He studied theology (at the other place!) before training and working as a social worker in south London, trying to prevent homelessness among teenagers. Since entering the Society of Jesus he has been mainly involved in chaplaincy work in Jesuit secondary schools: three years at Wimbledon College, three years at St Louis de Gonzague, Paris and four years at St Aloysius’ College, Glasgow. He has just returned from a year abroad – four months with the Jesuits in Guyana, South America, and seven months in Australia where he was completing his Jesuit formation, the tertianship. (For an explanation, see the Jesuit web site, www.jesuitvocations.org.uk) We especially arranged for the chair and vice-chair of the CathSoc to be Aussies, to make him feel very much at home! We hope his time with us will be very happy. You are very welcome!

Br Andrew Brookes OP Andrew was brought up in Birmingham in a Catholic family. After studying Agricultural Botany at Reading (largely forgotten now) and philosophy and theology in Rome (largely remembered) he taught R.E in secondary schools in Dundee for a number of years and then developed a range of work with a range of ages in the fields of evangelisation, education, faith formation, and ecumenism both in Scotland and further afield. He is now a simply professed Dominican in his third year of formation. When time permits, he enjoys hill-walking.

Alexandra Harrod studied Ancient History at St. Andrew’s University and then spent a year abroad working as a volunteer missionary with the Associate Missionaries of the Assumption in the Philippines, where she taught English and Music and was involved in community development and education projects. Since September 2007 she has been working as acting and assistant chaplain at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire, where she has been involved in retreat work, sacramental preparation and faith-based activities and events. We are delighted to have her on the team and hope that she will adjust quickly to a new working environment in which the people outnumber the sheep.

Fr Dushan Croos SJ comes from North London of a Sri Lankan family, but does not speak the languages of Sri Lanka and has never lived there. In his sixteen years of Jesuit life he’s lived in France, for his Theology; Bosnia, with the Jesuit Refugee Service; Mexico, for a crash course in Spanish; and Chile, for the last stage of Jesuit Formation known as Tertianship. As a result he does have some French and Spanish and so is often accused of thinking in subordinate clauses. For four of his five years of priesthood he was Chaplain to Wimbledon College. His Physics studies in Manchester disappointingly did not reveal how one could travel in space and time in a telephone box that is larger on the inside than outside. He has recently resumed playing the piano, but the Geneva Conventions probably forbid allowing anyone else to listen.

A big thank you to Sr Judith Lancaster SHCJ (from the Cherwell Centre) and Sr Silvana Dallanegra RSCJ who helped out with their presence at the Chaplaincy over the last two terms and will continue to visit as friends of the Chaplaincy and to assist with weeks of guided prayer.