Revd Jessica Foster

I began teaching Christianity and Interfaith Engagement in September 2017 and am a member of the Centre for Ministerial Formation

Before ordination I worked in journalism and PR, latterly as communications director for Birmingham Diocese. From 2011 I have been working in community-based interfaith roles and I began ordination training at Queen's in 2012 and was ordained Deacon in 2015. I am a distinctive deacon in the Church of England and will finish my curacy at St Peter’s Hall Green in December 2018. I remain involved in interfaith work on a local and national level.

Qualifications

BA (Hons),  General Honour (English)

PGCE,  Warwick University

MA Theology and Transformative Practice, Newman University

Roles within Queen's

I teach on the following courses:

• TMM2257 – Christianity and Interfaith Engagement.
• A Sacred Obligation – Jewish-Christian Relations

I am part of the Centre for Ministerial Development.

External roles and responsibilities

I am involved with a network of Anglican deacons seeking to support and encourage people with a vocation to the distinctive diaconate. I currently advise the Bishop of Birmingham on cohesion and am involved in cohesion work and community building across the city.  

I am curate at St Peter’s Hall Green, a church seeking to engage with its neighbours of different faiths, and am on the Management Board of Restore, a charity responding to the needs of refugees and am a member of the Remembering Srebrenica West Midlands Board.

Research Interests

I am in the very earliest stages of forming a PhD proposal which would be around the spirituality and rituals which form and nurture people engaged in activism and peacemaking in the UK and Israel-Palestine, with a focus on people who identify or have identified as Christian, Muslim or Jewish.

My MA dissertation explored the role of the deacon in a multi-faith context.