BCAN (Bristol Christian Action Network) Helping Christians Respond To Social Needs BCAN People

The Patrons

Peter Davies

Peter Davies is married to Vanessa. They have two teenage sons, Matthew and David.

They came to Bristol in 1992. Peter is the senior Pastor of elim@bristol city church, a church that aims to be a light to the city and a blessing to the nations. This multi ethnic church is located in the centre of Bristol. The church has a regular attendance in excess of 600 and continues to be one of the fastest growing churches in the south west region.

e@b is involved in a number of partnerships within the city centre aimed at coming alongside those caught in the valley of tears. Peter has a long established history in pioneering community initiatives that offer employment and also practical care to those in need. His ability to think strategically has enabled him to take up roles in a variety of denominational and interdenominational activities, he also lectures on the subject of leadership in a variety of fields. Peter has an MA in management.

Dave Day

Dave Day is the team leader at Bristol Christian Fellowship and has worked with many churches in the UK and overseas in an advisory capacity. Much of his time is spent developing projects in some developing countries, the most recent being a children's village for Aids orphans in Zambia. He is married to Rhian and has 3 adult children and is a proud grandfather.

Mike Pears

Mike Pears is currently minister at Cairns Road Baptist church and has been living in Bristol with his family since 2000. Mike's involvement and interest in inner city social action started in Peckham where he worked for 14 years. Here he was mainly involved in the areas of employment and education and church based social and political action. Since being in Peckham Mike has studied and worked in Vancouver for 3 years.

Rob Scott-Cook

Rob Scott-Cook is part of the leadership of Woodlands group of churches and the Bristol region Celebration Churches Network. He is also a chaplain to the University of Bristol and chairman of The George Müller Foundation. Rob has a great heart for Bristol and especially for those that are marginalised.

Anne White

Anne White is a councillor, and chairs the Environment, Transport and Leisure Scrutiny Commission.

The Steering Group

Roger Allen

Roger is married to Angie and they have two young children. He is part of the wider leadership team of Bristol Christian Fellowship and is Adviser for New Churches with Christian Aid, working with evangelical, Pentecostal and charismatic churches throughout UK and Ireland.

From 1992 to 1999, Roger and Angie taught at a Christian school in Zambia, where Roger was Head of Humanitites and he was also very involved with local churches and projects. As a result of their experiences and friendships in Zambia they became much more aware of global injustices, such as debt (the Jubilee 2000 campaign) , and the need to consider fairtrade, the Trade Justice campaign and lifestyle issues. Since 1999, they have been raising awareness of these issues and encouraging action, for example through writing the popular "Act Justly" booklet for small group Bible study (downloadable from www.surefish.co.uk/actjustly).

Roger co-founded BCAN's Global Issues Forum in 2003, with Janet Mills (TEARfund and Woodlands).

Paul Hazelden

Paul is married to Sue, and they have three boys - Alan (1987), Philip (1989) and Ian (1992). You can read more about Paul and Sue if you go to www.hazelden.org.uk.

Paul worships at Highgrove Church, and runs Crisis Centre Ministries, a local Christian charity helping homeless people.

Paul is also on the board of FareShare South West and Voscur (the 'Council for Voluntary Services' supporting all of Bristol's voluntary sector).

Julian Marsh

Julian Marsh is currently Chairman of the BCAN Steering Group. He is married to Liz, and they have three grown-up children, two of whom are married and all are committed Christians with roles and responsibilities in their local church. They have two lovely young grandsons too!

For many years, Julian used to be the Chief Executive of the George Müller Foundation in Bristol.

Julian is also a Core Leader (in Portishead where he lives) of their local church which is now a large independent church which meets in the local secondary school (of which he was Chair of Governors for 7 years).

Julian with his wife were involved in planting a church from scratch in the local community which now forms part of this church. Julian has much contact with a number of churches in the Bristol area providing advice and help to leaders and serving as a Trustee of a number of them. He and Liz also have links with two churches in southern Poland and provide regular input there.

Julian started his working life as a Further Education College Lecturer and following that he had a career in local government educational administration becoming a Senior Education Officer before entering full-time Christian work as a Pastor.

Julian's mission is to see local church equipped, inspired and resourced to reach out into their local community mainly in the Bristol area, especially amongst the most needy.

Julian Perkins

Julian currently works with the national charity Care for the Family as the project manager for "Bringing Home The Prodigals" - one of the biggest projects that the charity has undertaken (see www.prodigals.org.uk for further details).

He is one of the Elders of Living Waters Church in Clevedon, where he worked for 10 years. During that time he served as administrator and music director. He was involved in setting up and developing: a Counselling Centre; a Debt Advice Centre; a drop-in youth project; a community alcohol and drug forum; a schools puppet theatre; and small-business lunch club and seminar programme, amongst others (see web.living-waters.org.uk for further details).

He trained as an accountant and is the finance director for a handful of companies and trustee for a number of trusts. He has worked as the music director for Colin Urquhart, Don Double and Yinka Oyekan.

Julian, has been married to Lynda for 23 years and has two teenagers, Suzi & Dave. He is the Treasurer for BCAN.