My research since 2003 has focussed on restorative justice, building on my international development experience (1990-2000) at the World Council of Churches when the truth and reconciliation process in South Africa drew global attention to alternative relational approaches to justice and peacebuilding. I have researched and published on the moral dimensions to Restorative justice, particularly asking what place, if any, does forgiveness have in RJ theory and practice. In the last four years the focus has been on intercultural/interdisciplinary dialogue between RJ scholars. A symposium held in 2024 brought 20 scholars together to undertake a comparative study between UK and China. A publication arising from this dialogue is in process (publication date Autumn 2025). The new focus 2024-26 is on joint UK- China projects in the field of restorative justice and environmental law. A Student forum on the theme: climate change – responsive regulation is being jointly organised with Peking University Law School. (July 2024) and a funded research programme on this theme for visiting Chinese scholars is developing.

As an undergraduate, I read Theology at Oxford and trained for Ministry in the Baptist denomination at Regent’s Park.  Since then, I have been Director of Programmes for the Churches’ Response to Humanitarian Disasters and Refugee Concerns at the World Council of Churches in Geneva (1988-99), and Deputy General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain (1999-2004).  In 2012, I took a PhD from the University of Birmingham, with a thesis entitled ‘Local Congregations responding to Violence’. I previously served as Chaplain & Tutorial Fellow at Regent’s Park College from 2006 until my retirement in 2020.