MINISTERS-STAFF TEAM

Rev. Dr. Paulo Bessa da Silva - Superintendent Minister

I grew up in a town with a strong steel industry in the interior of Brazil. Joao Monlevade was a French engineer who moved to the State of Minas Gerais in the 19th Century and founded my hometown. Protestants were a minority there, but I had friends at school who invited me to come to the Methodist Church to play table tennis with them. That was how I began attending the Methodist Church services, around 1976. I made my public profession of faith—our term for Confirmation—when I was 14.

During my youth, my minister encouraged me to explore a call to ordained ministry, and I moved to Sao Bernardo do Campo, a suburb of Sao Paulo City, to study Theology and Psychology. My first appointment was in 1987, at the Methodist Church in Sao Caetano do Sul, also in Greater Sao Paulo. I took a year’s leave between 1990 and 1991 when my mother passed away, which took me off the path to ordination for a time. I returned to active ministry in 1992. The regulations for the ordination of Methodist presbyters had changed, and I served as a probationer for four years, meaning that I was not actually ordained until early 1996.

I served as a University Chaplain from 1993 to 2000, while also ministering in different Methodist churches at weekends, as was common practice in Brazil at the time. I completed a Master’s degree in Clinical Health Psychology and a PhD in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Psychology. My doctoral research focused on psychological and moral development, particularly the phenomenon of altruism - also known as selflessness.

When I became a lecturer at the Methodist University of Sao Paulo in 2001, I continued as a part-time pastor, serving Methodist congregations in neighbourhoods far from my home at weekends. The last church I served before transferring to the Methodist Church in Britain was the Methodist Church in Santana, where I ministered for 12 years.

I came to the United Kingdom in 2020, Recognised and Regarded as in Full Connexion, to work in the Hackney and Stoke Newington Circuit in London—initially as a circuit minister and later as Superintendent.  It was a difficult time for all of humanity because of Covid-19, and more specifically for us who lived and worked in London during the pandemic. I got involved in various community activities in Hackney, for example as a Community Health Champion. I coordinated a drop-in in Stoke Newington, the Listening Place, where we served coffee, tea, sandwiches, soup and fruit to homeless people and low-income families, as well as offering them a warm space and being available to listen to their stories, and to pray with them. At Clapton Park Methodist Church there is a Caribbean Lunch Club, which is another activity I became involved with and which gave me a strong sense of the relevance of Methodism in that neighbourhood. I was received into Full Connexion at the 2023 Conference.

I feel encouraged and honoured to have been serving since September 2025 in the Lambeth Circuit as Superintendent, with pastoral charge of Clapham Methodist Church.

To contact Rev. Dr. Paulo email: paulo.bessa@methodist.org.uk

Revd  Lena  Ali

It is such a blessing for Lambeth Circuit to merge with the Clapham Circuit and we look forward to some exciting times as we work cohesively to become a progressive and dynamic circuit.  Prior to joining Lambeth Circuit, I was stationed in the New River Circuit for seven years.  I am a trained RGN, RMN and SCM before I was called to the Ministry and worked as a Senior Nurse Manager at a Psychiatric Hospital.  I am passionate about helping those who are underprivileged, and now I am currently the Chair of a Church based Housing Association which offers accommodation for the homeless and moving on to independent living. Since joining the circuit, I have been humbled by the experience of serving God's people at Railton Road and sharing worship and social events in the other churches.  I have been running a Bereavement Support group for members in the circuit.  

Over the past 8 months, I have been caring for my husband Kashaf, who was terminally ill and he died peacefully at home on Sunday 2^nd of August.  We were married for 48 years and made our home in North London.  Life will be lonely without him but I know that God will give me strength and courage in my time of greatest need.  I am very grateful to you all for your love, support and encouragement over the past few years and especially at this time - for your prayers, cards, phone calls and touching messages of consolation.  It has helped ease the pain and sorrow and I consider myself fortunate to have so many caring and loving people in my life.

I pray that God will continue to shower his richest blessings on you and all your families.

To contact Rev. Lena email:   lenaali59@aol.com

Revd Rita King 

I grew up in a committed Methodist family and in a lively Methodist church with vibrant worship that I still cherish.  It was a pleasure for me to serve in different roles in the life of the church from a very early age.  I also worked in various organisations including volunteering for a charity that works with people with disability.

The call to pastoral ministry came when I was in Bible School in London and I candidated for ministry in the Methodist Church.  My ministerial training was at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham and Wesley House Cambridge and I later trained as a Spiritual Director.  I served in the Nottingham Trent Valley Circuit, Harrow and Hillingdon Circuit and the Clapham Circuit.  I now look forward to serving in the newly formed Lambeth Circuit by God’s grace.

I love spending time with God and with people in general.  I am blessed with supportive friends and family that I enjoy spending time with and they are my greatest earthly treasure. Travelling and experiencing nature also gives me great pleasure. I give thanks to God for my ministerial journey so far, that has shaped me into who I am now and trust God for all that is to come.

To contact Rev. Rita:   ritadjking@gmail.com 
   
 

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 Revd Kristin Markay

I come from a long line of Methodist Pastors, beginning with my great-grandfather.  I was blessed to grow up not only in my family but also in the family of the Methodist Church, embraced by people who modelled for me what a life of faith looks like- people who blended John Wesley’s idea of personal and social holiness.  I saw how their personal faith in Christ led them to love of neighbour, in all its forms. 

My first experience in crossing a culture was as an AFS exchange student to Sri Lanka.  I majored in English Literature at university and taught in a high school while exploring a call to the ministry.  I began seminary at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, and met my future husband, Dave, during the first weekend.  In the midst of our seminary training and during our first year of marriage, we took a year to be probationer Ministers in England, in the Goole Circuit.  When the year finished, we tucked away the possibility of returning at some point.  

After ordination, Dave and I served for 5 years in the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church.   During this time, we both felt the call to be mission partners with the General Board of Global Ministries of the UMC.  This call took us to Lithuania, where we served in the newly re-established Methodist Church, which had been closed during the 50 years of Soviet occupation.  Later, we served 2 multi-cultural Methodist congregations in Milan, Italy.  When we completed 7 years in Milan, we told our children, Hannah and Aidan, that they would not need to learn another language!  We remembered our time in Goole and decided to apply to be Recognised and Regarded by the British Methodist Church.  Dave and I were stationed in the Sheffield District, and I served for 7 years in the Barnsley Circuit. 

Now, I am in the Lambeth Circuit, serving with new people who are modelling for me lives of faith and showing me how faith creates a new family in Christ.  

To contact Rev. Kristin email:    kristin.markay@gmail.com
 

Revd Sue Shortman

I was born in Manchester and lived in and around the city from childhood until I left home and moved a little south of the city before moving to the South of England in 1998 near Gatwick Airport where I lived until my first appointment as a Minister in the Purley Circuit. 

I began training for Ministry in 2011 following a developing call which began many years earlier and trained with what was then SEITE (South East Institute for Theological Education) now St Augustine’s, training part time whilst I continued to work within the clinical Admin team at a hospice in the home care team.  It was hard work but gave me the skills I needed to balance the pressures of ministry which can be challenging. I was stationed to the Purley Circuit as a probationer in 2014. 

I have been involved in Methodism since my teens as part of a girls gospel choir from the age of 13, I had a great time travelling and singing and found myself drawn into faith through the love and support I received from those who were part of the choir as leaders and fellow singers.  The Methodist DNA has always been attractive to me, the social gospel that began with John Wesley, although not as easy to recognise sometimes with the passage of time.  I have been stationed in the Birmingham circuit for the last five years, an appointment that has given me some great opportunities to engage my passion for justice and to experience city ministry. 

I am now excited to be joining the Lambeth Circuit and to have further opportunities to engage  with city ministry at Lambeth Walk and Streatham as well as a new pioneer project in Vauxhall.

I look forward to working together with the people of the Lambeth Circuit to share God’s love, mercy and justice with all the people of the Lambeth Circuit and the wider world.

To contact Revd Sue email:  sue.shortman@methodist.org.uk

Supernumeraries:                                                                                  Revd Gordon Ashworth          

Rev. Gordon Ashworth  trained for the Ministry at Wesley College, Headingley &  Wesley College, Bristol. He served in the Lambeth Mission Circuit, Railton Road and Kingsacre Methodist Churches and Battersea Central Mission before joining HM Prison Service as a full-time Prison Chaplain. He was a Chaplain at three prisons on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent before transferring to HMP Whitemoor High Security Prison in Cambridgeshire. His last appointment was as Chaplain at HMP Wandsworth. He became a Supernumerary Minister in 2008 joining what is now the Lambeth Circuit.             

To contact Rev. Gordon email:   gordonashworth@hotmail.co.uk   

Revd Graham Thomas 

Rev Graham Thomas was born and brought up in the Rhondda Valley (South Wales) and trained for the Ministry at Handsworth College, Birmingham and was ordained in 1959.  He is a graduate of Lancaster University and a post graduate of South Bank and Greenwich Universities.

He has served in the following Circuits: Neath, St Just-in-Penwith, Bradford (Shipley), West Bromwich, Wellington (Shropshire), Abertillery, Lancaster and Wimbledon.  He has served as part-time posts in hospital, industrial and HM Prison as Chaplain.  He was a Samaritan Volunteer for five years and has been an active                                            Rotarian since 1986.  

He left from the Ministry after serving for thirty-seven years.  He then returned as a Supernumerary at the age of 70, at Wesley’s Chapel & Leysian Mission (City Road Circuit).  He later transferred to the Streatham & Dulwich Circuit, which after merging with Brixton became the Brixton & Streatham Circuit and is now the Lambeth Circuit.  

In his 90’s he continues to enjoy conducting Services where he is needed - he says ‘whether the congregations share his enjoyment is another matter! 

To contact Rev. Graham  email:  gthomas@aol.com​

HOSPICE CHAPLAIN:   
Rev.  Andrew Goodhead            andrew.goodhead@virgin.net