Our Team

Find out more about our team by using the images below:
Hover or click for "About" or "Contact".

Superintendent Ministers:

Rev. Richard Byass

Circuit Superintendent Minister

Arnold, Phoenix Farm, Gedling Road and St. John's Methodist Churches, Burton Joyce Community Church, and The Church on Rise Park

Richard was born in West Africa and spent much of his early life there. After secondary school back in the UK he thought he was going to go into architectural design, but God had other plans and as a result of responding to a distinct call on his life, he ended up first at Cliff College and then in training at Manchester before entering circuit ministry in 2004 in Cheshire.

Richard is married to Becca, who happens to be the District Wellbeing Officer, and they have two daughters, Elizabeth and Felicity.

Now in his third appointment (previously in North Herts.) Richard is still keen to bring an emphasis of pastoral care and welcome as well as seeking to enable people to grow together as church.

He is studying for an MTh. at the University of Aberdeen and hopes that that ongoing learning will encourage and develop the communities he is part of in the Circuit in mission, faith and fellowship.

Rev. Andrew Charlesworth

Circuit Superintendent Minister

Aspley, Awsworth, and Nuthall Methodist Churches

A cradle Methodist, Andrew grew up in Manchester before studying Maths at Nottingham University and upon graduation started working as a Medical Statistician.

When the call to ministry came, Andrew and his family (Wife – Sarah, Daughters - Phoebe & Abi) began the journey that first took them to study at Wesley House in Cambridge, before Andrew began his ministry in the Coventry and Nuneaton Circuit. After 8 years Andrew moved to Nottingham to continue his ministry as a first time Superintendent.

Andrew continues to be excited to live out God’s call on his life to serve God’s people in the Methodist Church and far beyond. He deeply believes that church matters and doing church well matters.

Since arriving in the area Andrew has also been appointed as one of the Deputy District Chairs.

Presbyters and Deacons:

Rev. Yanyan Case

Circuit Minister
(Presbyterial Probationer)

Arnold and Calverton Methodist Churches, and Bestwood Park Church

Yanyan, originally from China, came to the UK in 2004 when she was exposed to the Christian faith for the first time and her life has never been the same since.

Having been deeply touched by the Gospel of Jesus, Yanyan’s passion is to bring the love of God through Christ to all people and to grow deeper discipleship with fellow believers.

Yanyan went to the University in Preston to do her master’s degree in human resource management where she met her husband Jonathan. Their Methodist journey started from the Central Methodist Church in Preston. Before going to The Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham for ministerial training, they lived in Derby for ten years where Yanyan trained as a Local Preacher and also obtained another master's degree in Missiology with Cliff College.

Yanyan and Jonathan have a daughter Olivia (born in 2009), and apart from leading worship, Yanyan also enjoys singing, reading, travelling and learning different cultures.

Rev. John Wiseman

Circuit Minister

Sherwood, Thurgarton, Ravensworth Road, Hucknall Central and Hucknall East Side Methodist Churches

Born and brought up in the Promised Land ie Wigan, John is a former biochemist and physiotherapist who has lived and worked at a street clinic for destitutes in Calcutta, India and taught physiotherapy at a spinal injuries centre in Bangladesh.

His ministerial training took him to Manchester, Atlanta and Cambridge (where he trained alongside Andrew) before being posted to his initial appointment in Swansea followed by a further 5 years in Poynton.

John enjoys trail running at a sedate pace in the Peak District and local area, has an extensive film collection, enjoys live music and theatre and is the author of a daily, often irreverent, on line blog. In 2017 as part of his sabbatical, John walked 800km across northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.

John enjoys looking for creative ways to make the gospel message contemporary and compelling to the world in which we live.

Deacon Jenny Jones

Deacon

Serving the LGBT+ community in Nottingham and working alongside the poor on The Meadows

Jenny is married to Alistair (Ali) a Presbyter in the Nottingham Trent Valley Circuit. She has three children, two step-children and four grandchildren. A cradle Methodist she spent the first 50 years of her life in London.

Her background is in finance, but she developed a passion for helping young people understand the skills needed for adult life (ie how their learning related to the outside world). Whilst working for a charity and preparing a Lottery bid she met the local Deacon and immediately knew where God had been calling her for years.

Jenny trained at The Queen's Foundation, Birmingham and her first diaconal appointment was in Leeds before she moved to Nottingham in 2017. In Leeds she worked closely with the Council on financial inclusion and welfare reform.

Jenny loves spending time with her grandchildren even though they live in Manchester and Southampton. She is also passionate about gardening.

Deacon Julie Morton

Deacon

Beginning new work in the City Centre by identifying the needs of those who are living on the margins of society.

Julie has one daughter and two grandchildren who are 4 and 5 years old. She is originally from Barnsley in South Yorkshire and since leaving Barnsley has lived in a variety of places alongside her late husband Gordon, who was a Methodist Minister.

She was employed by the Health Service, mainly in HR, for the first 14 years of her working life and has had a number of different jobs since, including working for Action for Children where she was the Office Manager of a Sure Start programme, a Recruitment Co-ordinator for a Job Skills programme, and later a Job Skills tutor.

Julie is passionate about being alongside people who find life tough, as she was on the Job Skills programmes, and helping them to see that they do have hope. It was this passion which first formed the basis of her call to the Diaconal Order.

Julie trained for the ministry part time at St John’s University in York whilst also working for the York Circuit. Her first appointment was in Telford where she spent 7 years doing pioneer work on a new housing development whilst also working with 5 Methodist churches.

She enjoys playing the Djembe drum when possible, doing bible journaling and walking her dog Big Mac!

Deacon Helen Snowball

Deacon

Gedling Road, St. John's and Phoenix Farm Methodist Churches
working with The Ark Community Centre, job club, foodbank and hopefully some projects in the future

Deacon Helen Snowball was born and raised in Darlington, Co Durham, with two sisters and a labrador.

After 6 years working in London as a secretary, she returned to Darlington and worked for Lloyds TSB and then a Turkish property developer.

An accredited local preacher, she finally listened to God’s call, and candidated to become a deacon, and began ministerial training at The Queen's Foundation, Birmingham in September 2017.

She was stationed to Nottingham from September 2019, predominantly working with Gedling Road and Phoenix Farm Methodist Churches, and has felt very much welcomed in the circuit.

As a deacon, she enjoys being a member of the Religious Order and the daily rhythm of their rule of life and their daily prayers, but she also enjoys reading, eating out, watching movies and is especially enjoying her first years in ministry here in Nottingham.

Lay Staff:

Cath Smith

Pastoral Worker and Circuit Administrator

Pastoral worker at Aspley and Ravensworth Road Methodist Churches

Born in Sheffield, Cath remains a Yorkshire ‘Gal’ at heart despite living in the East Midlands since starting at Leicester University in 1983.

She met her husband Nigel there and they have been blessed with two grown up children and a new daughter-in-law. Cath feels that she is now at that point of life where she learns more from her children than they learn from her!

Part of the Methodist Church all her life it was a huge privilege to begin working for the church in 2014, firstly as circuit administrator and also in the last two years as a church pastoral worker. To her great surprise*, Cath was accredited as a local preacher in 2014.

Cath always seeks to bring people closer to God, whether that is through different forms of worship or walking alongside them in their pastoral need.

(*Editor's note: though no-one else's!)

Marc Williamson

Circuit Youth Worker

Marc works closely with Nuthall, Hucknall Central and Hucknall East Side Methodist Churches, and supports schools associated with the churches in the former Nottingham North circuit through chaplaincy and assemblies (amongst other things).

Born and raised in East Anglia, Marc has worked for churches since leaving school, having spent time working for the Church of England in Buckinghamshire and The Church of Scotland and an independent church in Glasgow.

Returning to England after 10 years in Scotland, Marc moved to Nottingham North to work with the Circuit in September 2016 with his wife Suzanne and 2 children, Micah (born 2014) and Eliana (born 2016).

Marc enjoys music, film, reading, photography, computers and technology, sport, food, coffee and a whole host of other things!

Marc’s vision is to see the young people of the circuit deepen their faith, get excited about worship, equipped for mission and ready to share the Gospel with their friends.

Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) Staff:

Rev. Nikki Bates

Anglican Minister

The Church on Rise Park
(and Bestwood Emmanuel and St Mark)

Nikki is married to Tony, and they have 2 grown up sons and 3 Persian cats.

Nikki came to faith in 2003 through the Alpha Course, and went from Alpha to Ordinand in 6 years, training for ordination at Trinity College Bristol. Tony gave up his work to go to Bristol and has volunteered at Nikki's side ever since.

They returned to their "home" diocese of Lincoln for curacy and Nikki's first incumbency at Christ Church Stamford.

Nikki and Tony started to discern God's calling to Nottingham in 2018, and are excited to be in Nottingham for "such a time as this," and to join with us all and with all that God is doing.