Revd Richard Hibbert - Vicar.

Revd Tim Horlock - Curate.

Alex Mnatzaganian - Associate Minister of Young Peoples Work

Simon Burns - Youth Work Assistant

Verity Townsend - Youth work assistant

Sherilyn Leck - Secretary.

John Betteley - Parish Manager.

Richard comes from Northwood (NW London) and began working life as a shipbroker in the City of London. He started as office boy and then moved into the chartering department, being responsible for negotiating with shipowners on behalf of overseas clients. In his late 20s, he felt God calling him to the ordained ministry, and after 2 years of saying no to God, finally agreed. He trained at Trinity College, Bristol, and served his first curacy at St. Mary's, Luton. He has been Vicar of Christ Church since July, 2000, Assistant Rural Dean of Bedford since 2005 and a member of General Synod since 2005. He is married to Sarah and they have one daughter.

My childhood was spent in Hertford before my degree in Agricultural Engineering.  After a few years in Engineering I qualified as a secondary school teacher and taught Design & Technology for just under 10 years before fulfilling my calling to Ordained Ministry.  I was Ordained in 2007 after having completed my studies at Ridley Hall Cambridge and took up my Curacy at Christ Church Bedford.  My passions include Cabinet making, Rowing and Real Ale after I have time from my duties as Curate, Husband and Father of 4 children (Sophie 7, William 6, Lucy 4 and Henry 2).

I'm Alex. My wife Nadine and I love being here with our children Jack(12) and Chloe (16). (Jade, Phoebe and Velvet extend the family in the animal direction - dog and two cats!). We've lived in many places through working with churches in London, Nigeria and Bristol, but as the one place we've lived longest Bedford feels like home. Christ Church has also become family for us, and I'm so excited to be joining the team working with our wonderful young people. By training I'm an Electrical Engineer, but while I do like technical things (fave magazine: "New Scientist") my deeper leanings are a bit more artsy!  I've always loved music, and I really enjoy playing and writing and being part of the worship team at Christ Church.

I'm Simon and I am involved in a lot of the youth and student work in the church. I have been in Bedford for just over a year and a half and have worked for Christ Church since I moved here. I am currently studying Youth and Community work with applied theology at Ridley Hall in Cambridge.  I am originally from Bristol and have also lived in Cheltenham for four years. I am a mad keen football fan, supporting Bristol City when I can get to their games and I also follow the Bedford Blues rugby team on a regular basis.

I'm Verity, I'm originally from Silsoe just outside Luton so not far from Bedford, but have spent 3 years in Birmingham while at University there.  While I was there I studied Sport, P.E and Community Studies which is where most of my interests lie. I play most sports but my main one is hockey, and for a while I went out to Ghana to coach football. Since then I have been away travelling a chunk of the world before coming back to Bedford and doing youth work for church and sports coaching in some local schools.

Sherilyn is a farmer's daughter from the Cambridgeshire village of Spaldwick.  Educated in Bedford, she later trained as a secretary and worked for the Nature Conservancy Council before her marriage.  She and her husband Colin moved to Bedford where she worked for a firm of accountants (in spite of a dislike for figures) before giving up work to raise her now grown up family.  Sherilyn was PCC secretary for 3 years and has been the church secretary since 1996.  Leisure interests include reading, cinema, walking and gardening.  Rumours of being partial to chocolate have not been denied.

John was born in Staffordshire, but brought up in Kent.  He originally trained as an analytical chemist having worked for three major companies over a period of 25 years.  He has been involved in safety testing of many pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals and has worked on measuring pesicide residues in crops.  Then after a further 3 years working in the Environment Agency he joined the team at Christ Church in April 2007.  His main claim to fame is being the South Midlands Short Course Orienteering Champion in 1996 and his current main leisure interest is family history research.