The Revd Dr Robert (Bob) Stephen, currently Rector of Handsworth in the Diocese of Birmingham, has been offered and has accepted the position of Company Secretary of the Free Church of England Central Trust and will be the nominee for the position of General Secretary at the Convocation in May. He will begin half time with the FCE on the 1st May (with the parallel role of Rector of Handsworth running alongside) and will be full time from the 1st July.
Bob is a Scot and was a Baptist Minister from 1985 until ‘converting’ to Anglicanism in 1997. Ordained Deacon in 2004 and Presbyter in 2005, Bob served the Parish of Burbage with Aston Flamville as a self-supporting minister alongside his duties as Chaplain and Teacher at King Henry VIII School in Coventry. Bob was instituted into the Incumbency at Handsworth on the 25th March 2015.
As a Director in the family business and, amongst other things, Chair of Governors in two schools, as well as having been involved in Church planting and working on the setting up and governance of charities, Bob brings a balance of experience and enthusiasm to the new role in the FCE.
Bob will work primarily from the family home in Hinckley in Leicestershire. He is married to Penny, with grown-up children and numerous grandchildren.