Meet our new trustees from across & beyond the Open Table Network
WELCOME to Calum Crombie, Carol Joyner, Jayne Taylor and Yin-An Chen, newly elected to our trustee board.
AT OUR AGM on Tuesday 12th March 2024 we welcomed FOUR new trustees to our board for the next three years.
Our trustees are responsible for thinking through and putting into practice plans which will develop the Open Table Network (OTN).
They play a very important role in our life as a charity, for which they are unpaid. Sarah Hobbs, Co-Chair of OTN’s board of trustees, said:
We are simultaneously fortunate and proud to have such amazing people join the team. We can’t wait to work with them to develop the OTN even further.
Join us in welcoming:
Revd Calum Crombie (he/him)
Calum is a Church of England priest and an experienced prison chaplain ensuring high quality faith and pastoral care for prisoners and staff of all faiths and none. He is also Bishop’s Advisor for Prison Chaplaincy in Blackburn Diocese, and a founding member and leader of the Open Table community in Leyland, Lancashire.
WATCH: Calum’s intro video [2 mins]
Dr Carol Joyner (she/her)
Carol is a freelance tutor, lecturer and public speaker. She is the author of several books on the subject of bisexual Christian intersectional identities and LGBT Christian inclusion. She is part of the worship team at Augustine United Church in Edinburgh and on the leadership team of Our Tribe LGBT Ministry there. She lives with her wife just outside of Edinburgh and hopes to extend the Open Table Network in Scotland.
WATCH: Carol’s intro video [2 mins]
Revd Jayne Taylor (she/her)
Jayne is a minister in the United Reformed Church (URC) in Exeter, where she co-founded and supports an Open Table community. She is a member of the URC Equalities Committee and helped to bring a resolution to the URC General Assembly asserting the dignity and safety of trans and gender non-conforming people, which was overwhelmingly passed in July 2023.
WATCH: Jayne’s intro video [< 2 mins]
Revd Yin-An Chen (he/him)
Yin-An is a Church of England priest and curate at St Oswald's Church in Oswestry, Shropshire, in the Diocese of Lichfield. Alongside parish ministry, he lectures in the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan, his home diocese. His research interests include the interrelation between spirituality, political theology, and queer theory. He also has a strong passion for the theology of inclusion, the unrestricted grace of God, and radical hospitality.
WATCH: Yin-An’s intro video [< 3 mins]
At the same meeting, we also said thanks and farewell to:
Revd Dr Alex Clare-Young, OTN Co-Chair and one of our founding trustees since May 2020, Alex is a theologian, writer, campaigner, and Pioneer Minister with Downing Place United Reformed Church in Cambridge. Revd Andrew Howorth was elected as the new Co-Chair along with remaining Co-Chair Sarah Hobbs. This is not the last we have seen of Alex - more details of Alex’s new role coming soon.
Revd Anne Bennett, Vicar of the Church of the Ascension in Blackheath, south London, which has hosted an Open Table community between 2018 and 2024, also one of our founding trustees since May 2020.
Liam Greenbank, who has supported OTN with fundraising since March 2022. Liam remains an active supporter of the Open Table Cambridge community.