Who's Who in the Parish

The Revd Andrew Norwood

Assistant Priest

Fr Andrew has had a varied church experience: he began ordained life at St Michael and All Angels Headingley, Leeds, and then moved to St Mary’s Handsworth, Birmingham, responsible for the daughter church of The Epiphany. At that time, thinking that parish life was not going to be ‘his thing’, he returned to London, working briefly as a hospital chaplain in Woolwich, before becoming lead Chaplain to the University of the Arts London, a post he held for ten years.

Born in Hertfordshire, but growing up in Zambia and Cornwall, he came to London as a student of Architecture (it was very short-lived!) and lived the other side of Paddington Station near Lancaster Gate. His Christian faith was ignited in his teens, and grew through attending at All Souls Langham Place and Holy Trinity Brompton. After a couple of stints working with a mission society in Kenya, he embarked on a Theology degree at the London School of Theology, and while there began the selection process for ordination and went to training college in Durham.

Andrew came to the Parish of Little Venice after serving at St Mary’s Bourne Street, and St Paul’s Knightsbridge, and occupied himself with various ‘interim’ jobs in chaplaincy and church.

Alongside the parish he has interests in spiritual direction and life coaching. He enjoys art and architecture, walking the great outdoors, yoga and meditation, and is a (very) novice surfer at Bude, north Cornwall.

The Reverend Ellis Blackmore

Honorary Assistant Priest

Fr Ellis has been a priest in London for over 50 years. He was born and grew up in Appledore, North Devon (where he still has a holiday cottage), trained at St David’s College, Lampeter and Wells Theological College and ordained in Southwark Cathedral in 1967, and has served at St George the Martyr in Southwark, St Giles in Camberwell and our own churches of St Saviour’s and St Mary’s. He has also covered vacancies in a range of churches in many other parishes. He has exercised a community ministry in social housing areas of the Borough, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich and Brent, and as a regulation policy advisor and housing association inspector at both the Housing Corporation and the Audit Commission. For many years, he was a visiting lecturer at the Swedish Association of Local Authorities in Stockholm, and the chair of the Foundation Governors of Burlington Danes Church of England School in Hammersmith. Since he retired, he has also been chair of the Board of Shepherds Bush Housing Association, and the Scrutiny Panel of Inquilab Housing Association.

He is married to Maria, who is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church in Bayswater, and was for many years a community worker in London, and finally the Clerk of the Doctor Edwards and Bishop King’s Fulham Charity. They have two children – Alexander, who is a Consultant Surgeon at Blackpool Hospital, and has two children – Daniel, aged 8 and Freddie aged 5 –, and Henrietta, who is a director of Save the Children UK and lives in Kensal Town.

Over the years, Ellis has developed a strong interest in liturgy and the theology of the Orthodox Church. He completed a doctorate in Greek Orthodox Studies in 2012, and is currently working on a comparison of the liturgies of St John Chrysostom in the Orthodox Church and Catholic interpretations of the book of Common Worship in the Church of England. When he has time, he enjoys crabbing with his grandsons in Appledore and visiting Greece, the monasteries in Mount Athos and his father in law’s island of Skyros in the Northern Sporades.

Jonathan Cunliffe

Musical Director & Organist

Jonathan Cunliffe was born in Cambridge and took his first organ lessons at St Mary’s Church, Saffron Walden.  He went on to study at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire from where he graduated with BMus (Hons), MMus, and the John Campbell Keyboard Prize. During his time in Birmingham, Jonathan held various church posts as well as the organ scholarship at Symphony Hall, a position supported by the Percy Whitlock Trust.

Jonathan has taken part in masterclasses in France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, and Switzerland as well as the Oundle International Festival in Cambridge.  He has given recitals around the UK and Sweden and has accompanied choral music in Notre Dame, St Sulpice, and St Eustache in Paris.

Jonathan has been Director of Music in the Parish of Little Venice since Epiphany 2008, serving the churches of St Mary’s Paddington Green and St Saviour’s Warwick Avenue. He also works as an editor in the music department of Oxford University Press.

Karen Peakman

Parish Administrator

My name is Karen and I am the Parish Administrator. I took up this post in May 2008. I like to think I am approachable, sensitive, a good listener, patient and reliable.

I have had a varied career, training first in nursing and working mainly on paediatric wards, maternity and Neo-natal units. I very much enjoyed this work – meeting + caring for people, and the social life was not bad either! Having had enough of shift work (particularly night duty! – though, a plus side of night duty is that you do get to read a lot of books and become a prolific knitter!), I took the opportunity to re-train and then followed the path of administration and secretarial work.

I have lived in London for over 39 years now, and for most of that time in the local area. I first became involved with St Saviours Church in 1992 when Fr Bradley helped my husband and I when our first child died at 3 days old. The church has been a great comfort and support to me, and my family, particularly when we then lost a second son. But, the church has also been there for good times too – in particular when we celebrated the birth of our daughter who is now an adult.

I have been a member of St Saviour’s Church, having served as a Church Warden, and been involved with the P.C.C. over a number of years. I am particularly interested in the Mission to Children, and with a number of other mums, Dunja, Mari & Annette set up a Sunday school at St Saviours Church when our children were little, and it is good to see that it is still going as strong today.

I am also a would-be gardener. However, not having a garden I must rely on houseplants, the overflow of which can be seen in the parish office! As Parish Administrator I am lucky to have a varied and interesting role and very much enjoy the contact I have with the many people I meet in the Parish – having a chat, hearing their news or stories, and in this job I get to do it all.