We are much better now at working through problems, we have learned to discuss things far more.
Patrons
Rt Revd Michael Langrish, Bishop of Exeter
Michael has been a Patron of Time for Families since 2000, when he became Diocesan Bishop of Exeter. His attention was drawn to the work done by TfF very shortly after his arrival in Devon. He has a deep commitment to the importance of marriage, family life and marriage preparation. He also believes that church schools should help to prepare young people for marriage and family life.
Education and the needs of young people have been of long-standing interest to the Bishop. He obtained a degree in History and Social Sciences from Birmingham University and followed this with a PGCE, teaching in the East End of London and working in teacher education in Nigeria before his ordination training at Ridley Hall and a Cambridge degree in theology. He has served as a school chaplain and held responsibility for the selection and professional development of clergy. He was an Honorary Canon of Coventry Cathedral. In 1993 he becam Suffragan Bishop of Birkenhead in the Diocese of Chester.
He is married to Esther, who is a Counsellor and a Church of England Reader. They have three adult children and three grandchildren. Cricket, music and the theatre helps keep him sane (so he claims!)
Hon Mr Justice Coleridge
Paul Coleridge was appointed a High Court Judge in 2000, after 30 years as a family law specialist barrister. He was assigned to the Family Division, dealing with all the most complex cases involving problems which arise when families break up. He deals with issues concerning the children in particular.
He is the Family Division Liaison Judge for the Western Circuit, holding special responsibility for all the family courts between Hampshire to Cornwall. He has been married for 34 years and has three adult children.
He is passionate about what TfF stands for and is more than ever convinced that if we do not address the problems arising from the break up of families before they occur, the system will end in collapse.
Hon Justice Hedley
Mark Hedley is also a Judge of the Family Division of the High Court and has been so since 2002. Prior to that he practised at the Bar in Liverpool, involving the law as it affected the most vulnerable members of society. Following this he was appointed a Circuit Judge in Liverpool in 1992.
He is married with four adult children and lives in inner city Liverpool. He is a Reader at his local Anglican Church and currently President of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship. He becam involved with TfF through Mr Justice Coleridge and shared in plans for the development of the prison work in Wales where at that time he had judicial oversight of family law.
Hon Lord Justice Toulson
Roger Toulson was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1969 and was made a Bencher in 1995. He was a Recorder of the Crown Court from 1986-1996 and took Silk in 1986. He has been a Judge of the High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, from 1996 and served as a Presiding Judge on the Western Circuit from 1997-2002. He was Chairman of the Law Commission from 2002-2006.
Roger was knighted in 1996 and was appointed Lord Justice of Appeal in January 2007. He is married with four adult children and two granddaughters.
Rt Rev Christopher Budd RC - Bishop of Plymouth
Christopher Budd was educated at St Mary's Hornchurch and later at the Salesian College Chertsey and Cotton College, Stoke on Trent. He began his ecclesiastical studies at Grove Park in 1955 before going to the Venerable English College in Rome. He gained a degree in Philosophy in 1959 and two degrees in Theology in 1963 and 1966. He was ordained as a priest in 1962.
He spent five years in Birmingham in the 70s where he was involved with the work of the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council and with prison chaplaincy work. In 1976 he was appointed as full time head of training at the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council in London and he held that post until his appointment as Recor of St John's Seminary, Wonersh in 1979. He was appointed Administrator of Brentwood Cathedral in the summer of 1985 before his ordination as Bishop of Plymouth in January 1986. He is Vice Chair of the Trustees of Caritas-Social Action.
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards has been the General Secretary of the Baptist Union in the UK since April 2006. Prior to that he served as SWBA Regional Minister where he was appointed team leader in 2002. He studied law at St John's College, Oxford and then trained for the Baptist Ministry at Regent's Park College, Oxford. He served as a volunteer with the Church Missionary Society in Kerala, South India from 1980-1982 and had pastorates in Bury St Edmunds and Orpington before moving the the South West.
Professor Richard Whitfield
Richard is a widely published and experienced natural and social scientist - with a practical focus. He specialises in aspects of social, organisational and educational policy. He is an author, poet, teacher and group facilitator in the UK and overseas and in the past has held full time posts in the Universities of Leeds, Cambridge and Aston, including periods as a Department Head and Dean of Faculty.
In the charitable sector he has been Director of UK Child Card for the Save the Children Fund, Chairman of the National Family Trust and Warden of St George's House, Windsor Castle, after which he moved into freelance activities from his home base in Dorset.
Richard is author/co-author of more than two dozen books and some 100 papers and contract reports in the fields of science education, curriculum planning and performance evaluation, family and youth policy, human relations and life-skills education, parenting and community development.
One of Richard's more recent interests is of course Time for Families. During the re-write of the materials, his book "Mastering E-motions" was studied carefully and some of the ideas were incorporated in the "Emotional Needs" section of the relationships module.