Event Information

Elizabeth is head of Wrigleys’ Faith Team and acts as legal adviser to many religious orders and other faith organisations. Elizabeth is the Chair of a small international charity and served as Chair of the Ecclesiastical Law Society between 2021-24. Elizabeth will chair the Forum and will be joined by members of Wrigleys’ Faith Team to consider recent legal developments as they affect Religious communities and to reflect upon recent Charity Commission investigations into Religious communities.

Until July 2024, Amanda Francis was at Buzzacott LLP, where she specialised in advising charities and Religious Congregations. She brings experience in the financial, governance, and structural issues facing Religious communities. Amanda will provide the Forum with her reflections on current issues facing Religious communities and how they are preparing for the future.

Dr. Catherine Sexton is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Durham’s Centre for Catholic Studies (CCS) and has been researching and writing about the theology and other aspects of contemporary religious life for women for the past fifteen years. She wrote her PhD in theologies of ministry among older R.C. sisters in the UK at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology. She was lead researcher and then Director on two research projects focussed on contemporary religious life for women. The first, a 2-year project investigating vitality in women’s religious congregations in the UK and Ireland and the second, exploring the sustainability of religious life for women in East and Central Africa. She has also worked with religious congregations in the UK and internationally as a freelance consultant and researcher. She currently works on the Boundary Breaking research project exploring aspects of the clerical sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

She is currently writing an account of the experience and journey of ageing, completion and legacy of the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre (CRSS) in England. Her book Becoming Apostolic: Conversations with Older RC Sisters was published by Brill in July 2024.

James is a partner at Sarasin & Partners, one of the leading charity investment managers in the UK with vast experience managing portfolios for Religious communities, and will update the Forum on the current state of the investment market.