26 October 2017
Vice-President of the Methodist Conference announced as President for national Christian housing and homelessness charity
Ms Rachel Lampard, Team Leader of the Joint PublicIssues Team and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference, hasbeen appointed as a Co-President of Housing Justicecharity.
Since 2008, Rachel has been the Team Leader of the JointPublic Issues Team, an ecumenical collaboration between theMethodist Church, the Baptist Union, the United Reformed Church andthe Church of Scotland, enabling the denominations to campaign andspeak out on issues of poverty, climate change and peace.
At the Methodist Conference in 2015, Rachel was elected to serveas Vice President of Conference, alongside the Reverend RogerWalton during 2016 - 2017.
Rachel is no stranger to work of Housing Justice. In the 1980's,she served as policy and campaign lead for the Catholic Housing AidSociety, which became Housing Justice in 2003.
Rachel's appointment, joining Cardinal Vincent Nicholas,the Archbishop of Westminster, comes at the end of the JubileeCelebrations for the Catholic Housing Aid Society.
As part of her new role of President, Ms Lampard will be visitingthe Housing Office, based at the South London Mission at BermondseyCentral Hall,
this morning to meet staff and volunteers of thecharity.
Speaking of her new role, Rachel Lampard, newly appointedCo-President of Housing Justice said:
"I have seen how homelessness and poor housing damages people'slives. Churches have long been at the forefront of responding byoffering help to those affected, developing innovative solutions,and campaigning for change.
I am delighted and honoured to have been appointed as a Presidentof Housing Justice and look forward to continuing to support theirwork, and the work that is done by churches, of all denominations,around the country."
Welcoming this appointment, Housing Justice Chair, the Rt RevdJames Langstaff said:
"Throughout 2016, Housing Justice has been celebrating thebirthday of the Catholic Housing Aid Society, which laid roots towhat Housing Justice has become. We are grateful to all those whoworked so hard to enable the current organisation to become what ithas.
I warmly welcome Rachel's appointment as a President of HousingJustice because she is no stranger to championing the cause of thebenefit that churches can and do make in practical action to thosewho are homeless or in housing need.
Inviting Rachel to take up this important role will not justmaintain the link to our heritage as a charity, but also be anexample of our continued commitment to working ecumenically with organisations such as the Joint Public Issues Team aswell as the denominations which they represent."
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