“Life-giving Forgiveness”

Michael has been rector of St Mark’s since 2013. Before that, he taught theology at Sydney’s Moore College. Michael likes to imagine himself one day getting fit, and loves British comedy and Eastern European food (cevapi, anyone?). Michael has written a number of books including Is Forgiveness Really Free? and My God, My God – Is it possible to believe anymore? He is married to Catherine and has four children, a cocker spaniel and a domestic medium hair cat.

“Roadmap to life: Why do I matter?”

Sam is a cultural analyst, author, and public speaker for City Bible Forum, Australia. He has a PhD in theology, is a medical doctor, and a terrible karaoke buddy (although that doesn’t stop him trying!)

Born in Hong Kong, Sam grew up and lives in Australia, studied medicine at the University of Sydney, and did his PhD in Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), Chicago, USA. His PhD was supervised by Graham Cole.

Married with 3 boys, Sam says he has one of the best jobs around: every day he helps people – whether they be high-schoolers or professionals, workers or academics – to ask the bigger questions.

“Must we destroy our children’s hope?”

A sixth-generation farmer and grazier from New South Wales, who spent 19 years from 1989 in the Australian Parliament.

He served as a senior Cabinet minister in the reformist government led by John Howard (1996 to 2005), one of the most successful governments in Australian parliamentary history.  This included six years as Leader of the National Party and Deputy Prime Minister.

“Understanding Australian’s perspective towards faith and belief”.

Ashley Fell is a social researcher, author, TEDx speaker and Director of Advisory at the internationally recognised McCrindle. As a trends analyst and media commentator she understands how to effectively communicate across diverse audiences. From her experience in managing media relations, social media platforms and content creation, Ashley advises on how to achieve cut through in message-saturated times. She is an expert in how to communicate across generational barriers. She is the author of two books on leadership and generational insights.

Beyond her commercial work Ashley is passionate about equipping Christians to understand the times and so share their faith in culturally relevant ways. Ashley is married to Michael and they are actively involved in their local church: St Paul’s Castle Hill in Sydney. With academic qualifications in communications, an ongoing role in managing the deployment and visualisation of national and international research studies, and with her position leading the advisory strategy at McCrindle, Ashley brings robust, research-based and experienced content to her engaging presentations and consulting.