On Saturday 19 November 2016, at the Women and the Church AGM, Hilary Cotton stood down as Chair having served for three years in this role. Time that saw the frustration and pain in 2013 to the celebrations of July 2014, and from then onwards. WATCH said a huge thank you and gave Hilary gifts to remember this time and all she has done.

We welcome Emma Percy as our new Chair and look forward to the next 3 years. There is still much to be done. A little more about our new Chair below:

The new Chair of WATCH is the Rev’d Dr Emma Percy. She took over the role from Hilary Cotton at the AGM on Saturday at St. John’s Waterloo. Emma is currently Chaplain, Fellow and Welfare Dean of Trinity College, Oxford and a member of the Faculty of Theology. She was educated at Cambridge and Durham universities and ordained as a Deacon in 1990. She served her curacy in St Alban’s diocese where she was involved in MOW and a local ecumenical group which organised services, lectures and events around the issue of women and faith. She was one of the first generation of women priests in the Church of England, ordained in the spring of 1994.

She has served in chaplaincy and parish ministry for over 25 years. Before moving to Oxford she was Vicar of Holy Trinity, Millhouses, Sheffield. Her research interests include feminist theology, the theology of mothering and the theology of Anglican ministry. Her two recent books are Mothering as a Metaphor for Ministry, Ashgate, which is based on her Ph D from Nottingham University, and What Clergy do: especially when it looks like nothing. SPCK. The latter has led to many invitations to speak at Diocesan conferences and training days. She has been on the committee of WATCH for the last three years and is the Editor of the annual Outlook magazine.