Reverend Dr Ann Peart - President 2011-2012

The Reverend Dr Ann Peart, a distinguished Unitarian scholar and leading woman minister, was installed as president of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches on 18 April at the closing ceremony of the denomination's annual meetings which took place at the University of Swansea.

The position comes just fifty years after Ann first learned something of the nature of ministry when she held the position of May Queen at Hyde Chapel and twenty-five years after she became a minister.

Ann's focus for the year is on the art and discipline of embodying Unitarian values in the way we live in communities. She will encourage reflection on what religious/spiritual practices and disciplines enable people to embody Unitarian values, and honour that of God/supreme worth in each person and in the wider world.

Now living in retirement in Didsbury, Ann was formerly the Principal of Unitarian College, Manchester. She trained for the ministry at Manchester College, Oxford, between 1983 and 1986 and has held a number of ministerial positions including those at the London Unitarian churches of Lewisham and Golders Green, and at Brookfield Unitarian Church, Gorton, Manchester. Today she is a member of Cross Street Chapel, Manchester. She served at information officer in the Unitarian headquarters in London in the 1980s and has held a wide number of voluntary posts, including most of the departmental committees and most recently the Executive Committee from its inception to 2010.

Openly lesbian, and actively involved with lesbian and gay issues in the Denomination, Dr Peart was a member of the Sexual Orientation Equality Group which produced a programme to educate the Unitarian community about sexuality.

A lifelong Unitarian, Ann was educated at Manchester High School before going on to New Hall, Cambridge in 1962 to read Geography. She was President of the University Women's Boat Club and was twice in the winning boat against Oxford, the only woman to be awarded a full rowing blue in her year. Her early career was in teaching. She has a daughter and a son.

Ann has been strongly influenced by second-wave feminism. She has been a member of a variety of feminist groups including the St Hilda Community (the group which supported women priests) and for which, as a minister, she was able to celebrate the Eucharist in an ecumenical setting in the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1990s she was the chair of Women in Theology. She was a founder member of the Unitarian Women's Group. Her doctoral thesis was on the history of Unitarian women and the place of women in the Unitarian movement. She has served as President of the Women's League (another Unitarian society).

Of Unitarianism Dr Peart says 'One of the things about Unitarianism that I value is that it has nurtured me through a variety of religious phases; liberal Christian, humanist, and then influenced by the writings of Don Cupitt, a 'non-realist' use of God language, then feminist awareness and social justice issues. It always challenges me to follow insights and opinions from a variety of sources.'