Special Services And Venues
Julian has celebrated weddings in several fine venues, including: Emmanuel College, Cambridge; Kings College London; Dalhousie Castle (in the company of Charlotte Church); SS Peter & Paul, Wannsee, Berlin; the Upper Chapel, Sheffield; and on several occasions at Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead.
Julian named: Lilia by the fountain in Fountain Court, Inner Temple, London; Izzy at Upper Chapel, Sheffield; and Esme at Fulwood Old Chapel, Sheffield.
Julian is the only Unitarian to have addressed fellow Nonconformists at the 1662 Society’s annual service at Cole Abbey Presbyterian Church (Wren; Free Church of Scotland) in the City of London honouring our Puritan forebears ejected from the Church of England.
Julian has conducted regular worship at the following iconic Unitarian venues: Harris Manchester College, Oxford; Unitarian Headquarters, Essex Hall, London; The Old Chapel and Nightingale Centre, Great Hucklow, Derbyshire; Newington Green Chapel, London; The Upper Chapel, Sheffield; Underbank Chapel, Sheffield; Fulwood Old Chapel, Sheffield; and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Basel, Switzerland.
Additional Information
Interests
In addition to his professional interests in law (especially in the areas of employment and family laws), justice more generally and theology and ministry, Julian is a keen Rambler, music and arts lover, with an interest in the following subjects he has completed shorter courses in at college: archaeology and antiquarianism (Fay Stevens, Oxford); British folklore (Mark Norman, Folklore Society); the history of witchcraft, magic and the occult (Thomas Waters, Imperial); and supernatural literature (Jenny Bavidge, Cambridge).
Recognised Community Leader, Etc
Julian is now our longest-serving minister; he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), based on his achievements as a social entrepreneur in Brixton (see below); as a recognised community leader he has been asked by Charter 88 / now Democracy Now to chair debates between Brixton’s parliamentary candidates at Brixton town hall; he is a companion of John Ruskin’s Guild of St George arts charity (based on his interests in the arts); and he is a member of several distinguished professional bodies as a barrister, including the Bar Human Rights Committee and Avocats Sans Frontières.
Leadership, Management & Administrative Experience
Julian founded and heads-up successful Lincoln’s Inn Fields Chambers, Brixton Legal Centre, and Brixton Unitarians as a dynamic, inclusive and positive community force in inner-city central Brixton. He is our administrative lead in all our exempted charity’s activities, involving: our spiritual presence and outreach; social responsibility; busy community centre; facilities upkeep and management (including commercial and residential lets, commercial carparking, and not insignificant grounds).
Detailed Professional Formation
Julian held a major award at HMCO from the Sheffield Grammar School Exhibition Fund. After HMCO, his initial lay appointment with us under Dr Cross’s mentorship, and going up to the LSE to read law under Jo Jacob, Julian went on to gain: the LLB (Hons), London; PGDLP (Bar), Inns of Court School of Law; a criminal and family laws focussed pupillage at 1 Gray’s Inn Square, London, under Alan Johnson; the degree of utter barrister, Lincoln’s Inn; the Bar practising certificate, Bar Council / Bar Standards Board; and was one of only three persons asked to join Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice KC’s* trial MA human rights (Buckingham) course at The Reform Club, Pall Mall, involving seminars given by leading British jurists and academics including Lord Sumption and the philosopher Professor Sir Roger Scruton.
Julian was made honorary minister here after 10 years of distinguished service and, mid-career at the Bar and still at Brixton Unitarians, he returned to college part-time to study more theology and ministry, and in an ecumenical way that drew on the wider roots of Unitarianism. He studied for the diploma (DBTS) and advanced diploma (ADBTS) in biblical and theological studies at the Baptist’s Regent’s Park College, Oxford (principal Rob Ellis et al); for the certificate in independent church ministry (CICM) at the Free Church of Scotland’s Edinburgh Theological Seminary (Rev Andy Hunter, FIEC, et al); and at the ICUU’s / Protestant Theological Institute’s international church leadership Summer school (Revs Scott Prinster and Gyero David et al) at the John Sigismund Academy (Unitarian), Cluj-Napoca / Kolozsvár, Transylvania.
- Inter alia, war crimes prosecutor of Milošević