VCC President 2023-2025
Deacon Joseph (Joe) Leach
Joseph (Joe) is a permanent Deacon in the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. He studied science at university, gaining a PhD in planetary geology and worked in a variety of fields, including as a lecturer at the University of Melbourne for 21 years, finally retiring in 2015. He continued to study, gaining a MA(Theol) from the Australian Catholic University and was accepted into the diaconal formation program at the Melbourne College of Divinity, leading to a Bachelor of Theology degree. He was ordained in 2012 as a Deacon, and has served in two parishes. He has co-authored two books on the theology of the eastern church. Read more here.
Contact: president@vcc.org.au
VCC Deputy President (2023-2025)
Fr Dr Jacob Joseph (Malankara Syrian Orthodox)
Fr Dr Jacob Joseph is the Deputy President of the VCC (2022-23). He is an ordained priest of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Before joining his theological teaching, he served the church both in India and abroad in various capacities as a National Youth Director (the USA and Australia), Director of the Holy Cross College of Management and Technology, Editor of Vision Journal, and Mission Director. After completing his theological degrees, he joined St Athanasius College as a lecturer in 2020. Currently, he teaches Patristic Theology and Orthodox Mission Theology at Agora University and at Malankara Syrian Orthodox Theological Seminary, Ernakulam, India, in Ecumenical and Mission Theology. His doctoral thesis is titled The Christ Who Embraces: An Orthodox Theology of Margins in India.
Immediate Past-President: Dr Graeme Blackman AO
Graeme has had an exemplary career in both business and voluntary sectors. In 2011 Graeme was appointed as the inaugural Chancellor of the University of Divinity. In 2017 he was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the pharmaceutical industry, to scientific research and development, to theological education and the Anglican Church of Australia, and to aged care. Graeme is an alumnus of the University of Divinity, having graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Theology (Research) which have enabled him to combine his considerable experience in financial management and governance with theological insight. More about Graeme here.
Rev David Fotheringham
(Moderator, Uniting Church Vic/Tas)
David is the Moderator of the Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania. He was ordained in the Uniting Church in 2000 and has served in ministry placements in Whittlesea, Horsham, Ashburton and Frankston. He has Masters degrees in both Science and Theology and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. David has served in ecumenical roles including ten years on the dialogue between the Uniting Church in Australia and the Lutheran Church of Australia, and is a member of the Uniting Church’s Assembly Standing Committee.
Rev Dr Avril Hannah-Jones
(Uniting Church in Australia)
Avril is currently the minister at North Balwyn Uniting Church. She has previously ministered at the Lancefield, Mount Macedon, Riddell’s Creek, Romsey and Williamstown – Electra Street Uniting churches. Avril has a PhD in history from the University of Melbourne, was the residential Pastoral Care Coordinator for four years at Janet Clarke Hall, and lived for six months as part of the World Council of Churches’ International, ecumenical community at the Chateau de Bossey, outside Geneva. Avril is also a member of the Council of the University of Divinity.
Ms Sieneke Martin (Religious Society of Friends)
VCC Deputy President
Sieneke Martin is an experienced program manager in international development work, with emergency experience with Oxfam Australia and as East Timor Country Director for Caritas Australia. She is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia and has served as Clerk (leader of church) of the Victoria Regional Meeting. She served as Executive Officer of Quaker Service Australia 1988-1998 and was a Friend in Residence at Woodbrooke Quaker College in Birmingham, UK, in 1998-99. She was a member and chair of the Act for Peace Commission, National Council of Churches Australia, 2008–2016, and a member of the Quaker United Nations Office, New York, Committee 2009-2015
Rev’d Dr Satvasheela Pandhare (Anglican)
Rev Dr Satvasheela Pandhare is presently ministering in a multicultural church with two worship centres, namely, St. Peter’s Church, Craigieburn and St. John’s Church, Wandong. She is also the Associate Chaplain at Hume Anglican Grammar School. She was ordained a Presbyter in the Church of North India in 2000. She holds a Doctorate of Theology (2020) exploring B. R. Ambedkar’s Ideology for Social Change and its relevance in the present Hindūtva context of India. She is author of many papers and academic presentations, and has a particular engagement with multicultural and interfaith relations.
Professor Nasir Butrous (Chaldean Catholic Church of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania) Co-option
Nasir is a Chaldean Catholic and a native of the city of Mosul (Biblical Nineveh) in Iraq. Recently retired, he was the Associate Professor of Management at the Australian Catholic University (Faculty of Law and Business) in Melbourne, and affiliated with the Peter Faber Business School – ACU. Nasir was previously a member of the Commission for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relationships in the Archdiocese of Brisbane.
Nasir was co-opted onto the Standing Committee.
Fr Shenouda Boutros
Fr Shenouda served as President of VCC (2019-2021). He is a lecturer in Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics in the Orthodox tradition at St Athanasius College (SAC). He is also SAC’s chaplain who provides spiritual and general support to students and staff. Fr Shenouda serves at the parish of St Bishoy’s Coptic Orthodox Church in Bulleen, Melbourne.
Mr Ashok Jacob (Treasurer) (Mar Thoma)
Ashok is a member of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar. He has completed a Masters in Engineering (Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur), a Masters in Computing (Monash University), an M.B.A. (Deakin University), and B.D. (Melbourne College of Divinity). He has worked in the private sector in India, USA and Europe and in the Victorian State Public sector in different roles. He has served on the VCC Executive for more than 15 years including 2 years as the Deputy President and 2 years as the President and now as Treasurer. He has served as a board member of the Jewish, Christian, Muslim Association (JCMA) of Victoria. For the past 25 years, he has been teaching the senior students in his parish Sunday School and prepared the youth for taking their first communion.
Captain Manikya Mera
Captain Manikya Mera has been serving as the Intercultural Officer for the Intercultural Ministries Melbourne, in the Victoria Division of the Salvation Army. She also served as a Project Coordinator at the Salvation Army International Development (SAID). She is a member of the National Moral and Social Issues Council (MASIC) which grapples with complex issues facing both the Church and the world. From January 2025 she will be serving as the Corps Officer – Team Leader, Dandenong, Victoria Division. Mera studied Masters in Business Administration and is currently completing her Masters of International and Community Development.
(Commencing with VCC Standing Committee in January 2025)
Catholic – to be advised
Executive Officer: Rev Sandy Boyce
Captain Star Conliffe (resigned due to new placement in South Korea from January 2025)
Star was ordained and commissioned in 2018 as a Salvation Army Officer and ministers to a local congregation in the Western suburbs of Melbourne, where she has been appointed with her husband for five years. She completed a Master of Divinity in 2022, and her thesis explored the impacts of caring for victim-survivors of family and domestic violence on the well-being of Salvation Army Officer women. Star is an active member of her local Council of Churches, and moonlights as a police chaplain and the treasurer of her local Country Women’s Association branch.