Announcing the 2024 ADM Fellows
Anglican Deaconess Ministries is delighted to announce our 2024 Fellows cohort. With ADM’s support, these five women will bring together their areas of expertise and their faith to complete major projects that engage our sceptical and hurting world with the gospel.
ADM CEO Mary Un says, “We warmly congratulate our 2024 Fellows on their selection. This is a group of gifted and faithful women in whom we have every confidence. The projects are well-conceived, theologically rich and deeply practical, and I can’t wait to see how God uses them for His glory.”
From the early days of the Protestant Reformation to the complexities of modern family life, the 2024 ADM Fellowship projects address a broad range of topics. But as the Fellows work hard on their projects, they will be well-supported.
ADM Fellows are provided with office space and a bursary, as well as ongoing support and professional development throughout the year. Fellowships are completed over a 6- or 12-month period, with each Fellow working to complete their own major project over the course of their Fellowship. Working in the ADM office in Sydney, Fellows benefit from the support of their cohort as well as other ADM staff.
Since 2016, ADM has supported 35 Fellows across seven annual cohorts. ADM’s growing network of Fellows alumni continue to publish, speak, work and minister across a wide array of settings.
Introducing our 2024 ADM Fellows:
Esther Counsell
ADM Senior Fellow
Fellowship project: Protestant Civil Religion and the English Commonwealth, 1520–1640
Esther Counsell is a historian specialising in early modern British history. She is currently preparing her PhD for submission at the University of Cambridge, and also holds an MPhil in Early Modern History (Trinity College, Cambridge). Esther has presented her work at numerous academic conferences, and is currently a casual academic at the University of Western Sydney.
Esther will use her ADM Fellowship to complete a book and several articles based on her PhD research, which focuses on reformed Protestant ecclesiology and ideas of civil religion in post-Reformation England. Her research highlights the integral role of Christian religion, and specifically reformed Protestant thought, in the development of the modern state - particularly through the establishment of principles with deeply biblical origins such as the rule of law, constitutional monarchy, and freedom of conscience. In looking at how reformed Protestant models of civil religion uniquely shaped the English commonwealth, Esther’s work also aims to engage a new generation of Christians to learn from their reformed Protestant heritage in navigating the intersections of church and state.
Esther says, “Historians can play a special part in Christ's church, and can further the Church's mission by teaching new generations of the truths of the Christian faith, and of the witness and boldness of past Christians who went before them and who thought deeply about important issues before them, also. We can help the Church to present an intellectually-robust Christianity, that remains both human and heartfelt. Scholarship should be about opening your heart, as well as your mind, to the transforming presence of God.”
Rev. Ruth Schroeter
ADM Fellow
Fellowship project: A Pastoral and Theological Exploration of Embodiment - How the Gospel Teaches Us to See the Beauty and Value of Our Bodies
Rev. Ruth Schroeter is a Deacon with the Anglican Church of Sydney with extensive pastoral experience, most recently serving as an Associate Minister at St Andrew’s Cathedral. She holds a Bachelor of Theology and Certificate of Clinical Pastoral Education from Moore Theological College. Ruth is also an experienced dancer, and has taught dance for many years.
Ruth will use her ADM Fellowship project to research and write on the topic of embodiment - exploring what it means for us to be body, mind and spirit. Drawing on her personal history and ministry experience, Ruth will present a theology of embodiment with a strongly pastoral focus. Looking to Jesus – the most profound expression of embodiment, as God entered His world in human form – Ruth’s project explores historical, cultural, and religious views that shape how we think about ourselves as physical beings, and considers how these ideas might better align with how the Bible presents God’s view of us as embodied beings.
Ruth says, “I hope to provide a pastorally sensitive and theologically rich resource which encourages us to view our bodies as God does, and to become better stewards of this wonderful part of our humanness which offers such potential to express the goodness of God as we glorify him with every part of ourselves.”
Kate Morris
ADM Fellow
Fellowship project: A Different Normal: Building a Gospel-Shaped Family with Neurodivergent Children
Kate Morris is a child educator specialising in supporting gifted students. She is currently completing a Grad. Cert. in Autism Studies (University of Wollongong) and holds a B. Arts/Education specialising in Gifted Education (UNSW) and a Dip. Bible and Missions (Moore Theological College). Kate has engaged in long term cross-cultural mission in France with CMS, and is passionate about helping Christians understand and embrace neurological differences.
Kate will use her ADM Fellowship to write a book that engages Christian parents of neurodivergent children in a Biblically framed conversation about neurodiversity and parenting. Drawing on both her professional and personal experiences of parenting neurodiverse children, as well as the perspectives of other neurodivergent Christians, Kate will bring distinctly Christian approaches to neurodivergence and to parenting neurodivergent children.
Kate says, “I have heard from innumerable Christian parents that they also find there is a distinct lack of material addressing parenting neurodivergent children from a Christian point of view. I would love to write a book to be part of this conversation. This book would seek to engage parents in Biblical reflection, inject hope into their outlook, deeply encourage them in their work as parents, and bolster their understanding of the experience of neurodivergence for the sake of their children and their families as a whole.”
Dr Justine Toh
ADM Senior Fellow
Fellowship project: Keeping House – A Provocation
Dr Justine Toh is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX), where she writes about popular culture, social trends, contemporary society, religion, and spirituality. Justine holds a PhD in Cultural Studies (Macquarie University), and her work has been published in The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC Online, ABC Religion & Ethics, The Canberra Times, The Guardian, and more.
Justine will use her ADM Fellowship to write a book exploring a distinctly Christian vision of care. Through the metaphor of “keeping house” – or the work of attending to the flourishing of all the members of all the “houses” we inhabit, she will explore how the work of care frequently goes unacknowledged, and yet remains essential to our individual and communal flourishing.
Justine says, “If my first book Achievement Addiction ended with the recognition that all of life is a gift and that, ultimately, we do nothing to earn our success in life, then this book dwells in the recognition that our lives have always been graced. In other words, we have always been kept, and cared for, by others. Follow the logic long enough, and you bump into God pretty quickly, only to realise (of course!) he was there all along. I want people to know, in their beloved bones, this knowledge that “is too wonderful… too lofty for me to attain” (Psalm 139:6).”
Miriam
ADM Senior Fellow
Fellowship project: Mental Health and Ministry Talks
Miriam is an accredited mental health social worker, counsellor and supervisor. She holds a B. Arts/B. Social Work (University of Sydney), M. Divinity (SMBC), and a M. Clinical Counselling (ACU) and currently works as a counsellor. Miriam also has extensive cross-cultural experience, and has worked in counselling and chaplaincy across a range of professional contexts.
Miriam will use her ADM Fellowship to prepare a series of workshops to equip pastoral caregivers and ministry staff to better serve the mental health needs of their church communities. In doing this, Miriam brings her experience working in the intersection of psychology, counselling, and theology to provide practical, evidence-based tools to equip Christian communities in responding to mental health challenges.
Miriam says, “From personal experience, I know that vocational ministry is complex, demanding, glorious, and gutting. With hands on experience in ministry and mental health, I aim to provide ministers and congregation members with tools to thrive physically, mentally, relationally, and spiritually in their calling.”
Find out more about the 2024 Fellows, and past Fellows, here.