(DR.) FERNANDO CERVANTES (BRISTOL FRATERNITY PRESIDENT; VICE-PRESIDENT AND ARCHIVIST, LAY DOMINICANS PROVINCIAL COUNCIL)

I teach history at Bristol University but have had a marked interest in religion and theology ever since I first came to England in the early 1970s. I was then intrigued by the differences between the approach to religion in the Benedictine school I attended in London and the Jesuit school I had attended in Mexico City. What started as a somewhat anxious comparison of what seemed sharply contrasting approaches soon developed into a keen appreciation of the richness and diversity of the Catholic tradition.
My relationship with the Order of Preachers goes back a long way. I first came across them as an undergraduate in Oxford and later as a graduate student in Cambridge. I was particularly influenced by the preaching and writings of Simon Tugwell and later by the humour and friendship of Timothy Radcliffe, Bob Ombres, Herbert McCabe and David Sanders. During my frequent stints in Mexico I also frequented the Dominican house of studies at the University and was taught at postgraduate level by the brilliant Daniel Ulloa.
When Paul Williams had the idea of exploring the possibility of establishing a fraternity in Bristol, I expressed a cautious interest. It was only after a few monthly meetings, however, that I became convinced that this was just the right thing for me. I was admitted four years ago and made my final profession in November 2012. In 2014 I was elected Vice-President and Archivist to the Lay Dominican Provincial Council, and in 2018 President of the Bristol Fraternity.

FR. ROBERT GAY, OP (RELIGIOUS ASSISTANT)
Fr. Robert is currently Prior of Blackfriars, Oxford. He teaches moral theology and bioethics at Blackfriars Hall and Studium. He is a Governor of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, and is a member of the Advisory Board for a Catholic Investment Fund. Fr Robert was elected Prior to the Holy Spirit Priory, Oxford, in May 2018. He is also JCR Chaplain and Welfare Officer, providing pastoral and spiritual support to Hall and Studium students.
Fr Robert studied biological sciences at Wye College, University of London, before going on to do his doctorate in Plant Physiology at the University of Glasgow. He studied Philosophy and Theology at Blackfriars Studium, and bioethics and medical law at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham. His particular academic interests include the ethics of persistent vegetative state, ethical issues at the end of life, and the use of Thomistic virtue ethics in bioethics. See www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/people/very-rev-dr-robert-gay-op/

 (MR.) ROGER BIRD (SECRETARY)
I read law at Bristol University and subsequently qualified as a solicitor. After practising law  for some years I was appointed as a judge and sat for many years, finally  in Bristol, having a particular interest in family cases. I retired in 2015.
I was brought up as an Anglican but, from my mid-teens onwards, regarded myself as a devout atheist. I drifted back to the Anglican church in my mid-thirties and, by the time I was 40, was a regular member of the congregation of Wells Cathedral, where I was attracted by the beauty of the building, the music and the liturgy. Eventually I came to realise that my centre of gravity was the Catholic Church and that I could not enjoy the fullness of the catholic tradition where I was, and so I was received into the church in 1995 at Downside Abbey with the aid of Fr Michael Barnes SJ and Dom Sebastian Moore OSB.
I became a member of the parish of Clifton Cathedral in 2010 and I there heard about the Bristol Fraternity of Lay Dominicans. This interested me because I enjoy discussing and thinking about theology and there are few opportunities for this anywhere today. I soon realised that the Dominican way was ideal for me and I made my first profession in 2016. I made my final profession in 2019.

 (MS.) LIZ TRIMBY-HAWORTH

 (PROF.) PAUL WILLIAMS
My spiritual journey has been in some ways a strange one. I was brought up an Anglican, and I was a choirboy well into my teens. I subsequently became an actively involved practising Buddhist and Professor of Indian and Tibetan Philosophy working at the University of Bristol’s Centre for Buddhist Studies mainly in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy.
After well over twenty years as a Buddhist I was received into the Catholic Church in 2000. Central to my conversion was a growing conviction of the sheer rightness, the actual and factual truth, of Catholic Christianity, and what seems to me to be its deeply convincing rationality.
In this I was particularly influenced by the work of the Dominican saint Thomas Aquinas and the writings and personal influence of Dominicans like Fr Herbert McCabe, OP (who taught occasionally at the University of Bristol). I was admitted as a Lay Dominican in 2004, made my first profession in 2007 and my final profession in 2009. I retired from the University of Bristol in 2011, where I am now Emeritus Professor.

(MR.) MICHAEL MCLOUGHLIN
Michael lives in Cardiff and chairs the Lay Fraternal Group affiliated to the Bristol Fraternity in the Welsh capital.  He can be contacted on michaelmcloughlin57@gmail.com
 Please contact him regarding the Cardiff Group’s meetings and news.