Our Team

We have a large team of clergy, lay leadership and paid staff at St Mary's.


Rev Canon Mat Ineson, Vicar Leadership Team – Worship and Teaching		Rev Simon Potter, Associate Vicar Leadership Team - Discipleship, pastoral care, and mission
Mat has been vicar of St Mary’s since 2014. Prior to that he was vicar of St Matthew’s Kingsdown in Bristol, Chaplain at Lee Abbey Devon and curate at Christ Church Dore in Sheffield. Mat is married to Emma who is Principal of Trinity College. They have a son in secondary school and daughter at Birmingham University. He enjoys good coffee, real ale, good conversation and great food and walks his dogs and runs in order to burn off those calories. Mat oversees the staff team and has an emphasis on the worship and teaching at St Mary's on our leadership team.		Simon joined the team at St Mary's in February 2018, having moved from St Andrew's, North Oxford where he was curate. Originally from Devon, he taught French and RE at a Buckinghamshire secondary school before training for ordained ministry at Trinity College. He is pleased to be back in Stoke Bishop and to be slightly closer to the sea and hills. He enjoys coast walking and time spent with friends and family, usually in the vicinity of a local eatery or pub. (He still eats cream teas in the time-honoured Devonian way: cream then jam.) He also enjoys listening to and performing music of all kinds. His responsibilities at St Mary's include overseeing the discipleship, pastoral care, and mission teams as we seek to follow Jesus and make him known. He is also Minister in the Avonside Mission Area working alongside the churches in Avonmouth, Sea Mills, Shirehampton, and Lawrence Weston in our shared discipleship and mission.


Rev John White, Curate Leadership Team – Worship and Teaching John is married to Pippa (who is training for ordination), they have two children Zoe and Will. John is from America but is now very much settled here in the UK. John studied at Trinity college Bristol before being ordained in 2018. John is also a pioneer vicar which means he is keen to see new initiatives in the church that can reach new people. Before ordination John was a youth pastor in America, Scotland and England. John enjoys trying new things, classic novels, craft beer, movies, travel, cliff diving and generally hanging out with friends. He looks forward to serving at St Mary’s and in the Mission Area.

Simon Russell, Youth and Children's Ministry Lead Leadership Team – Youth and Children		Carrie Patterson, Operations Manager
Simon Grew up in the west country but has lived all over the UK and also spent an extended time in New Zealand. He is married to Hanna and they have a son, Judah, who is nearly 2. Prior to youth ministry Simon worked in outdoor education with young people at risk. He loves the outdoors, Netflix and gadgets – especially Apple products.		Carrie joined the team in 2016. She lives in Stoke Bishop with her husband and their children.




Rev Angela Cattell, Associate Minister		Rev Jennifer Hall, Associate Minister Leadership Team – Pastoral Care
		Jennifer has worshipped at St Mary’s since coming to Bristol just over 20 years ago. After retiring from the national Social Services Inspectorate, she became a lay Minister and was then ordained as a local Minister. She is a member of the leadership team with responsibility for pastoral care. She was married to Brian who died in 2015. She enjoys walking and reading.

Rev Hazel Trapnell, Associate Minister		Canon Peter Robottom, Licensed Lay Minister
		Peter is passionate about sharing the gospel particularly with young people and applying it in everyday life, including in our care for creation. He was made an honorary Canon of Bristol Cathedral in 2014. As a licensed lay minister, Peter leads services at St Mary's and at Aabletone Care Home. he also heads up our fabrics committee. He has been married to Jenny for almost 50 years and has 3 grown-up married daughters and 7 grandchildren. In whatever “spare” time he has, Peter likes travel, relaxes by gardening and sadly, as a native of Birmingham, became a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa at an early age!

Brian Richardson, Licensed Lay Minister		Jo Morris, Licensed Lay Minister Trainee Leadership Team – Growing Disciples
Brian is a retired Chartered Accountant and has been a member of St Mary's since 1978. He enjoys heading up, with his wife Beverly, a blended family of 8 children and a growing number of grandchildren. He loves offering hospitality, a good few rounds of golf and tinkering with the sound system in church. He pastors a thriving homegroup and since retirement finds his role as a Lay Minister increasingly fulfilling.		Jo is married to Ed and they have 2 teenaged daughters. They have been worshipping as a family at St Mary's since moving to the parish in 2002. Having grown up in a Christian family she finds it fascinating to reflect back on different stages in her life and seeing how and where God has been taking her over the years – still lots of growth and learning to do! A lapsed runner, apart from her family, Jo's favourite things are her friends, being by the sea (or anywhere in the countryside), real fires on chilly evenings, reading, cooking & pub lunches. And coffee.


Stephanie Wren, Church Warden Leadership Team		Tony Hughes, Church Warden Leadership Team – Finance and Stewardship
Stephanie has been worshipping at St Mary's for almost 20 years. She was elected as Churchwarden in April 2016 and is also the Parish Safeguarding Officer. Stephanie has two grown-up sons and two neurotic cats. In her working life Stephanie was a regional manager for a large credit reference agency, specialising in investigating fraudulent companies, and latterly as a copywriter for a medical insurance company, which played to her passion for language. Nowadays Stephanie enjoys music, theatre, travel and all things French. Stephanie has never been known for her sporting prowess, but thanks to her boys she is now a keen tennis spectator, going to Wimbledon whenever possible, and an avid Arsenal supporter regularly going to the Emirates to cheer on the Gunners.		Tony is a solicitor and has been churchwarden since April 2015 and is currently also Stewardship Coordinator and a member of the Finance Committee and Leadership Team. He has also been seen playing guitar and singing in the Worship Group. He and Wendy have been worshipping at St Mary since 1986 and have three children, now in their twenties. Tony enjoys playing tennis, keeping fit and singing (but not at the same time) is a founder member of the Rotary Club of Bristol Breakfast.

Caroline Owen, Treasurer Leadership Team		Lucy Allen, Church Cleaner
Caroline has been a member of St Mary's since 1997. Although she lives outside the parish she started attending St Mary's as it offered a good Sunday school structure for her children. The children have now left home leaving Caroline time to carry out her current role as Treasurer as well as helping with catering. As well as cooking Caroline enjoys sailing, theatre, football and reading.		Lucy is married to Mark and a mother of three. She makes beautiful jewellery in her spare time and enjoys gardening and knitting.