The Council of Christians and Jews has honoured scholar and Birmingham dialogue leader Dr Ann Conway-Jones with its James Leek Award. The award, which is given to a deserving member of CCJ who has shown special leadership, was presented at CCJ’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.


Ann Conway-Jones has been actively involved in Jewish-Christian dialogue for some 25 years.  For four years (2013 – 2017) she was Honorary Secretary of CCJ and is now Chair of Birmingham CCJ.  She has an MA in Jewish-Christian relations from the Woolf Institute and a PhD from Manchester University which focussed on early Jewish and Christian mystical exegesis. She is a Visiting Scholar at Sarum College, Salisbury, and associate tutor at The Queen’s Foundation; Woodbrooke Quaker Studies Centre; Oxford University Department of Continuing Education; and the Birmingham Diocese.  She is also an Accredited Lay Worker of the Church of England. She combines up up-to-date scholarship with over twenty years’ experience of teaching adults.  She has published a number of articles in The Expository Times aimed at Christian preachers, exploring the complexities of Christianity’s relationship with Judaism.
 
Ann was nominated for the award by Rabbi Dr Margaret Jacobi, who stepped down last year as Rabbi at Birmingham Progressive Synagogue after 28 years leadership there. Rabbi Jacobi said:
 
‘Ann has inspired and encouraged our branch to be brave and tackle difficult subjects such as different understandings of Scripture and, most difficult of all, Israel and Palestine…Ann brings her clarity of intellect and her sensitivity and thoughtfulness to our discussions…As a Jew, I can say that Ann is held in the greatest respect in Jewish circles in Birmingham because of the work she has done and the way she has reached out.’ 
 
On receiving the award, Ann used her friendship with Rabbi Margaret, with whom she has both studied midrash and compared experiences of motherhood, as a model for creative dialogue, in which it is safe to risk thinking out loud and getting things wrong. 
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‘More than ever, we need safe spaces for Jewish-Christian dialogue’, Ann noted. ‘It is my wish for CCJ that we can provide such spaces, even if we need to proceed slowly and cautiously.’
 
James Leek was a CCJ Trustee and Branch leader who passed away in April 2021. Many thanks to Hilary Leek and the Leek family for their generosity in supporting this award in James' memory.
 
Previous winners award include David Arnold MBE, of Manchester CCJ; and Sr Isabel Smyth, of West of Scotland CCJ.