Simon Keyes

Director of St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace in Bishopsgate. After reading a degree in Zoology, Simon’s career has been largely concerned with cultivating new initiatives in the areas of homelessness, mental health and crime prevention. He became interested in inter-religious work in 2000 organising “The Way of Peace 2000” interfaith initiative with HH The Dalai Lama in Northern Ireland and setting up the first London Christian Meditation Centre. Since 2004, he has led St  Ethelburga’s Centre, which arose from the ruins of the mediaeval City church destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1993. St Ethelburga’s aims “to help people build relationships across divisions of conflict, culture and religion”. Simon has a particular interest in approaches to enabling difficult conversations and working with the concept of Disagreement Success.