Archives: Team Members

Revd. Dr. Mike Branscombe

Mike was ordained in Lichfield Cathedral in 1995, serving as Curate and church planter in Staffordshire until moving to the USA in 2001. After 14 years in the diocese of Southwest Florida Mike moved to the Birmingham city centre church of St Martin in the Bull Ring, where he was Director of Care and Discipleship.

In 2018 Mike joined St Andrew’s in Cobham.

Revd. Charleen Hollington

Charleen was born in Zimbabwe and spent many years in South Africa where she studied Law. She married Richard in 1994 and they moved to New Zealand where Charleen worked as a solicitor. It was in New Zealand that she resolved to explore Christianity and she started to sneak into a little Anglican church near her house during services to hear what these oddball Christians had to say for themselves. The rest is history.

She committed her life to Christ and became more and more involved until finally the path of ordination was suggested. Charleen was deaconed in Auckland in 2008. Soon after, Richard was transferred to London and a new adventure began. Charleen became a self-supporting minister at St. Luke’s and ChristChurch in Chelsea and was priested in 2011. Charleen and RIchard moved to Cobham in 2012 with their daughter Claudia. To Charleen’s great delight she was licensed to St Andrew’s and St Mary’s in June 2014 as a non-stipendary curate.

Revd. Dr. Moni Babatunde

Moni was ordained Deacon at Guildford Cathedral on 30th June 2019 and was ordained as a Priest on 10th October 2020 at service held at Holy Trinity, Claygate. She heard the call whilst serving as a Church Warden here and her ministry as a Priest will be here at St Andrew’s, serving the people of Cobham.

Shirley Mensa

Born in Germany, Shirley spent a number of years in Ghana before coming to London to study.

After a few years in the business of health and fitness, she joined the airline industry in a performance management role. It was during the ‘the lockdown’ that she felt God’s nudge to explore youth mission work and after almost 25 years at British Airways she made the decision to leave the commercial world and join the St Andrews Team as Family and Youth missioner.

David Fuge

David came to play the organ to help out at St. Andrew’s for one Sunday in October 1976 and, apart from a two-and-a-half-year break at one point, has been here ever since.
He is married to Louise (who helps organise the St. Andrew’s Youth Choir) and he has two children, two stepchildren and three grandchildren.
David was the first organ scholar at The City University, London, and since then has worked as a sound engineer for BBC tv for 37 years. He is now semi-retired and works part time for BBC Studioworks.
His musical tastes are wide ranging, and he believes that the musical worship at St. Andrew’s should be a blend of old and new that reflects the message of the service of which it is a part, and which brings us all closer to the living God in sometimes vibrant and energetic ways and, at other times, thoughtful and reflective ways.

David Taylor

David has lived all his life in Cobham and is married to Carrie, who is on the leadership team of Kids’ Church. They have two sons and three grandchildren. David’s working carer started in the legal profession. He founded Cobham Romania Aid and, later, the Cobham Uganda Partnership. He spent some time as the Director of the Princess Margarita of Romania Trust. David is now well-known as a historian, author and speaker and obtained a PhD from the University of Roehampton in 2010.

David is active in many areas of local community life and is Chairman of the Surrey History Trust, President of the Esher District Local History Society and a trustee of Painshill Park Trust and of Cobham Combined Charities. Raised in the Methodist Church, David became a committed Christian at a Billy Graham Crusade and later became a leader in the newly emerging House Church movement in the 1970s. After joining St Andrew’s, David has become deeply involved in many aspects of church life and, in addition to being an Occasional Preacher, he has also twice served as a churchwarden.