Paul Mealor became Patron of the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation in 2023. He is one of the world’s most ‘performed’ living composers, catapulted to international stardom in April 2011. 2.5 billion people (the largest audience in broadcasting history) heard his Motet, Ubi caritas performed by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, conducted by James O’Donnell at the Royal Wedding Ceremony of His Royal Highness Prince William and Catherine Middleton (now TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales) at Westminster Abbey. Mealor is the first President of Ty Cerdd – Wales’s National Centre for music making and Patron of the Welsh Music Guild. He is Vice-President of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and the North Wales International Music Festival. In November 2020, The Saltire Society of Scotland presented him with The Fletcher of Saltoun Award for outstanding contribution to the arts and humanities in Scotland. Mealor is only the second composer, after Sir James MacMillan, to be given this award.
Christine De Luca is a Trustee of the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation. She writes in English and Shetlandic, a blend of Old Scots with much Norse influence. A Trustee of the ESAF, she was Edinburgh's poet laureate (Makar) between 2014 and 2017. Her poetry collections have won several awards over the years. Her poems have featured in many anthologies and been translated into many other languages. In recent years her poems have been selected four times for the Scottish Poetry Library's Best Scottish Poems. Her second novel, The Trials of Mary Johnsdaughter, will be published shortly by Luath Press. She enjoys collaborations across the arts, most recently with Victoria Crowe and with Tommy Smith. Christine is one of the founders of Hansel Co-operative Press which promotes literary and artistic work in Shetland and Orkney.
David Fergusson is a Trustee of the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation, a Scottish theologian and a Presbyterian minister. In 1990, he was appointed Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Aberdeen, before moving to Edinburgh to take up the position of the Chair of Divinity in 2000. In April 2021, he was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity, one of the oldest professorships of the University of Cambridge. Fergusson is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was installed as a personal chaplain to the Queen in November 2015 and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to education, the arts, and the Church of Scotland. From 2008 to 2018, he served as Principal of New College Edinburgh. In July 2019 the Queen appointed him as Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland and Dean of the Order of the Thistle.
Gordon Graham is Chair of the ESAF, and Director of the Festival of the Sacred Arts in the Fringe. A graduate of the Universities of St Andrews and Durham, he taught philosophy at St Andrews where he also established the University Music Centre. In 2006 he moved to the United States to become Professor of Philosophy and the Arts at Princeton Theological Seminary, and remained there until his retirement in 2018. His many publications on art and religion include three books -- Philosophy of the Arts (Routledge, 3rd edition 2005), The Re-enchantment of the World: art versus religion (Oxford University Press, 2007) and Philosophy, Art and Religion: understanding faith and creativity (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
Alison Jack MA BD PhD is a Trustee of the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation, Professor of Bible and Literature and Principal of New College in the University of Edinburgh where she is Director of the Scottish Network for Religion and Literature.Here publications include The Prodigal Son in English and American Literature (OUP, 2019) which explores the rich connection between this biblical figure and a wide range of literature. She is co-editor (with Caroline Blyth) of The BIble in Crime Fiction and Drama (Bloomsbury, 2018).
Barnaby Miln is Secretary-Treasurer and Trustee of the ESAF. He serves as Property Convener of St Vincent's Chapel, and Venue Manager for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A regular music reviewer, covering many concerts in Edinburgh each year, he was a seedsman and agricultural plant breeder by profession. Barnaby has long and extensive experience in promoting and organizing major events -- the AIDS ribbon and World AIDS Day (1986/7), the first Fairtrade Fortnight (1997) and the Jubilee 2000 Human Chain for the meeting of G7 leaders in Birmingham (1998). As a magistrate, he was the first openly gay member of the British judiciary. Formerly a member of the Church of England General Synod and Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, he has more recently been a member of the Scottish Episcopal General Synod.
Sir Timothy O'Shea BSc, PhD is a Trustee of the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation. An internationally distinguished computer scientist, he was Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh from October 2002 - February 2018, having previously served as Master of Birkbeck College and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of London. He was Chair of the Edinburgh Fringe Society from 2016 – 2021. He was knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours.
Eve Poole is a Trustee of the ESAF. She has a BA from Durham, an MBA from Edinburgh, and a PhD in theology and capitalism from Cambridge. She is the author of several books, including Leadersmithing, which was Highly Commended in the 2018 Business Book Awards. She was Third Church Estates Commissioner (2018-2021) and the first female Chairman of the Board of Governors at Gordonstoun (2015-2021). She taught leadership at Ashridge Business School for 15 years, having previously worked for the Church Commissioners and Deloitte Consulting, where she specialised in change management. She is a regular contributor to Thought for the Day for BBC Radio Scotland. Eve was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List.