The College has a number of Honorary Fellows who have given outstanding service to the life of the College

The Revd Canon J C P Cockerton – Principal St John's College 1969 – 1978

He spent almost 21 years on the staff at St John’s after finishing a curacy at St Helens Parish Church in Lancashire. It was a period of great challenge in the Church and in society in general. In the College during his tenure the most notable change was the setting up of Cranmer Hall (a logical development from the ‘Diploma Group’ and subsequently the ‘Divinity Hall’) in which I was privileged to play a part under the leadership of Jim Hickinbotham. I held various appointments in the College before becoming Principal in late 1969.

 The next step of his journey began in the late summer of 1978 when he moved to a small country parish near York. It was the fulfilment of a long-held wish. From 1980-1985 he was a member of the General Synod. This and various diocesan jobs kept me more than fully occupied.

 He retired in 1992 and went to live in York, since when he has enjoyed a busy preaching ministry and some teaching on a small scale.

 David Day - Principal St Johns College 1992 - 1999

After teaching for 15 years in secondary schools, David Day moved into higher education, holding appointments both in Theology and Religious Education. For eighteen years he held the post of Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, Durham University and for seven years was Principal of St Johns College.

During that time he established the Centre for Christian Communication, was closely involved in the planning and building of St Margaret's Garth and taught preaching and communication in Cranmer Hall.

He retired in Autumn 1999 and is at present non-stipendiary curate of St Nicholas in the Marketplace, Durham.

He was the series preacher for BBC 1's Christmas is coming, televised services for Advent 2002 and remains passionately concerned about the importance of training young preachers.

His most recent publications include:

The Contours of Christian Education,
Beyond the Here and Now,
A Reader on Preaching, (all jointly with Prof. Jeff Astley),
A preaching workbook, Christ our Life, Pearl Beyond Price, (the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lentbook for 2002) and Embodying the Word - a preacher's guide.

He is married (to Rosemary) and has three children and numerous grandchildren. Contrary to all logic and reason, he continues to profess an undying attachment to Tottenham Hotspur.

 Professor James Dunn

James Dunn was brought up and educated in Glasgow. He graduated MA (in Economics and Statistics), BD from Glasgow (1961, 1964), and PhD from Cambridge (1968), which also awarded him a DD in 1991.

 After a year in a parish and two years as Chaplain to Overseas Students in Edinburgh, he became Lecturer in New Testament in Nottingham University in 1970-82, and thereafter the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in Durham.

He is also a minister of the Church of Scotland and local preacher in the Methodist Church. He is married to Meta and they have three children and two grandchildren. He has lectured widely at home and abroad and is the author of over twenty volumes and some 200 articles.

Peter Shaw CB

Peter Shaw was appointed an Honorary Fellow at St Johns College in 2009

Peter worked in 5 Government Departments and held 3 Director General Posts. Most of his career was spent in the Department for Education where his roles included being Private Secretary to Sir Keith Joseph, Press Secretary to Kenneth Baker and Finance Director for David Blunkett.

Peter was a founding Partner of Praesta Partners a Specialist Executive Coaching Organisation. Peter works with Senior Leaders in the Public, Private and Voluntary Sectors, including with Bishops and High Court Judges.

Peter has written a number of books on Leadership, and on Leadership and Spirituality including:

• Making difficult decisions: how to be decisive and get the business done (2008)
• Raise your game: how to succeed at work (2009)
• Deciding well: a Christian perspective on making decisions as a leader (2009)
• Effective Christian leaders in the global workplace (2010)

Peter is a visiting Professor of Leadership Development at Newcastle University Business School. He is a doctoral candidate at Chester University Business School. He was a member of St Johns College Council from 1993 – 2008. Peter's links with the North East started when he was an undergraduate at Bead College between 1967 – 1970. The links were strengthened when he was the Government Regional Director for the North East based in Newcastle between 1991 – 1993. Peter is also a member of the Court of the Newcastle University.

 Mr Nigel Sherlock, OBE, KSt.J, JP, Hon DCL. Lord-Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear

Appointed Lord-Lieutenant for Tyne and Wear December 2000.

 Mr Sherlock retired in 2005 from Wise Speke, Stockbrokers where he had formerly been Chief Executive and Chairman a subsidiary of Brewin Dolphin where he was a main Board Director. - Past Director, London Stock Exchange

 Past Deputy Chairman of APCIMS (The Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers) - Chairman of the Crown Nomination Committee for the appointment of the Arch Bishop of York - Currently Director of Skipton Building Society - Hon DCL of the Universities of Newcastle and Northumbria

 Professor Anthony C. Thiselton - Principal St Johns College 1988- 1992

Anthony C. Thiselton is Professor of Christian Theology in the University of Nottingham, where he was also Head of Department for nine years. He is also Research Professor in the University of Chester, and Canon Theologian of Leicester Cathedral and of Southwell and Nottingham. He holds three doctorates PhD (Sheffield); D.D (Durham); D.D. (Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth). He has written ten books, including a definitive commentary on the Greek text of 1 Corinthians and five volumes on hermeneutics. He has lectured extensively in the USA and Canada, and in the Netherlands, Romania, South Africa and the Far East.

Main works include:

The Two Horizons: New Testament Hermeneutics and Philosophical Description, (Exeter: Paternoster/Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980, 504 pp; rp. and tr. into Korean, 1990); New Horizons in Hermeneutics: The Theory and Practice of Transforming Biblical Reading (London: HarperCollins/Grand Rapids: Zondervan 1992, 703 pp, Portuguese translation in progress); Interpreting God and the Postmodern Self, (Edinburgh: T & T Clark/Grand Rapids and Eerdmans, 1995, 182 pp); The Promise of Hermeneutics (Carlisle: Paternoster/Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999, 259 pp, joint author); The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans/Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2000,1,479 pp); A Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion (Oxford: Oneworld, 2001, and Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005, 344 pp.); Thiselton on Hermeneutics: Collected Works and New Essays (Aldershot: Ashgate, and Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006 827 pages); 1 Corinthians: A Shorter Exegetical and Pastoral Commentary Commentary, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 336 pages; and The Hermeneutics of Doctrine, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007).

Professor Thiselton is a member of the Church of England General Synod (1995- present), has served for twenty-five years (some as Vice-Chairman) on the Church of England Doctrine Commission (from 1976), serves on the Crown Nominations Commission (2000-2007), and the Church of England Board of Education. He was appointed by the Minister of Health to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (1995-99), and was elected President of the Society for the Study of Theology (1998-2000). Before holding the Chair of Christian Theology at Nottingham he was Principal of St John's College and Honorary Professor in the University of Durham.

Anthony Thiselton is married to Rosemary, with three adult children Stephen, Linda, and Martin, and six grandchildren. He is also Associate Priest in a Nottingham parish.

 Dr T. E. Yates

He joined the staff of St John's in 1963 for a newly created job as tutor of Cranmer Hall and chaplain to students at St Nicholas Church, modelled by the then principal, Canon Hickinbotham, on what he had known on the Oxford Pastorate chaplaincy. He did this for seven years 1963-70.

Mally Shaw, now his wife, joined the staff as the first woman to teach in an Church of England theological college in 1966 and they married in the college chapel in 1968.

In 1970 the incoming principal, John Cockerton, invited him to become Warden of Cranmer Hall, between 1971-79. During this period they lived in 11, South Bailey and their two children were baptised by the principal, who had married them also in St Mary the Less.