Our Ambassadors
Pippa Cramer MBE
An Occupational Therapist by background, Pippa specialised in Neurorehabilitation and Care of the Elderly within the NHS. She is now the Pastoral Care and Seniors Minister at Holy Trinity Claygate and has been running Connections, one of the largest Church-based groups for Seniors in the UK for over 12 years.
She is passionate about loving and caring for older people and reducing loneliness and isolation. Her heart’s desire is for ALL seniors to be given the opportunity to hear the gospel and discover God’s amazing grace and love. Therefore, after much prayer, Pippa came up with the idea of using well-loved hymns as a way of sharing the gospel in a gentle and accessible way with seniors, and the ‘Hymns we Love’ series was developed and used extremely effectively from within Connections at Holy Trinity Claygate.
At the onset of the Coronavirus Pandemic in April 2020, Pippa saw the opportunity to use Hymns we Love on a phone line to reach the hundreds of thousands of older people who were now even more isolated. After discussions with the Evangelism and Witness Team at Lambeth Palace, Daily Hope, the free phone line, was born, supported by the Church of England and Faith in Later Life. In less than a year, the Daily Hope received more than 400,000 calls and has proved to be a lifeline to the many isolated and vulnerable older people who are unable to access online material.
In recognition of her work, Pippa was awarded the Alphege Award for Evangelism and Witness in 2021 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, for her exceptional work in finding creative ways of bringing God’s love to the over 65’s. His citation expressed the desire for Connections and Hymns we Love to be replicated in all churches in the UK. Pippa was also made an MBE in the New Year Honours list in 2022 for services to older and vulnerable people.
Professor Keith Brown MBE
A Christian for over 40 years, Professor Keith Brown MBE is the founding Director of the National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work and Professional Practice.
He works regularly with Faith in Later Life, Jubilee Plus and Neighbourhood Prayer network, and has produced guidance for Christian organisations including in Safeguarding Adults for the Church, Supporting and Valuing Older People, and Preventing Stress and Burnout within Christian Ministry. Keith is a member of Above Bar Church in Southampton.
Keith is a regular commentator for the BBC on welfare issues, is a leading expert in his fields, and has written over 35 textbooks used as key texts by Health and Social Care Professionals.
Keith is currently the Chair of the Safeguarding Adults National Network and leads the National research into financial fraud and scams with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and the National Scams team. He has researched and published widely in the area of Mental Capacity and its implications for professional practice.
He is also a member of the National Mental Capacity Leadership Forum and the joint fraud task force and advises at the Department for Health and Social Care, Ministry of Justice and the Home Office. Keith was also made an MBE in the New Year Honours list in 2024 for services to adult safeguarding and fraud and scams prevention.
Dr Fiona Costa
Dr Fiona Costa originally trained at the Royal College of Music. Her lifelong interest in music, together with a calling to a ministry with older people, has led to a range of different initiatives and interests. Underpinning them all is a desire to address the loneliness and isolation so often experienced by older people.
As a research fellow at the University of Roehampton, Fi's principal research interest is the effect of music on the wellbeing and quality of life of older people. Her PhD and subsequent research projects have explored ways in which music can be used effectively in the care of older people, particularly those with dementia.
Fi has co-authored ‘Take Note, a 100 everyday musical ideas for carers to use with older people’. She has contributed to several academic journals.
An active member of St Paul’s, Hammersmith, Fi's principal involvement is running monthly intergenerational café concerts for people in the church and the local community.
As well as being an ambassador for Faith in Later Life, Fi is a trustee of Embracing Age and the Amber Trust.
Revd Canon Ian Knox
Ian Knox, proudly our oldest Ambassador, is a man of many parts. Married to Ruth, with four married sons and ten grandchildren, he has allegedly “retired” to the lovely Northumbrian coastline. His career began as a solicitor, before he was the staff evangelist for three years in his twenties with the Covenanters. He returned to the law for several years, ultimately as the lawyer for social care and children safeguarding with Coventry city council, before joining the Church Pastoral Aid Society in 1982 as their staff evangelist, a calling he has followed ever since, latterly with the 40:3 Trust. He is a founder member of the College of Evangelists.
His evangelism and teaching gifts have taken him to many countries in Africa, including Kenya, where he is a Canon of Bungoma Cathedral and where he was ordained in 2005, and also Uganda, where he is Canon Missioner in the Diocese of Lango. He is the author of a dozen books, including 'Finishing Well', commissioned by and written for Faith in Later Life. He has just published with Amazon a quirkily-written autobiography for his grandchildren, the title chosen by the youngest, aged four, ‘Ponky Wonky Grampaw.’
Now aged 80, Ian thanks God that Jesus called him to be a Christian when he was a boy of seven, and is delighted to have been a preacher for sixty years. He enjoys leading a little home group each week for his village church, most of whom are elderly. One of his greatest joys is helping older people put their trust in Jesus. Many a Sunday will find Ian preaching and leading services around Northumberland.
Pam Rhodes
In 2024, Pam Rhodes marked 50 years of being a broadcaster on national television and radio, particularly as the familiar face of BBC Television's “Songs of Praise” for 37 years, presenting programmes from tiny country churches to huge outside broadcasts. Pam is a Christian ‘household name’ known around the world for all the programmes she’s presented across the UK and overseas, and for her sensitive interviews with a wide range of people who have been generous enough to talk about how their faith has been challenged and shaped by the ups and downs of their experiences.
She's also often heard on Radio 2's PAUSE FOR THOUGHT.
For more than two decades Pam has presented her popular request programme, “HEARTS AND HYMNS” on Premier Christian Radio, along with ALL TOGETHER NOW, a weekly programme encouraging Christians listeners to sing along with favourite hymns and worship songs, encouraging a sense of fellowship and belonging, especially for those who may be listening alone.
Pam is an enthusiastic Vice President of THE CHURCH ARMY, and THE LEPROSY MISSION, through which she had made recent visits to both Nepal and Bangladesh. As well as being a patron for the Christian disability charity, LIVABILITY, she is also a patron of MHA (formerly Methodist Homes for the Aged), who run an extensive network of residential care homes and neighbourhood projects for those in later years who are living independently in their own communities.
In addition, Pam is also a mainstream author, with 27 published books to her name, both fact and fiction, mostly with Christian readers in mind.
Now in her mid-seventies, Pam says her faith in later life is more important to her than ever.
Carl Knightly
Carl was the first Chief Executive at Faith in Later Life, growing the organisation from its infancy and taking it to charitable status. Carl also founded the Faith in Later Life Church Champion network and remains a keen advocate for older people, having previously worked on the senior team at Pilgrims’ Friend Society. Carl has written and spoken in the Christian and mainstream media, with recent appearances on GB news television as well as regular contributions on Premier, UCB and TWR radio stations. Carl was also part of the team that founded the national free Daily Hope telephone line.
Carl is married to Suzy, an intensive care nurse, and they have two primary school age children. Carl's main work role is heading up networking activity at London City Mission, and he is also a Trustee at Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) as well as a school governor at his children's school.
Debs Peyton
Debs Peyton is the CEO and founder of Silver Cord (an inter-church befriending service in Manchester) a role she has held for seven years.
Debs also has ten years experience as a church Community Worker with a specific focus on reaching older people and exploring intergenerational practices.
Within this role, Debs studied for a BA (Hons) from Cliff College in Third Age Mission and Ministry.
She is also a regular speaker for 'Faith in Later Life'.
Debs' key passions include: valuing older years; releasing the missional potential of the older generation within the church; bridging generational gaps with intergenerational practice; and; the role of the church as family as it responds to the loneliness endemic in the UK.