Alastair Bateman, 44, will become chief executive officer of Church Mission Society in May. He will succeed the Rt. Rev. Philip Mounstephen, who became Bishop of Truro earlier in January.
Bateman is chief operating officer of Resurgo, and has been responsible for developing the Christian social transformation agency’s sustainable growth strategy. Before that, he worked with Tearfund in high-level marketing, fundraising, and change management.
Bateman shifted to the charity sector after more than a decade of strategic consulting in the commercial world with companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Vodafone, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. He studied economics and politics at Brunel University and theology at St. Mellitus College. He holds a master’s degree in management with strategic information systems from the University of Bath.
“I had known for quite a while that I was being drawn into more vocational work,” he said. “It’s been a privilege to work in contexts where prayer and worship are integrated with organizational life.”
Bateman said his joining CMS followed a time of introspection and prayer, during which he felt that he was being called to lead a global Christian mission organization.
“Towards the end of this, I heard about the CMS role, which seemed like the perfect fit,” he said. “I’ve known of CMS for a long time, both through the work of individual mission partners and through the significant part CMS as a whole has played in the history of the last two centuries.
“Mission is as urgent and as relevant as it has always been,” Bateman said. “The needs of the world are enormous, expressed in broken relationships everywhere. The issues are too great to solve without God, which is why prayer is central. I value building relationships for life and look forward to doing this more at CMS.”
Bateman and his wife, Justine, and their two children, Poppy and Joel, live in Teddington and are part of St. Michael’s Fulwell, a relatively new church. He helps lead a ministry training home group and sings with the worship team.
Adapted from CMS
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
