Council Members

Dr. Riaz Sanatian

National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United Kingdom – Faith: Bahá’í

Dr. Riaz Sanatian is an active member of the Bahá’í Community and interested in initiatives that contribute to the betterment of our society. He comes from an engineering background with a PhD in computational Fluid Dynamics from Cranfield Institute of Technology. After working as a university research associate, he joined a start-up company, Computational Dynamics Ltd, to help develop industrial and commercial applications of computational fluid dynamics technology. He worked as the Chief Engineer and Director until his retirement in 2014. Over the years Dr. Sanatian has been involved with a number of multi faith forums, mainly as a local Bahá’í representative. He has diverse interests and over the years has been involved with various art projects, working and exhibiting in both the United Kingdom and Spain. His activities within the Bahá’í community include serving as a member of various Local Spiritual Assemblies, the local governing bodies of the Baha’i community, in different localities where he was living.

Robert Johnson

Brent Councillor & Vice Chair Planning Committee – Faith: Christian

Cllr Robert Johnson is an ex-Council Director for Regeneration and sits on a number of Boards as a Non-Executive Director. He specialises in housing and regeneration and is a qualified Chartered Secretary (specialising in Local Government), and also qualified as a Chartered Member of the Institute of Housing and Institute of Management. He has worked in Central Government and three local authorities, for a few voluntary organisations and is a trustee of a local church. Robert has experience of leading multi-disciplinary teams in a matrix environment and is a successful programme manager with knowledge of industry standards. Robert has strong communication skills with strengths in leadership, staff management, influencing, problem solving, negotiating, and partnership working.

Anne Charvet

London Church Leaders – Faith: Christian

Anne Charvet’s mother’s father was an Egyptian Muslim, her mother was an Italian Catholic, but was brought up as a British Anglican, hence her interest in interfaith relations. From 2008 she has been a Quaker in North West London, where she is an assistant clerk.  She was registering officer for Quaker weddings in the area for five years, she was an editor in book publishing for most of her working life and is now retired. She is a member of the Green Party and takes an active interest in environmental issues.

Jon Dal Din

London Church Leaders – Faith: Christian

Jon Dal Din has been Director for London Church Leaders since July 2008, he is a married permanent Deacon and before joining Westminster Interfaith he was a lecturer in Further Education.

Malcolm Deboo

Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe – Faith: Zoroastrian

Malcolm M. Deboo is President of Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe (ZTFE), established in 1861 to look after the interests of Zoroastrians in the UK. ZTFE is the oldest Asian religious voluntary organisation in the UK. The first three Asian MPs elected in the UK were all ZTFE members. At the ZTFE, Malcolm’s primary responsibilities are to coordinate interfaith activities and disseminate information on Zoroastrianism, especially to inter faith and educational establishments, local and national government agencies.

Don de Silva

Buddhist Chaplain and Mentor – Faith: Buddhist

Don de Silva is a Buddhist Chaplain and a University mentor.  He worked as a Senior Official with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and several international environmental institutes. A journalist, environmentalist and media strategist, he has managed and implemented programmes on environment and advocacy in over 130 countries. In the UK, he has worked to facilitate business enterprise skills among disadvantaged communities and has also in the creation of a sustainable communities network, comprising faith-based initiatives. Also a mindfulness trainer and life coach, he now focuses on Environment, Buddhism, Climate Change and Justice issues.

Rajnish Kashyap

Hindu Council UK – Faith: Hindu

Working in the Credit Management Profession for the last 35 years, in depth knowledge of Export and Freight. Director/Trustee Hindu Council UK. Secretary Council of Dharmic Faiths UK. General Secretary Arya Samaj Middlesex. Faiths forum for London. Speaker on Hinduism, Promoting Social Justice & welfare for Hindus in the UK, Providing a voice that represents voluntary and community-led organisations.

Dilowar Hussain Khan

London Muslim Centres Group – Faith: Muslim

Dilowar Khan is the Executive Director of the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre, which is one of the largest Mosque and Islamic Centres in UK. He has been working in the community/voluntary sector for the last 24 years and is actively involved in inter-faith and broad based community organising work for the last 15 years in London and beyond.

Talat Shaikh

Muslim Community & Education – Faith: Muslim

Talat Shaikh is the chairperson of Muslim Community & Education Centre (Palmers Green Mosque) and one of its founder trustee. With a background of IT and Management he has been working in the Charity sector since 1992 and is a Trustee (inc. past chair) of Enfield Racial Equality Council and also is part of the Executive board of Enfield Over 50 Forum.

Rt Revd Dr Donnett Thomas

London Church Leaders – Faith: Christian

Rt Revd Dr Donnett Thomas (Pentecostal) was consecrated in July 2003.  She is Senior Pastor at Power of the Living Word Ministries International in London and has Apostolic Covering Churches in Mombasa, Kibwezi, Kitui in Kenya and in Pradesh, India.  Bishop Donnett has a missionary heart and believes it is our Kingdom responsibility to help the poor.  She is an experienced and articulate international preacher and teacher having spoken all over the world in Houston, California, New Jersey, Chicago, Antigua, Jamaica, the Philippines, Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Botswana.  Bishop Donnett is Chair of Churches Together in South London.

Rabbi Deborah Young-Somers

London Jewish Forum – Faith: Jewish

Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers teaches at Leo Baeck College on a course called World Religions 101 which allows students to explore their own encounter with other faiths, and dialogue between faiths. She was ordained by Leo Baeck College in 2009 whilst also earning a distinction for her Ma. Her first degree was in Religious Studies (1st class hons) at Lancaster University (2001), and she was a Buber Fellow at Paideia, the European Centre for Jewish Studies (2003). Having volunteered in the Interfaith world for several years, and served as the Chair of the Young Leadership Council of the International Council of Christians and Jews, Debbie worked at the UK Council of Christians and Jews from 2003-2004. Her first Rabbinic post was at West London Synagogue where she co-ordinated Interfaith activities and the Jewish Preparation programme, as well as developing an interfaith programme for teenagers. She is currently working at the Movement for Reform Judaism as the Community Educator. She has been published in magazines and journals, and is a regular contributor to Radio 2’s Pause for Thought and for the Jewish News.

Co-Opted Members

The Ven. Luke Miller

Co-Opted – Faith: Christian

The Ven. Luke Miller has been Archdeacon of London since January 2016, and was previously Archdeacon of Hampstead. Between school and university he came to London for a year as Pastoral Assistant at St James Sussex Gardens in Paddington before training for the priesthood at St Stephen’s House Oxford where he completed a degree in Theology.He was ordained in 1991 and served as curate of St Matthew’s Oxhey in the Diocese of St Albans. In 1994 he was appointed curate of St Mary’s Tottenham, and became vicar of that parish in 1995. The parish is one of two straddled by the Tottenham Hale development and he was involved at the very beginning of the project to establish church work on the site there, as well as planting a church nearby in Tottenham. From 2005-2011 he served for two periods on Diocesan Synod and was Area Dean of East Haringey. Fr Luke became Archdeacon of London in January 2016. He is currently a member of the General Synod and Chair of the London Diocesan Board for Schools. He chairs the Faith Sector Panel of the London Resilience Forum and is responsible for helping Faith Communities across London be ready to respond in major incidents.