Order of the Mustard Seed

Season of Exploration

Who is in it

You have probably not heard of most of them.

That is close to the point. The original Order’s own rules said it “chooses to stay secret and work out of the public eye,” and the modern Order has inherited the instinct. It is lay-led and dispersed — hundreds of members across some twenty countries, almost none of them public figures. What follows is the leadership the Order actually names, and then, kept carefully separate, the well-known voices you meet in the resource list.

Lead Team

The Global Leadership Team — vision, oversight, and care.

Phil Anderson

Global Convenor

Convenes the Lead Team, carries the vision, and represents the Order externally.

Among the first to join the reestablished Order in 2005 · Convenor since 2025

Ciara Menzies

Lead Team

Hosts and leads retreats across the Order, and facilitates the OMS Creatives Collective — members living out the practice of Creativity.

First took vows in 2018

Kathy Gust

Lead Team

Supports leaders and members through resources and leadership development, and facilitates the OMS Spiritual Directors Collective, which meets monthly.

First took vows in 2019

Patti Hewat

Candidate Overseer

Oversees the novitiate — guiding Candidates through the Season of Preparation up to vows, and caring for the cohort leaders who run it.

First took vows in 2022

Scott Burns

Canada & US Regional Convenor

Local oversight and support for members across Canada and the United States. The nearest thing to a regional contact from California.

First took vows in 2020

Maggie Patterson

Oceania Regional Convenor

Local oversight and support for members across the Oceania region.

First took vows in 2021

Sue Smith

Operational Lead

Strategic operational leadership — global volunteers, resources, compliance, and keeping internal process aligned to the Order’s values.

Global Team

The people who actually run the seasons.

Cathy Dyson

Season of Exploration Coordinator

Leads and organises the season you are in — the Welcome Webinars, and the team of discerners and hosts who care for several hundred Explorers at a time.

First took vows in 2020

Sara Huggett

Administrative Officer

Coordinates events, triages communications and resources, and adds capacity to the leadership team.

First took vows in 2023

Penny Everson

Safeguarding Officer

One of two Designated Safeguarding Officers covering all activity involving children, young people and vulnerable adults.

First took vows in 2022

Graham Stuart

Safeguarding Officer

The second Designated Safeguarding Officer, reporting to the Bishop’s Safeguarding Advisor.

First took vows in 2021

Billy Kennedy

Visitor

Provides accountability to the Church of England, which acknowledges the OMS as a lay ecumenical religious order — holding the community’s creative innovation against Church tradition.

Voices

Heard in the resource list — not the same thing as membership.

  • Pete Greig Founder of 24-7 Prayer, out of which the Order was relaunched. Wrote The Vision and the Vow, which the Order quotes for its own definition of a Rule of Life.
  • Jill Weber Gave the Global Convenor’s address on the podcast; appears three times across Season Three.
  • Andy Griffiths Season One, with Phil Anderson.
  • Graham Tomlin Bishop; Season Two, episode 12.
  • Catherine Askew Season Two, episode 11.
  • Mark Scandrette Season Three, episode 6.
  • Tyler Staton 24-7 Prayer USA; the Portland ’22 talk on early church prayer rhythm.
  • Pete Portal The Gathering ’23 session on prayer, mission and justice.

Appearing on the podcast is not evidence of vows. The Order publishes its leadership but not its membership roll, so for everyone in this second list treat the description as what is documented — a talk given, a book written — and nothing more. Phil Anderson is the one name that appears in both lists, and he is confirmed on both counts.

Then

The original order kept louder company.

Zinzendorf began it in 1716 with a handful of schoolfriends at Halle. Within a generation the roll had grown improbable: the King of Denmark, the Archbishop of Canterbury, a chief of the Cree, General Oglethorpe who founded Georgia, and the Archbishop of Paris — alongside, as the Order puts it, ordinary people from many walks of life.

The original Order did not survive much past the end of the eighteenth century. Today’s OMS is explicit that it takes the old one as inspiration rather than claiming unbroken descent — it was relaunched on 11 February 2005 at Holy Trinity, Clapham, Wilberforce’s church, when around a hundred people took vows. On 5 July 2018 the House of Bishops formally acknowledged it as a lay ecumenical religious order. It is administered by the 24-7 Prayer charity and rooted doctrinally in the Nicene Creed.