Marriage Retreat
Meet the course leaders
Dr Christine Ward completed her PhD through Maryvale in 2017. She teaches the Christian Anthropology and Sexual Ethics modules for the Master’s programme at Maryvale and has lectured on the Sacrament of Marriage at Oscott, Seminary. An extract from her doctoral thesis has been published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. In 2023 she contributed a chapter to a recent publication, ‘Human Nature: Moral Norm” published by Enroute Books and Media. She is the co-founder of the ‘Theology of the Body Network UK’ and runs a weekly Theology of the Body YouTube/podcast. Christine has been married to Tom for 35 years, they have five children.
Fr. David Marsden SCJ is a qualified clinical psychologist, spiritual director and experienced retreat leader. He has worked as a psychologist and formation tutor in two national seminaries and expresses a passion for accompanying and mentoring young men into living the fullness of their Christian vocation. His License in Clinical Psychology was completed at the Institute of Psychology at the Gregorian University, Rome in 2007.
He completed an MA in Theology at the Maryvale Institute in 2016 with the title of his dissertation being ‘The Priest as Spiritual Father.’ He has written a Theology of the Body (TOB) healing retreat, served as chaplain to the TOB Institute in the USA and co-founded the TOB Network UK along with Dr. Christine Ward in 2020. He is currently the spiritual director of the Men of St. Joseph which is a national movement aimed at restoring a vibrant Catholic faith in England.
Dr Andrew TJ Kaethler is Dean of Studies at the Buckfast Institute and is a Visiting Professor of Theology at Catholic Pacific College. He is passionate about Theology of the Body and has regularly taught TOB as a university module. Andrew has published in various journals, including Modern Theology, Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, New Blackfriars, Pemptousia Journal for Theological Studies, Religions, Pontificia Academia Theologica, Adoremus, and Humanum Review. He has co-edited two edited volumes. His most recent monograph is The Eschatological Person: Alexander Schmemann and Joseph Ratzinger in Dialogue. Andrew lives with his wife and six kids in Buckfast.
