Dr Lucie Moore

Lucie initially joined the Youthscape family as a trustee in 2016, while working at the University of Bedfordshire as a part of the Safer Young Lives research centre. Then in 2018, she joined our staff team as Director of Research, leading the recently-established Youthscape Centre for Research. She remained in this role until late 2023, when she joined the anti-sexual exploitation charity CEASE as Chief Executive.

Lucie's sudden death is an unfathomable loss to the Youthscape team, and to all who knew her. Alongside her work she was also a devoted mum, and a beloved member of the Luton community.

Her contribution to UK youth ministry has been huge. She oversaw several major research projects which have had widespread impact, and had most recently worked on the Translating God project: a landmark three-phase study of how young people engage with the stories and ideas contained in the Bible. She was able to observe the enormous impact this research was already beginning to have in churches across the UK and beyond; her colleagues are committed to completing this work in the coming years.

Lucie was a genius, delivering a transformative impact to whatever she did. Driven by a relentless passion for creating a better world and a belief that one was possible, she brought creativity, strategy and leadership to a range of organisations that have all been left greatly improved because of her involvement. And despite her staggering intellect, she had a gift for making complex ideas accessible for everyone. However, to speak of Lucie in terms of only her work is to miss much of what made her so special to so many.

She was a person of enormous and extraordinary character. Her kindness, empathy, integrity and compassion for others made her utterly unique. She was a great friend to a great many people.

Lucie could often be relied upon to do the remarkable. At a Youthscape event in 2021, we realised that one of our speakers had not arrived when they were due to give a seminar ten minutes later; Lucie stepped in to deliver a pitch-perfect version of it with literally no notice. No one was surprised.

She was also wonderfully quirky, and no remembrance of her would be complete without a recognition of this. Once, when working alone in the Youthscape office on a Friday afternoon, she stopped to film a lengthy video of herself cartwheeling through the empty building, before sending it to the entire staff team on WhatsApp.

Her life was filled with these stories, and with friends and family who loved her. Her death at just 44 is a profound tragedy on so many levels, lightened only by the great sense of hope that she held - and that we share - that her death is not the end, and that she has risen now in glory with the God she loved.