Category: Stories

Stories from local deaneries…

Deaneries’ Celebration Service

The Area Deans and Lay Deans of the 21 Deaneries making up the Diocese of York will be anointed by Archbishop Sentamu during a service celebrating the renewed life of our Deaneries in York Minster at 5.15pm on the 23rd September.

All Deanery Synod members are invited to the service which celebrates the new vision adopted for every Deanery this year; to be “a local network of churches, inspiring, influencing and leading mission and ministry,” committed to enabling mission, resourcing ministry and supporting relationships.

The Archbishop will preside and preach at the service, which will be a celebration of what God is doing amongst us, to commission all Synod members including those who make up the Deanery Leadership Teams, for the work ahead and specifically to anoint the Lay and Area Deans as they embrace their new roles.

“There’s a sense of hope and expectation that is growing for the new direction which our deaneries are taking,” says Andy Broom, Archdeacon of the East Riding and Chair of ‘Developing our Deaneries’.

“We recognise that God is at work amongst us in new ways and we wish to celebrate this. I hope that all members of Deanery Synods can join us for this special occasion as we mark this new Chapter in the life of our deaneries.”

Original Article

Bishop Christine visits her Deaneries

The newly appointed Bishop of Newcastle has set out to get to know her new diocese by prioritising a visit to each of the deaneries in the diocese. It is her intention in the first six months of her episcopal ministry to spend approximately two days in each deanery during which she intends to spend a short time with each member of the clergy and to then explore the nature of the deanery through the eyes of the laity. In order that she may ‘affirm and value the ministry of the lay and ordained ministry that is going on day by day in the parishes.’

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This exacting schedule will make for a very busy first six months, however, Bishop Christine is determined to get a flavor of her new diocese and what better way than to begin with placing deaneries as her priority.

More to follow as she travels the diocese and discovers the beauty of Northumberland and warmth of the Geordie folk!

Deanery Lunches Bring People Together

In Milton Keynes we were worried that the culture of the Deanery had become one based on structures and rules rather than relationships and creativity. In many ways, this may have been an unintended consequence of positive ideals…

For years we had been working to bring the denominations together in the growth of the new city. This meant a necessary focus on ecumenical structures and the organisational life of LEPs (Local Ecumenical Partnerships). This may sound simple, but each church, issue or plan would need to take into account four or five denominations and the rules and expectations that each denomination may have…

In the meantime, the non-LEP parishes found the whole thing very difficult and often wanted nothing to do with any of it…

Suspicion, bureaucracy and legalism easily became part of our organisational culture – and I don’t think it was doing us any good…

During the past year or so, we’ve been trying to do things that help change the culture of the Deanery. It won’t happen overnight, but I hope that a few little things will slowly help us to build trust and work together better.

One of the most successful things that we’ve done has been what we’ve called Deanery Lunches…

The way this works is that we invite five or six people each week to meet together for lunch. That’s all.

The guest list is large, however, and includes ministers, lay leaders and ecumenical partners. We also try to mix things up, so it’s never the same group and people don’t always come with people from their parish.

At each lunch people often meet each other for the first time, talk about things that matter to them – and often make plans…

I have to say that I’ve often found Deanery Lunches to be moving and deeply significant as people have shared with each other.

This isn’t a big thing, but we hope it will be part of the way we shift the culture of our Deanery from suspicion to trust – from an emphasis on structures to an emphasis on relationships – from a fear of decline to a delight in our common life…

Tim Norwood
(Area Dean Milton Keynes)