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July Deanery Briefing booking opens

Mental Health & wellbeing: resourcing churches, restoring communities

Deanery Briefing Logo

At a time when mental health and our wellbeing affects so many - whether ordained or lay -  the July Deanery Briefing will throw the spotlight on mental health and wellbeing.

Mental Health and wellbeing concerns

Are you concerned or do you worry about:

  • Rising rates of mental health disorders (especially amongst young people)
  • The lack of mental health support available
  • The Church’s ability to respond?

Chris Cooke and Michèle Hampson,  two priests and former psychiatrists, will present a Christian perspective of mental health and wellbeing and then Ruth Rice and Corin Pilling will inspire you with ways you and your church might respond.

More Details: Mental health & wellbeing: resourcing churches, restoring communities

 

Ruth Rice and Wellbeng Cafes

Ruth Rice

Corin Pilling and Sanctuary Ministries

Corin Pilling

Update from Shared Ministry Network

May 2016

UPDATE ON SM NETWORK

Following a recent meeting of the Steering Group, we are pleased to report that plans for our next conference are already taking shape. The Steering Group continues to be small in size (recently increased to 4 members with the co-option of Revd Canon Linda Church onto the group), and would greatly benefit from someone with IT skills to help develop the website. We are actively trying to resolve this, but any offers would be greatly appreciated.

NEXT CONFERENCE

We are planning our next conference for the second half of 2017 – final date yet to be confirmed. Drawing on your very helpful suggestions and feedback, we plan to retain, in broad terms, the format and processes used in the last conference. These enabled a deep level of participation and shared learning through group discussion, and helped to inspire and equip us in the practice of missionshaped collaborative ministry. The theme for our next conference is likely to be along the lines of growing disciples through team work, which we hope, given the national church’s emphasis on collaborative ministry and team working, will attract wide interest. We are currently approaching potential speakers/companions and investigating a possible new venue for the conference.

NEW BOOK

Members of the network may be interested in a new book published earlier this year: “Sharing God’s Blessing: How to renew the local church”, written by Robin Greenwood, an advocate of shared ministry over many years. Research-based at the same time as being a practical resource, the book aims to enable local churches to regain a sense of confidence through exploring God’s blessing and how that can be shared with local churches through group conversations. See: http://spckpublishing.co.uk/product/sharing-gods-blessing/ or see the Youtube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s32tjU2acko .

Please remember the Steering Group in your prayers as we seek to discern, through our networking, website and conference planning, how best to resource and inspire dioceses, parishes and people in re-imagining, theologically and practically, mission-shaped collaborative ministry for the challenges of the 21st century.

Penny Evans On behalf of the SM Network

Steering Group: Revd Rob Daborn, Diocese of Lichfield Mrs Penny Evans, Reader & Local Ministry Development Adviser, Diocese of Hereford Mrs Mandy Stanton, Reader & Lay Ministry Development Officer, Diocese of Blackburn Co-opted member: Revd Canon Linda Church, Director of Ministry, Diocese of Ely Treasurer/Conference Administrator: Revd Dr Colin McCarty SSM, Bishop’s Officer for SSMs,, Diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich

National Deaneries Network DX Hot Topic #1

Electronic DX is the new electronic version of Deanery Exchange being distributed by the National Deaneries Network.

Now that Deanery Exchange is produced and distributed in electronic format, we have the capacity to produce more (and shorter) issues – our aim is four per year – and the occasional Hot Topic, intended to provoke discussion.

Download Hot Topics Synod elections 14714 the first Hot Topic (HT #1), Make Synods more synodical

Thiscontains two challenges for you and all Deanery Synod members as electors when the General Synod elections take place next year (2015). Please feel free to copy HT 1 for small or large group discussion, and urge your deanery and diocese to do all they can to meet the challenges set.

The National Deaneries Conference:

A limited number of places are still available for
Deaneries : Mission or Mystery ? The National Deaneries Conference at Swanwick from Friday 3 to Sunday 5 October.

Full details, with a booking form, have already sent circulated (and are attached again) with a further reminder and update of programme details sent to you a week or so ago. If you, or a representative from your deanery, have not yet booked places at the conference, please take a look at the full and interesting programme, and get your booking in pronto. Down load Conference Details here

Geneal Synod Fringe Event and Exhibition:

This DX HT #1 comes soon after the General Synod in York in July, with its momentous decision to approve the appointment of women to the episcopate. The national Deaneries Network ( NDN ) had an information stand throughout the Synod meeting and generated a lot of interest and enquiries. On the Saturday lunchtime NDN held a fringe event under the banner Beware – Deaneries Alive ! subtitled The Untapped Mission Potential of the Deanery. With speakers Bishop Alastair Redfern and Archdeacon Christine Wilson (both of Derby Diocese), the event attracted some 40 GS members – a good proportion of those attending the Synod. Christine is of course one of the speakers at Swanwick, and will also be preaching at the Conference Eucharist.

Everyone attending the event received a hard copy of the NDN report prepared following the 2013 survey of Deanery Synod Lay Chairs, to which there was a response of about 33% (one in three). The report will be available at the National Deaneries Conference and will be available to download from the NDN website. Printed copies can be provided for £1 each.

Help us keep upto date: Our mailing list for DX and other Deanery information is now extensive and includes the great majority of the Deaneries in England and Wales, as well as many other interested individuals. Please pass on this mailing to others you know who will be interested, and if you know others who would like to be on the mailing list, please send the relevant email contact details to charity.services@btclick.com.

Link to Parish & People and the Deanery Resource Unit

There is now a link from the new NDN website to Parish & People and the Deanery Resource Unit NDN Resources, and there you will find a wide range of past P&P publications relevant to deaneries and a list of practical briefing papers. Most of these are still available in hard copy at reasonable prices from the DX editor (see contact details). We hope to see you at Swanwick, and please ensure that your Deanery continues to include me on the circulation list for DS minutes and other relevant papers.

PETER J BATES, DX Editor / Compiler for Parish & People

DX Contact Details:

Please send your DS minutes, other relevant papers and items of interest to the DX editor / compiler, Peter J Bates at peter@bateshouse.freeserve.co.uk or dx@parishandpeople.org.uk. They are invaluable in fulfilling the purpose of DX, in the interchange of ideas and information amongst Deaneries.

General Synod

In July we were present at the residential meeting of General Synod in York, with a stand over the weekend to raise our profile and a fringe meeting attended by nearly fifty. Bishop Alastair Redfern spoke about how deaneries are integral to mission and ministry in the Derby Diocese.

NDN York Stand picture