Category: Deanery Briefings

September Deanery Briefing: Booking opens

New opportunities to reach the missing younger generations

Growing the faith of our children and young people

With Lucy Moore, Head of the Growing Faith Foundation and Stephen Beamond, Programmes Lead in the Growing Faith Foundation

Ask any member of the church what we should be focusing on in our mission and you would hope to get a response that includes, “We want our children and young people to have faith in Jesus, to grow in that faith and help shape the Church.’

Over the years we have probably researched this aspect of our ministry to the point that what we don’t know is not worth knowing. We have had Children in the Way (1988); All God’s Children (1991) Youth Apart (1996) Growing for Growth (2010) and Rooted in the Church (2016) in addition to the Education Division setting out ten marks of a high performing Diocesan Board of Education. Church members often claim that all the resources are skewed towards the under-16s at the expense of older people.

  • So where are the children and young people?
  • Why do so many parishes not seem to mind that they have few or no younger church members?
  • And how can the church truly become a community for believers of all ages?

In this Deanery Briefing Lucy Moore and Stephen Beamond from the Growing Faith Foundation will outline the work of the Foundation and will suggest practical ways to help the Deanery play its part in supporting and equipping the missional work of the parish with children and young people.

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

Tackling Modern Slavery

with Caroline Virgo Director of The Clewer Initiative 7:30pm Wednesday 1st February 2023

There are an estimated 136,000 victims in the UK. Modern Slavery comes in many forms and can be difficult to identify- it is present in every type of community and victims don’t fit into a simple stereotype.
  • Could you spot the signs of modern slavery?
  • Would you know what to do if you suspect someone is a victim of modern slavery?
  • What can Deaneries do about modern slavery?

In this Deanery Briefing Caroline Virgo Director of The Clewer Initiative will help Deaneries to consider:

  • What is modern slavery?
  • How might it be taking place in my local community?
  • How do you recognise, respond, record and refer concerns about modern slavery and exploitation?
  • What practical actions can Deaneries take against the issue?

The interactive Briefing will be led by Caroline Virgo using films and case studies which will lead to a greater understanding of the church’s interaction with potential victims.

The Clewer Initiative is the national work of the Church of England to combat modern slavery.

Find out more about the work of The Clewer Initiative via their website: https://theclewerinitiative.org/

About Ben Cahill-Nicholls

The Revd Ben Cahill-Nicholls is Chief Executive of Clergy Support Trust, the largest and oldest charity serving Anglican ministers and their families, and a priest in the Church of England.

Ben joined the Clergy Support Trust in October 2020. He began his career in the civil service, and then held senior posts in the state and independent education sectors. Alongside work, he studied at St Augustine’s College, and was ordained in 2021.

He currently serves as a self-supporting minister in the Diocese of Guildford, is a Fellow of the Westminster Abbey Institute, and is founder-chair of the youth arts charity RicNic.

Ben lives with his wife, son, and two cats in Surrey. He is a music graduate, and remains a devotee of musical theatre, a passion which he is now trying to pass on to his two-year-old son.

Deanery Briefing Details

Book Here

About Dr Sarah Holmes

Dr Sarah Holmes
Dr Sarah Holmes

Dr Sarah Holmes has worked at Liverpool Hope University since 2015, teaching Early Childhood Studies and researching children’s faith, spirituality and issues surrounding faith nurture.

She’s worked in a variety of kids, youth and family settings, causing her to embark on a PhD to research how Christian faith may be most effectively nurtured in the home context. Following completion of that in 2018, she continues to be passionate about researching and supporting those nurturing children’s faith; in home/family contexts, local church contexts, para-church contexts and beyond.

Sarah is married with four children who are all wonderful but fantastically different to each other, which brings constant challenges – as well as many joys! She lives on the Wirral, enjoys spending time with family and friends, sitting in the sunshine, watching movies and aspires to be a runner. She also volunteers in her local church in various roles.

Deanery Briefing: The Future of the church? Rethinking the framework of ministry amongst families

Professor Sir Sam Everington

Professor Sir Sam Everington MBBS, MRCGP, Barrister, OBE

Sam has been a GP in Tower Hamlets since 1989 in the the Bromley by Bow Partnership. The centre has over 100 projects under its roof supporting the wider determinants of health. The social prescribing delivered at the centre, is now part of a network of thousands across the country. He is Vice-Chair of North East London CCG.

Professor Sir Sam Everington

Sam is a member of BMA Council and Vice President of the BMA. In 1999 he received an OBE for services to inner city primary care in 2006, The International Award of Excellence in Health Care and in 2015 a Knighthood for services to primary care. He is a member of the Ministerial National NHS Infrastructure, NHS Resolution and East London foundation Trust boards and is Fellow and Honorary Professor of Queen Mary University of London and Vice President of the Queen’s Nursing Institute.

He has previously been a member of GMC Council, Cabinet appointed Ambassador for Social Enterprise, Acting Chair of the BMA, adviser to shadow cabinet ministers between 1992 and 1997 and national advisor to NHS England’s New Models of Care project.

He is a trained woodcarver, day skipper, and speaks Norwegian. He trained originally as a cadet pilot in the RAF and lives with his wife and five children in the Tower Hamlets, East End of London.

More on Social Prescribing

Safeguarding: everyone’s wellbeing, everyone’s responsibility?

Safeguarding: everyone’s wellbeing, everyone’s responsibility?

Download the PowerPoint Slides: (download)

Do we understand what safeguarding is really about, and how it is fundamental to wellbeing, and to a healthy ministry?  Churches try to do the right thing of course, appointing a Safeguarding Officer, and with PCC members and others trained and aware.  But is safeguarding seen as what it really is – everyone’s wellbeing?  In fact, shouldn’t we be focusing on fostering a culture of whole-church safeguarding, and of understanding that it is everyone’s responsibility?

In this Briefing Bishop Joanne, the Bishop of Stepney, leads us through a rethink in order to assure ourselves that we understand what safeguarding and wellbeing actually mean and that everyone is responsible. The webinar reflects on what makes a healthy ministry – lay, ordained, and collaborative.  Do we care enough about the wellbeing of everyone in the church community?  Do the clergy and the lay leaders need more guidance or support?

She looks at the importance and need to understand professional conduct, as well as the definitions of safeguarding, its growing importance to everyone, the need to understand what it means, and the lessons from historic legacy.  Sexuality, intimacy, spirituality are all parts of being human, and we must encompass that in our thinking – to be open and inclusive, but to be aware.

The Briefing reviews some examples of misconduct – how did it happen? how was it allowed to happen? was it hiding in plain sight? was it grooming of individuals or congregations?  We will consider examples of what happens when ministry goes wrong, when boundaries are transgressed or power abused.

Bishop Joanne reflects on Colossians – about being renewed, clothed with the new self, rooted and built up in Christ.

Join us to think through these issues and to reflect on what more your Deanery can or should do to ensure that the people of its member churches, ordained and lay, appreciate the need for a whole-church community culture of wellbeing for all.

Bp Graham Usher on Climate Change

 

How the church can lead the way on ecological living
Deanery Briefing: 7.30 pm Wednesday 19 January 2022

Whether city, urban or rural the care of creation is at the heart of the Anglican Communion’s marks of mission. Responding to the climate and biodiversity crises that the planet faces is not a luxury in the ministry of the Church but an urgent imperative for our mission.

The UK hosted the UN climate conference COP26 in November last year and churches are being encouraged to raise their voice to speak up about the need to tackle climate change across the whole of society.

The challenge is for churches, schools, deaneries and dioceses to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. It’s not just about numbers and targets.

  • How do we respond to the challenge?
  • As a Church and as part of the global community what practical steps can we make to influence change?
  • How can we make a difference?

In this Deanery Briefing Bishop Graham will outline the Church of England’s Environment Programme and the tools and resources available to equip churches, schools, and dioceses to rise to the challenge of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.

The Bishop of Norwich, Graham Usher

Bishop Graham leads on the Church of England’s Environment Programme with a charge to lead bold, deliberate, collaborative action across the Church to tackle the grave existential crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Bishop Graham began life as an ecologist studying ecological science at the University of Edinburgh and is a keen beekeeper. He was appointed lead bishop on the Environment Programme in June 2021.

He has written about spirituality and landscape in Places of Enchantment, Meeting God in Landscapes, and his second book, The Way Under Our Feet: A Spirituality of Walking

More on Bishop Graham

Bishop Martin Seeley and The changing shape of Ministry

The new Vision and Strategy is underway but the foundations are already clear: The Church of England must adapt and put its trust in God to become a simpler, humbler, bolder Church that is Jesus Christ centred and Jesus Christ shaped.

  • What will ministry look like in the future?
  • How will it need to adapt?
  • What will it mean for the way we select, train and develop ordained and lay ministers?

With the experiences and the lessons of lockdown, and the unprecedented nature of the last two years, Bishop Martin Seeley looks forward to the ways in which ministry - ordained and lay - is developing for the future.

This will be in the context of the general review of Church strategy being led by the Archbishop of York, of which Bishop Martin is part. Now Bishop of St Eds and Ips (comprising most of Suffolk), Martin is the lead on ministry for the Church, following his previous job as principal of Westcott House theological college and before that a vicar of the Isle of Dogs.

He is an old friend of NDN, having spoken at past conferences. When he was a parish priest in East London he led a review of his own Deanery. The review reflected his continuing belief in the benefits of working together in Deaneries and other groups.

More on Bishop Martin