An Appeal to be Present

From those members of Parochial Church Councils (PCCs) who manage and administer our churches, to those who represent their parishes at our wider Deanery Synods, both clergy and the lay members have been seeking out ways to meet to discuss how we can continue with our vision to Renew Hope - Pray Serve Grow.

With virtual meetings now the 'norm', among the key issues that Deaneries will be discussing in the months to come are the present financial deficit many parishes find themselves in, and the way to blend new online worship with our more traditional patterns as we begin to seek new ways of working, post-pandemic.

Over in the Devizes Deanery, Information Officer Julia Taylor has issued “an appeal to be present” to all Deanery Synod representatives and Churchwardens ahead of their Deanery Synod on the 23rd.

She says:

“Anybody reading the ‘News’ over the years since its inception cannot but have become aware of the variety and ingenuity, not to say resourcefulness, of members of our churches in the Devizes area.

“Now, as we face the twin ogres of serious financial shortage at every level of the Church, and severely reduced numbers of our worshipping members, is the time to get to grips with this situation, to unite as a Deanery, and, pooling those resources and that ingenuity, to fight them.”

In the Church of England, a deanery is a group of parishes forming a district within an archdeaconry. Rural deaneries are very ancient and originally corresponded with the hundreds. The title "dean" (Latin decanus) may derive from the custom of dividing a hundred into ten tithings.

A Deanery Synod has a membership of all clergy who are licensed to a parish within the deanery, plus elected lay members from every parish. They were established in the 1970s.

Find out more about PCCs, and how you might become a member, here.

More about our Deanery Synods here;

Find out more about your Deanery here.