Aidan Melville
Justin Thacker was ordained at a special ordination service at Holy Trinity and Christ Church, Chesterfield, in July. He writes:
"I’ve done quite a lot of different things in my life. My first career was as a medical doctor. I trained in paediatrics and worked in East Africa for a time. While in Kenya, I sensed God calling me to leave medicine and become an academic theologian. Apart from some stints working for global justice charities, that is what I have mainly done since then.
"Most recently, I’ve been working in an Anglican theological college training, amongst others, Church of England ordinands. It was somewhat of a surprise then when I sensed another call in my life – this time to ordination myself. I had always felt that my strengths were in academic theology and teaching, especially around issues of ethics and justice. But God, as he so often does, had other plans. I’m now incredibly excited about what the future holds.
"Following ordination, I will be working half-time as a curate in Holy Trinity and Christ Church, Chesterfield, and half-time continuing in my academic role for St Hild College. Fundamentally, what made me make this leap was God’s call. It was just a niggle that wouldn’t go away. Through various gentle prompts, I just sensed that God had one more big adventure for me and parish ministry was it. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what my ministry will look like. I’ve learnt that there is little point in second-guessing God and I suspect he often laughs at the plans we construct.
"I hope that my ministry will involve some work with those who are marginalised, especially the homeless and those with addiction issues (as that is where my recent experience and passion lies), but the truth is I just want to serve God in whatever way God wants. He, after all, know how best I can serve the kingdom, and I’d be a fool to do anything else.
Justin's ordination follows the ordination of four other deacons earlier this month. You can see photos of both ordination services on our Flickr pages.
Is God stirring something in you?
All of us are invited to follow Jesus and to serve God faithfully in our everyday lives. To discover more about what this might mean for you, please see our Everyday Faith page. Alongside our everyday faith, some people are called to serve God in a specific ministry. You can find out more about that on our vocations page.
‘And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations’ Revelation 22: 2
We are launching our Harvest appeal for this year in time for harvest season between September and October, and invite you to join us as we return to Bujumbura in Burundi to help fund Trees for Peace, supporting integrated environmental restoration and community peacebuilding.
New resources will appear here during August and early September, so please do check back soon!
The story so far
In 2023 the dioceses Derby and Bujumbura worked together in a ‘Trees for Life’ programme helping local people in the hills round Bujumbura city plant trees to protect their local homesteads from mudslide damage caused by climate change related flooding.
The work was transformative – 240 people were trained in agroforestry, nearly 65000 seedlings were planted along the hills’ contour lines, 16 self help groups were set up, which provided training in group governance, financial literacy, and savings mechanisms. And the hillsides are already more stable than they were. But important lessons have been learned, and there is more to do.
What now?
Whilst tree planting was primarily to prevent floodwaters from washing away huge ravines in the farmland, this shared enterprise also saw former enemies begin to make friends.
Burundi is a country where ethnic and political differences have often spilled over into violence. There is particular concern at the present time. The church, gifted in Christ with the ministry of reconciliation, now seeks to emphasise standing with local communities in sowing seeds of peace and reconciliation through practical, local community service – known as Ibikorwa Rusangi.
The value of working together for climate resilience is all the greater as strong bonds are built locally between people who never previously spoke to each other. Memories of trauma and violence are recent – there are those who would exploit this to turn people against one another again, especially at times of elections. But there is much that can be done.
Young people who have learned to make a living by setting up small businesses selling and planting trees are less likely to be recruited into gangs or be exploited for political violence. Older people have seen enough poverty, violence, and environmental damage in their time to make them eager to support the church’s work in bringing people together to improve life chances for families living in Bujumbura Rural. Mothers with children to bring up are motivated to organise in self help groups to set up small businesses geared both towards creating incomes and improving agriculture. They don’t want to see their children fall prey to those seeking to manipulate the young.
Planting trees together is planting for the future, and for peace. This focus on environmental restoration, economic empowerment, and peacebuilding is good news for the people of these communities of Gisovu, Nyamaboko, Buhina, and Kabumba
What do we hope to fund?
Actions to be funded by the Bishop’s Harvest Appeal 2025:
Environmental Restoration:
- Climate and land degradation awareness training
- Eight nurseries for producing native agroforestry tree saplings
- 4,000m of contour lines dug prepared for planting
Economic Empowerment:
- More self-help groups – to engage 400 members
- Training in financial literacy, savings, and leadership
- Microloan systems set up to support income generating
Peacebuilding:
- Intergenerational dialogue groups
- Memory and Hope trauma-sharing workshops
- Tree planting and soil restoration as tools for reconciliation
- A Community Peace Committee established for each hill
- Training for community leaders in conflict mediation, de-escalation, and early warning systems
- Disseminate peace messaging in run up to electoral period
- Train and deploy two ‘Youth Peace Brigades’ -
- To host debates, art competitions promoting peaceful coexistence
- To Develop radio programs on youth and peace
- Facilitate dialogue circles for women in self-help groups
- Ensure women are to the fore in Community Peace Committees
- Offer workshops on inclusive governance and women’s civic engagement.
Why us?
Since the Lambeth Conference, Bishop’s Libby and Malcolm have met with Bishop Eraste of Bujumbura to share and pray about each other’s ministry. As followers of Jesus, we seek to promote peace with God and with one another. As children of a creator, we seek to care for God’s beautiful and precious world. This project connects so closely with what we are trying to do in our diocese, our desired outcomes and priorities – especially around service, justice, and ‘going greener’. Centred on Jesus, who offered his life on a tree for the salvation of us all, this project demonstrates the love of God in practical action.
What can I do?
- First – please speak to others about the programme, and decide what your church or community can do to get involved.
- Check out the creative resources that will be appearing for schools and churches.
- Plan symbolically to plant a tree somewhere locally to symbolise our support for this initiative, showing that trees both here and there address climate change. Think how supporting this tree planting initiative reduces your own carbon footprint.
- Join in local initiatives where you live that integrate building community with protecting the environment.
- Give via our Give a Little site or directly to the Diocese of Derby
- Pray for the churches on the hills around Bujumbura – as well as in the hills, valleys, and plains of Derbyshire, that in what we do the good news of the Kingdom of God will transform lives, grow church, and build community.
St Alkmund's Derby are hiring a Youth and Young Adult Ministry Leader
Your chance to inspire and be inspired by the young people of our church and parish!
20 hours per week, salary £27,000 to £30,000 pro rata
For an application pack or to have an informal conversation about the role contact Rev Mina Munns at mina@stalkmunds.org.uk or on 07960 250497
Deadline for applications is 17 August 2025
St. Mary’s Church in Wirksworth has received initial support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the Faith Folk Foundation project, it was announced today. Made possible thanks to National Lottery players, the project aims to carry out repairs and improvement work to the church building and investigate the literal and historic foundations of the church and the town.
St Mary's is a Grade 1 listed building, and a member of the Major Churches Network, listed on English Heritage’s “Heritage at Risk” register and a much loved community building for the people of Wirksworth. Without this support from the Heritage Fund it would continue to deteriorate and the stories of local residents would remain un-investigated and unheard.
Development funding of £313,770 has been awarded by the Heritage Fund to help the PCC progress their plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant of £1.73million at a later date.
The project will enable extensive repair and restoration work to take place, including to the transept roofs, nave walls, windows and churchyard paths. It will also enable work to improve the lighting and heating systems and to provide a route to reduce the carbon footprint of the church community.
As a watertight, more easily accessible, better lit, better heated and lower carbon footprint building, the regular congregation will feel more comfortable, as will regular visitors, tourists and the many hundreds who join for our seasonal services and our many concerts and events throughout the year.
The project will also offer plenty of opportunities for local people in searching out the foundations of the church building, the origins of the town and the links through the ages between locals and the church community.
Rev Neil Griffiths, Team Rector at Wirksworth Team Ministry said: “We are thrilled to have received this initial support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players we can now develop our plans to repair our church and make it fit for the 21st century and future generations.”
St Giles’ Normanton by Derby were thrilled and honoured to welcome the Most Rev Dr Samy Fawzy Shehata, Archbishop of Alexandria, for the weekend 21-22 July. Archbishop Samy and his wife Madlaine came to express their partnership with St Giles’. Both the morning congregations received them warmly. Archbishop Samy preached at those two services and then joined the whole church community for a fellowship lunch. Archbishop Samy and Madlaine were interviewed during the lunch where they shared something of their life in Egypt. They joined the congregation of the evening service as guests.
In his morning sermon, Archbishop Samy challenged the people of St Giles’ to consider the cost of following Christ. He reminded them of Jesus’ own command to all disciples to “deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me”. He spoke soberingly of the 21 martyrs (20 Egyptians) who were executed by the terrorist ‘Islamic State’ on a beach in Libya in 2015. Just the previous Sunday the General Synod of the Church of England had agreed to add commemoration of these martyrs to the Common Worship calendar each 15 February
Rev Neil Barber, Vicar of St Giles and General Synod member, said “It was an enormous joy to welcome the Archbishop and Madlaine to St Giles’ and to be encouraged by them to keep loving all people as we hold out the good news of Jesus in this locality where there are many people of no faith and other faiths. We are thankful to God for our unity in Christ across the miles and partnership in the gospel.”
Archbishop Samy is the Provincial Archbishop over ten countries in North Africa: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia with a total population of 400 million people, as well as Bishop of Egypt. He is also Deputy Chair of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA).
Notification of pending faculty petition for Hartington St Giles, dated 20th July 2025
If you wish to object to any of the works or proposals, you should write giving reasons for your objection to:
The Diocesan Registrar at 1 The Sanctuary, Westminster, London SW1P 3JT
Derby.registry@1thesanctuary.com
so that it reaches the Registry no later than 21 days after the day of this notice (ie by 11 August 2025), stating your name and postal address, and whether you live in the parish and/or your name is entered on the electoral roll of the parish or any other capacity in which you write.
Help shape the future of our communications
We are conducting a survey to find out what you think about how we share messages, our website and social media. We would like to hear from everyone connected to the church in Derbyshire: whether you attend services or events, hold a leadership or voluntary role, or maybe only have a casual connection to the church. The responses we get will help us shape how we communicate with you allowing us to share the Good News more effectively.
How can you help us?
We want you to be as honest as you can about what you like and don't like, about the types of messages and content we share and the channels we use to do so. This information will help us develop and shape how we communicate with you. You can take part in a number of ways:
- by taking ten minutes to complete the survey yourself
- by encouraging your friends and family to complete it too
- by sharing the link to it with your church congregation
- by following the Diocese of Derby Facebook and Instagram pages and sharing our messages
Follow this link to complete the survey. It should only take ten minutes of your time.
The Diocese of Derby has announced the launch of its new accessibility project, designed to improve access and inclusion for all churches.
The project includes a range of downloadable icons, designed to easily identify church assessable features allowing people with disabilities to easily find a church that will suit their needs.
The project comes from two years of work by the Disability Inclusion Action Group (DIAG), who have researched the need and designed the icons with the help of a local design agency.
Churches are encouraged to download the icons relevant to their church and display them on their websites. All the icons and more information is available www.accessiblechurch.net.
Carl Veal, Chair of DIAG said “The accessibility symbols, two years in the making, represent a wonderful opportunity for the churches of the Diocese of Derby to be open and accessible to all and allow us all to worship Christ together as a cohesive community. I look forward to this initiative from the Diocese leading the way for these icons to be rolled out nationally, to the whole of the Church of England later this year."
As the Diocesan lead on the project, Bishop Malcolm Macnaughton said ‘ These symbols will help local churches be welcoming to disabled people, by giving them accurate information about what we can offer in our churches. Disabled people bring new gifts to the table, and important perspective to our life as a community. We need one another – and this project will help change attitudes, improve access to our activities, and release agency, empowering disabled people to get involved and take a lead. We are one body in Christ – we need each other.’
As a result of this project, Helen James, Disability Project Manager for the Church of England stated that, from the summer, the symbols will be made available for all parishes throughout all dioceses to use and implement on their own pages.The Disability Inclusion Action Group comprises clergy and lay people with a range of disabilities, from across the Diocese of Derby. Their aim is to see disability inclusion taken seriously in our churches and across the Diocese. Their work is focused around three key themes - Attitude, Access, and Agency.
To view photographs from the service please click here
Four people were ordained as Deacon in the Church of England on Sunday 29 June. Here are their testimonies.
Rebecca Landers
"My journey towards ordination began with a couple of dreams I had nearly 20 years ago, but it wasn’t until I was preparing for baptism in 2018 that I started to take their message seriously, and so began a lengthy process of discernment followed by training for three years part-time at St Hild college in Sheffield.
"I’m really looking forward to serving my curacy at Newbold Parish Church, getting to know the people and the land of Newbold and Dunston, walking the parish, and walking alongside others. My hope for ministry is that it be both comforting and challenging, creative and fruitful, and that its roots are embedded in prayer, sacrament, scripture and tradition. I’m particularly interested in contemplative prayer, and the use of art in prayer and discipleship; perhaps it might be good, during curacy, to explore these areas as a community. My primary intention on starting, however, will be to listen, and then to listen some more, and try not to let my preconceived ideas get in the way of God’s better and more surprising plans!"
Lianne Green
"I have always been involved in church ministry, both paid and lay, since my early twenties. This includes youth work, children’s church, outreach, and family support roles. One particularly formative role involved working with extremely vulnerable women in the city centre, offering chaplaincy, support, and signposting. These experiences helped shape a vocation that has always centred around evangelism, discipleship, and mission to the margins of community life. For me, ordination felt like a natural next step, not a sudden shift, but part of a long journey of faithfulness. It’s a way to be better equipped for the mission of God and more deeply rooted in the life of the Church.
"I am also married and have three amazing children. We love exploring the great outdoors together – often with a bit of geocaching thrown in for good measure!"
Gael Browne
"It's usually during a hair appointment where the inevitable conversation around what one does for ‘work’ comes up. In my experience, it’s often followed by a slightly bemused, “What made you want to do that?” …Trying to explain to someone using non-churchy language that you didn’t really want to do the thing you’re doing, but you felt intensely ‘called’ by God and can’t imagine doing anything else with your life other than being faithful to him and living it out is a tricky task! It’s not a desire that’s self-given; it’s planted and nurtured by God, expanding and becoming increasingly exciting as you trust him. This trust-journey took me to Trinity College in Bristol, where I’ve been living and training full-time for the past three years.
"I’ve grown up knowing Jesus and long felt a call to ministry, exploring it pre-marriage and motherhood. However, when both of those life changes (joyfully) happened, I felt as if the ‘ship had sailed’. I’ve wrestled through many questions during discernment and training, but at the fore has always been, “How do I wear all my hats well?” Although this is something I’m sure no one ever perfects, I’ve been blessed with many amazing forerunners who’ve modelled being a woman in ministry. I hope I can join their company and live in a way that shows other mamas that following the call on your life and using the gifts God has given you does not need to hinder your ability to love your family fiercely. If you are reading this and you’ve had similar reservations, I am here to tell you it IS possible. More than that – it’s wonderful!
"I’m married and we have two primary-aged girls, who we’ve just begun to home-educate. My hobbies revolve around the kitchen and garden – feeding and tending (God’s work!). I’m hugely passionate about theological education and chatting doctrine, and I enjoy exploring creativity in worship, incorporating the arts in a way that helps different learning styles engage and understand. I also have a growing interest in emotions and embodied spirituality, in particular how crying and tears image God in humanity.
"It's going to be super getting to know the community in Sinfin Moor! I am a Derby girl, through and through, so it’s just lovely to be back in the Midlands where the accent is familiar again!! All four of us are looking forward to worshipping and serving the church, and I’m praying that God would open my eyes to see all the opportunities to daily love the people here and be his hands and feet in this place."
Jim Wigglesworth
"Derby is my hometown, and growing up I would never have expected to end up getting ordained in the Church. Sport was my real passion, and was I fortunate enough to have a brief rugby career before injuries put a stop to that. It was during those years that I became a Christian and my life was changed.
"It was during this time that I sensed a call to ordained ministry and started exploring. It has been an incredible journey, in which two daughters have also come along, and training has been a real blessing to me. I am excited to start my curacy in Duffield and Little Eaton, and continue to learn through this process. I still have a great love for sport, psychology and evangelism, and therefore look forward to seeing how this all interweaves along the journey."
Please pray too for our newly-ordained priests
Please pray for Benjamin Andréo-Boosey, Kara Gander, Ailsa Hunt and Sue Leather who were ordained as priests on Saturday, as they continue with their curacies, serving their communites and extending the kingdom of God in their local contexts.
Is God stirring something in you?
All of us are invited to follow Jesus and to serve God faithfully in our everyday lives. To discover more about what this might mean for you, please see our Everyday Faith page. Alongside our everyday faith, some people are called to serve God in a specific ministry. You can find out more about that on our vocations page.
