Items filtered by date: August 2025
The Diocese of Derby has increased its capacity to support PCCs in maintaining and developing their church buildings.
The diocese has secured national funding for a full-time Church Buildings Support Officer, as well as a minor repairs and improvement grant fund totalling around £144,000, over a two-year period.
The funding will be available to parishes to carry out ‘stitch-in-time’ repairs and improvements.
Additionally, all parishes will be given direct access to ChurchGrant funding search software, via a dedicated microsite.
This will allow parishes to identify sources of funding and each parish can attend training webinars regarding fundraising and grant funds.
There will also be access to specialist advice via a number of free consultations.
Gareth Greenwood has been appointed to the Church Buildings Support Officer role having previously held the part time role of Community Projects Development Officer.
Gareth will work alongside a tranche of parishes with particular needs, identified by the archdeacons.
Will Hagger, Diocesan Secretary, said: “The Derby Diocesan Board of Finance recognises the financial challenge to our parishes of maintaining church buildings.
This new capacity and grant fund will be hugely welcome allowing us to support parishes with their immediate church repair projects.
“In responding to applications for the new fund, among other things, the financial strength, maintenance planning and degree of deprivation of the building’s community, will be taken into account.”
A Buildings for Mission team is being established within the Parish Support Office, which Gareth Greenwood will lead.
This team will include a number of other new nationally-funded roles with a focus on supporting parishes, bringing together the sustainability of church buildings, care of the environment, and Net Zero Carbon projects, alongside faculty advice and administration and pastoral reorganisation.
Information about the criteria and application process will appear on the diocesan website in due course.
The arsenal of diocesan funding now available to support churches with building projects also includes:
- The Raymond Ross Large Grants Fund, offering parishes the opportunity to develop their local church or church hall. The maximum grant is £25k, with match funding required;
- The Raymond Ross Small Grants Scheme - £5k to enhance welcome, improve accessibility or to make small but much needed changes to internal areas. No match funding is required;
- The Bishop of Derby’s St Peter’s Churchyard Fund, a scheme offering interest-free loans.
Details of these schemes can be found at https://derby.anglican.org/funding.
Gareth Greenwood has been appointed Church Buildings Support Officer
The Archdeacons of the Diocese of Derby will hold the following Visitations in 2025.
These will all begin at 7.30pm, with doors opening at 6.45pm for refreshments and for wardens to sign the register.
Derby City and South Derbyshire
Derby City: Monday 9 June 2025 - St Francis, Mackworth DE22 4FN
Mercia: Monday 23 June 2025 - St Mark, Winshill DE15 0HS
Derbyshire Peak and Dales
Dove and Derwent: Tuesday 24 June 2025 - St Helen, Etwall DE65 6LP
Peak: Monday 30 June 2025 - St John the Baptist, Tideswell SK17 8LQ
Carsington: Thursday 26 June - Holy Trinity Matlock Bath DE4 3PU
East Derbyshire
South East Derbyshire: Wednesday 11 June 2025 - All Saints, Sawley NG10 3AT
Hardwick: Tuesday 17 June 2025 - St Thomas, Somercotes DE55 4LY
North East Derbyshire: Tuesday 1 July 2025 - St Swithin, Holmesfield S18 7WT
Attendance by all elected Churchwardens at a Visitation
There are eight visitation services available across the diocese. Wardens are encouraged to attend a service that is most convenient for them. While it’s possible to attend a visitation service outside of your designated area, this must be noted on the registration form. However, it is preferred that wardens attend a service in their own deanery or within their archdeaconry if that is not feasible.
If a warden does not attend a visitation service, they will not be admitted as a churchwarden unless special arrangements are made with the relevant Archdeacon’s PA.
Any such special arrangements will need to have been processed by Friday 29thAugust 2025. Please note that if special arrangements are needed, this adds significantly to the DBF costs so please make every effort to attend a visitation service.
The Archdeacons will be available after the service and will be very happy to speak with any wardens (especially those who are taking on the responsibility for the first time).
We appreciate your cooperation in attending these important services.
Citation dates 2025 (word)
Visitation 2025: Notes for Clergy / PCC Secretaries (word)
Certificate of Election
After the Annual Meeting of Parishioners, churchwardens are required to complete the visitation form.
Multiple Wardens: For churches where more than one warden is elected, please print and complete one form for each warden.
The completed form(s) should be returned by email to: Visitations@derby.anglican.org
Alternatively, forms can be posted to: Archdeacons’ Office, Derby Church House, Full Street, Derby, DE1 3DR.
If a Lay Chair is also to be sworn in as churchwarden, it is important that the election of churchwardens is chaired by someone other than the Lay Chair. (e.g. Area Dean, PCC Treasurer or member of the clergy). The person chairing the election should complete and sign the section of the certificate designated for the incumbent.
Thank you for ensuring the timely and accurate submission of your form.
Certificate of Election 2025 (word)
Data Forms - New Wardens
To ensure that we have accurate and up-to-date information for all new wardens, we kindly ask that all NEW wardens complete and return the data form along with their certificate of election.
Data Form 2025 (word)
See also
On Mondays through Lent, +Libby and +Malcolm are hosting online forums to reflect together on the gospel readings set for the principal service of the previous Sunday.
Mark 8.31-38
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’
Reflections on the reading from Mark
‘said this all quite openly’, ‘took him aside and began to rebuke him’, ‘called the crows with his disciples and said to them’ - different approaches for different conversations and encounters.
Notice that Peter able to express how he feels clearly – Jesus has created a safe space for questioning and listening, for disagreement as healthy aspect of community.
nb relationship with Peter not undermined (a few days later accompany Jesus at Transfiguration).
Jesus spoke robustly into articulation of misinformation; he broke down tendency towards ‘group think’ and broke open disruptive or damaging discourse in silos or factions = model of Pastoral Principles.
Sometimes see in own circumstances an echo of Peter’s difficulty in accepting situations that don’t match our expectations.
Perhaps Jesus was able to resist temptation to avoid the path to Jerusalem in the context of the community of disciples – so looked to his community to find strength to speak his ‘no’ to Satan.
‘take up your cross’...
Anything that is difficult in life, Anything that I’m disagreed with about
- ‘martyr complex.
But needs to fit with ‘fullness of life’.
Navalny conversion from atheism to Christianity.
Risk of thinking that what we struggle with or that our burdens are doing the work of the cross ie conferring salvation – only Jesus’ death and resurrection has won that.
Nothing we can give to ‘pay for’ our salvation. Jesus making clear, pointing in direction, of what will give life (in all its fullness for eternity) ie his own suffering, death and resurrection.
Bishop Libby and Archdeadon Matthew will each spend a night sleeping rough in support of the YMCA's Sleep Easy campaign.
They are among those who aim to raise awareness of the plight of those who have no home to go to, and to raise funds to support efforts that will enable the YMCA to continue its vital services to those who are facing homelessness in Derby City and Derbyshire.
This year, the local event will take place at the home of Derbyshire Cricket Club on Friday, 8 March, and both Bishop Libby and Archdeacon Matthew will be given a cardboard box to use as shelter for the night.
Bishop Libby, who has taken part in previous Sleep Easy events, said: "I am pleased again to be among those supporting this local charity in raising awareness and much needed funds to tackle homelessness and its long-term impacts.
"We may have an uncomfortable night in many ways, but that in itself gives opportunity to reflect on why we are participating, and experience – just for one night – something of what it is like to be sleeping rough.
"Please do participate in Sleep Easy if you can, either by registering to join the event at the Cricket Ground or safely in your local context as Neil is in Wirksworth (see below).
"And please support the work of Derby YMCA and its partners like the Padley Centre by donating through my JustGiving page and raising awareness.
"Together we can support this vital work being done locally, combat the scourge of homelessness, and offer hope to those who find themselves suffering its impacts and consequences”.
Archdeacon Matthew, taking part in his first Sleep Easy, said: "I actually have very little appetite for sleeping under the stars in this way - but that's the whole point, really!
"For me, it's one night and doing it through choice, whereas every night in Derby and Derbyshire, more than 200 hundred individuals who have temporarily found themselves without a place to live, have no choice but to either turn to the YMCA and the Padley Centre, or sleep rough under cardboard."
Archdeacon Matthew will also be posting on Facebook from the cricket ground during the event.
Sleeping in the churchyard
The Revd Neil Griffiths, vicar for the Wirksworth Team Ministry, has also chosen to sleep out for the Sleep Easy campaign.
Before becoming a vicar Neil worked with housing organisations and YMCAs, and longs for a time when no one is homeless or poorly housed.
Neil said: "I will be bedding down in the churchyard at St Mary’s Church in Wirksworth and I hope the weather is as kind as the people who have already donated money."
On Mondays through Lent, +Malcolm and I are hosting online forums to reflect together on the gospel readings set for the principal service of the previous Sunday.
Yesterday we gathered for the first time to study and explore Mark 1. 9-15
We considered the wider context of the passage which is set between a concise introduction to ‘the good news about Jesus the Messiah, Son of God’ that condenses all of God’s work in salvation history into a few verses describing the vocation and ministry of John the Baptiser and a simple narrative of the calling of the first disciples.
We noted that, like all Mark’s gospel, this narrative is distilled into few words but replete with both a driving momentum and profound meaning.
We reflected on Jesus’ growing understanding of his own relationship with the One who calls him ‘Son’ as it is set so explicitly between the prophets and the disciples. And we reflected on his emerging vocation being shaped by that relationship.
We thought about how our individual relationships with God, and our subsequent vocations are transformed, or more fully understood and received, when set in context of relationship with God’s people, those who have gone before us and those who travel with us.
We thought about this passage being read during Lent and what we might learn from it to aid self-examination and penitence.
How does this passage help us to be honest with ourselves and with God?
What can this passage teach us about the times when we are in difficult, ‘wilderness’ places?
We read here that Jesus is called ‘beloved’ but then driven into wilderness. It was not failure or fault that led to wilderness; he was not being punished.
Maybe we are not to interpret such experiences with guilt expect them, and pray that when we do experience then that somehow ‘angels will be with us’ too.
We took comfort from this passage that we need not pretend before God when we find ourselves in places we might not choose to be.
We considered how Jesus met the grace of God in both the highs of the affirmation of his baptism and in the lows of temptation in the wilderness.
We recognised that in both our struggles and our successes the Kingdom of God may come near.
There were some specific phrases we wondered about: what does that mean that the ‘heavens were torn apart’?
What would it feel like to experience such a thing? Why are we told that Jesus was ‘with the wild beasts’?
Are they part of the threat of being tempted by Satan or part of succour of the angels who ‘waited on him’?
We concluded, as the passage itself does, with a yearning to discover and participate in the life of the Kingdom of God.
We returned to where we began our reflections, thankful for the opportunity again through Lent to re-examine the invitation to repent and believe and so share more fully in ‘the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God’.“
First Sunday in Lent: Mark 1.9-15
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’
Chris says God called him to being a churchwarden because of his love of helping other people.
All of us are invited to follow Jesus and to serve God faithfully in our everyday lives, and some people are called to serve God in a specific ministry or role.
- Five things you need to know about being a churchwarden
- The role and responsibilities of being a churchwarden
If you feel a sense of calling, a nagging voice inside your head, see our Vocations page for information about how to explore what God is calling you to do.
More to watch:
- 1
Chris, a church foundation governor at a Derbyshire primary school, tells us about his calling and his involvement with the school.
All of us are invited to follow Jesus and to serve God faithfully in our everyday lives, and some people are called to serve God in a specific ministry or role.
If you feel a sense of calling, a nagging voice inside your head, see our Vocations page for information about how to explore what God is calling you to do.
More to watch:
- 1
Ian, a vicar in the north of Derbyshire, shares his faith journey and reveals that he never thought he 'had what it takes' to become ordained!
All of us are invited to follow Jesus and to serve God faithfully in our everyday lives, and some people are called to serve God in a specific ministry or role.
If you feel a sense of calling, a nagging voice inside your head, see our Vocations page for information about how to explore what God is calling you to do.
More to watch:
- 1
Mina, a priest in Derby, reveals that she had a couple of false starts before understanding what she was being called to do.
All of us are invited to follow Jesus and to serve God faithfully in our everyday lives, and some people are called to serve God in a specific ministry or role.
If you feel a sense of calling, a nagging voice inside your head, see our Vocations page for information about how to explore what God is calling you to do.
More to watch:
- 1
29 February 2024
16 February 2024
14 February 2024
9 February 2024
The Revd John (Jack) Archer, NSM at Derby St Thomas (Derby) 1980-1986, Vicar of Edlington (Sheffield) 1987-1998, who retired in 1998 and held the Bishop of Lichfield’s Permission to Officate until 2010, and more recently lived in the Diocese of Derby, died on 31st January 2024. In respect of his family’s wishes, funeral details will not be published.
5 February 2024
The Revd Michael Gowdey, Curate of Ashbourne with Mapleton and Clifton (Derby) 1958-1963, Vicar of Chellaston 1963-1969, Assistant Chaplain Ellesmere College Shropshire (Lichfield) 1969-1974, Chaplain Trent College Nottingham (Derby) 1974-1981, Chaplain King Edward’s Worcester (Worcester) 1981-1997, who retired in 1997 and was appointed Honorary Priest-in-Charge Beeley and Edensor (Derby) 1997-2002 and held the Bishop of Derby’s Permission to Officate in retirement, died on Tuesday, 23 January 2024. The funeral will take place on Friday, 23 February at 11 am at St Peter's Edensor.
