Items filtered by date: May 2025
The full review can be read here. Links to further information may be found below.
Keith Makin, who led the independent review said, “The abuse at the hands of John Smyth was prolific and abhorrent. Words cannot adequately describe the horror of what transpired.
“Many of the victims who took the brave decision to speak to us about what they experienced have carried this abuse silently for more than 40 years.
“Despite the efforts of some individuals to bring the abuse to the attention of authorities, the responses by the Church of England and others were wholly ineffective and amounted to a coverup.
“The Church and its associated organisations must learn from this review and implement robust safeguarding procedures across their organisations that are governed independently.
“This has been a long process but a necessary one to uncover the extent of John Smyth’s despicable behaviour and how the Church reacted to it.
“I would like to sincerely thank the victims for their courage, grace and dignity and I would like to remind everyone reporting on this review about their right to anonymity and privacy.”
The Church of England’s Lead Safeguarding Bishop, Joanne Grenfell, and the National Director of Safeguarding, Alexander Kubeyinje said, “We are deeply sorry for the horrific abuse inflicted by the late John Smyth and its lifelong effects, already spanning more than 40 years.
“The review concludes that Smyth is arguably the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England. We know that no words can undo the damage done to people’s lives both by him and by the failure of individuals in the Church and other institutions to respond well. We are also aware that the time the review has taken, which the reviewer addresses, as well as the details now in the public domain have been retraumatising for survivors.
“We highlight the comment in the review from a deceased cleric (David Fletcher) who was aware in the 1980s, along with others, of the extent of the abuse: ‘I thought it would do the work of God immense damage if this were public’.
“We are appalled that any clergy person could believe that covering up abuse was justified in the name of the Gospel, which is about proclaiming Good News to the poor and healing the broken hearted. It was wrong for a seemingly privileged group from an elite background to decide that the needs of victims should be set aside, and that Smyth’s abuse should not therefore be brought to light.
“Every member of the Church is responsible for a culture in which victims are heard, responded to well, and put first: there is never a place for covering up abuse.
“We are aware of criticisms in the report of individuals and organisations and names of clergy were passed to the National Safeguarding Team, NST, from the reviewer (see below Terms of Reference).
“Of those who were interviewed 25 were questioned about their knowledge of Smyth and had their safeguarding risk assessed. The reviewer also had a duty to pass on information to statutory authorities including police if appropriate. Permissions to officiate were removed for some clergy while their actions were considered. Some seriously criticised in the report are deceased, others are not.
“The NST will now consider if there is any new evidence in the report that needs to be considered to assess if there is any ongoing safeguarding risk and if there is evidence to support any disciplinary process.
“The report also highlights Smyth’s abuse in Zimbabwe, where a boy died and many more were abused. It is clear that Smyth went abroad in the early 1980s following the discovery of his abuse here and in full knowledge of the church officers named in the report. The reviewer urges the Church to consider commissioning a report into Smyth’s actions both in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
“We will now seek to progress this in appropriate ways (noting the recommendation for international information sharing) and liaise with counterparts there who would need to lead on any subsequent investigation, which we would fully support.
“We also note the criticism of the Church's response in 2013 and 2017. We apologise unreservedly that the needs of the victims were not at the forefront in terms of thinking and planning and the response was not trauma informed. We will continue to learn lessons about responding well which is reflected in our revised guidance and survivor engagement framework.
“We welcome all the recommendations and will consider them now in detail, noting work already underway. We wholeheartedly endorse the reviewer’s emphasis that safeguarding must be everyone’s responsibility in the Church, working closely with safeguarding professionals.”
20 December
The Revd Stanley (Stan) Frost, NSM Lower Kersal (Manchester) 1982-1987, NSM Convenor 1987-1995, NSM Patricroft 1987-1989, Licensed Preacher 1989-2003, Priest-in-Charge Pittenweem and Elie and Earlsferry (St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane) 2003-2004, who retired in 2004 and held the Bishop of Derby’s Permission to Officiate, died on 15 December 2024. In respect of his family’s wishes, funeral details will not be published.
The Revd Rachel Burdett, Assistant Curate of Belper Christ Church with Turnditch and of Hazelwood, Holbrook and Milford, Diocese of Derby, has been appointed Priest-in-Charge of Belper Christ Church and Turnditch, of Hazelwood, Holbrook and Milford, and of Ambergate and Heage in the same diocese.
12 December
The Revd Fiona Kouble will be instituted as Vicar of Tideswell, on Wednesday, 12 March 2025 at 6.30 pm at St John the Baptist Tideswell by the Bishop of Derby and inducted by the Archdeacon of Derbyshire Peak and Dales.
The Revd Max Marsh will be licensed as Priest-in-Charge of Ilkeston Holy Trinity and of Long Eaton St. Laurence, Diocese of Derby, on Wednesday, 15 January 2025 at 6.30 pm at St Laurence’s Long Eaton by the Bishop of Derby, assisted by the Archdeacon of East Derbyshire.
The Revd Phillippa Taylor, Assistant Curate of Church of the Martyrs Leicester, Diocese of Leicester, has been appointed Priest-in-Charge of Boulton St Mary, Diocese of Derby.
>> Guide to Parochial Fees 2025 - includes Parochial Fees Table [PDF]
>> Parochial Fees Table 2025 [PDF]
>> Parochial Fees Form 2025 [Excel file]
We love all the creative and different ways churches are engaging with their parishes and beyond.
Our vision is The Kingdom of God, Good News for All and it's great to see how so many churches in the Diocese of Derby are sharing stories of their success in achieving transformed lives through growing church and building community.
Here are some of the Christmas social media posts that have caught our eye - and don't forget you can find your local church services and events here.
- All
The relevant documents for your parish Common Fund request for 2025 are available to download using the links below.
Standing order forms are included for your convenience, along with guidance.
If you have any queries, please contact finance@derby.anglican.org.
Standing Order guidance
Please complete your standing order mandate, filling in the highlighted boxes, including adding your unique 6‐digit parish reference number in the box at the bottom of the form.
If you are unsure of this code, please refer to the Common Fund Request 2025 document where all parishes are listed by Deanery. This is important so that we can easily identify who the payment has come from.
You will also find listed the Common Fund request for your parish.
Once completed, please send one section to your bank and the other to:
Finance Department
Derby Church House
Full Street
Derby
DE1 3DR
Or email it to: finance@derby.anglican.org
Christine McMullen, the Diocese of Derby's former chair of the House of Laity, has been awarded The Canterbury Cross in this year’s Lambeth Awards, in recognition of her exceptional service to both the Diocese of Derby and the Church of England for over 40 years.
The Bishop of Derby, The Rt Revd Libby Lane said: “Christine has been an extraordinary servant of Christ and His church.
"I am delighted her contribution over so many decades and in so many spheres has been recognised and celebrated in this way.
"Her faith and sense of duty have sustained and equipped her to serve at a local, diocesan and national level.
"In the Diocese of Derby, she has been an advocate and champion of lay voice and ministry especially in rural contexts. For 40 years, she has held licence and now has permission to exercise ministry as Reader, for two decades she served as Chair of the House of Laity for Diocesan Synod and is a member of the Bishop’s Council. For many years she held the roles of Deanery Lay Chair, School Governor and Business Committee member. She has also sat on the Vacancy-in-See Committee and acted as Warden of Readers.
"Christine has been Diocesan President of the Mothers' Union, National Vice Chair for the MU and member of the Central Council at Mary Sumner House, London. Christine was the manager of Salcare before, in 1994, she became lecturer and then Vice Principal at the Northern Ordination College, where she taught Pastoral Studies, Human Relationship, Ethics and New Testament Greek. Christine was subsequently on the Governing Council of Trinity Theological College Bristol.
"Whilst a member of the General Synod Christine was a member of many committees and working parties, including at Ministry Division considering Clergy Stipends and working conditions. She was a member of the working party on The Family which produced its report in 1995. She was the founder member of WATCH which campaigned for the ordination of women first as clergy, then the Episcopate.
"We are deeply grateful to Christine for the generous ways she has used her gifts and experience for God. We congratulate her on being awarded the Canterbury cross.”
On receiving the award Christine said: “I was not very excited when I read the email offering me the Canterbury Cross. I thought it was just a hoax!
"I decided I had better check so I phoned Bishop Libby to ask her if it were genuine, and when the Bishop stopped laughing, she reassured me it was true and I had better send a reply!
"This was a few weeks ago and the hardest thing has been not able to share the news!
"What I have done with my life is based on the support of my friends and what my family taught me - to trust God, to be kind, to look into people’s eyes when talking to them and to listen carefully to what they are saying ( and not saying) without making judgements.
"There was a lot of noise round our family table, my mother was a great giggler, and my father was quieter but had a canny eye for the idiosyncrasies of people in everyday life and had a great gift for doing things in his own way, and my children were unbelievably honest. I owe a lot to them.”
Congratulations to Christine on this amazing achievement!
Notification of pending faculty petition for Buxton St Mary the Virgin, dated 29th November 2024
See attached Form 4a (PDF)
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 20th December), 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.
Archdeacon Nicky preached at the Safeguarding Sunday service at Ashbourne on Sunday 18 November 2024
As we gather here today on this Safeguarding Sunday, our hearts and minds can’t help but be troubled and heavy in the light of the findings of the Makin Report. We are shocked and disturbed by the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth. We are ashamed of the institutional failures of the Church of England and many of its senior clergy.
As Archbishop Justin has resigned and prepares to step down, we can’t help but wonder what comes next? How will we continue to learn from the mistakes of the past? What might the future of the Church look like?
The prophet Jeremiah tells us that God’s plan is always to give us a future and a hope. The two Bible readings we’ve read today help us to think about what that future and that hope might look like and how we might contribute to bringing God’s plans and purposes to fruition.
God’s desire is that all people might know his love and come to live within his kingdom. The kingdom of God which is good news for all. The way into that kingdom is open for all who will enter by putting their faith and trust in Jesus, the one who died that we might have life.
In our liturgy, we sometimes talk about Jesus’ death as opening his arms for us upon the cross – a gesture of welcome, invitation and drawing us in. When you watch a priest presiding at the eucharist, the sleeves of our vestments look very much like wings. That is imagery which the psalmist picks up in our first reading today, Psalm 91:1-4.
God offers us the opportunity to live within his kingdom, to find shelter under his protection. To lean upon his strength, and rest in the shadow of his wings, to be truly and deeply safe and secure. God’s kingdom sets us free from anything that would enslave us as God’s perfect love casts out our fear and helps us grow into wholeness and fullness of life. God’s desire for us is that we will flourish and thrive and become the people we were created to be.
Our Diocesan Vision is nothing less than a vision of the kingdom of God. In our different roles and responsibilities, we are seeking to be good news for all the people God sends our way. In all our churches across the diocese, we are creating safe spaces where people can flourish and thrive and live out their God-given calling. Knowing that we are loved beyond measure by God in Christ, we are learning to love without measure or restraint.
As we reflect on the faithfulness of God and remember with gratitude all he has done for us, our love for him grows, our relationship with him deepens and that love overflows into service of our local contexts. And when we see things around us that are not how God wants them to be we try and find a way to speak out and challenge injustice. And as we do that, other people are impacted and affected and we pray that as they encounter Christ in us and between us and through us, that they too will become disciples and their lives are transformed by Christ.
Today as we gather, it is good to remember that the work we do in safeguarding is absolutely central to all we are and do and to helping our churches reflect the life, values and vision of God’s kingdom.
Thank you for the part that you are playing. It is good that our amazing safeguarding team are here today and we thank God for the faithful and diligent way in which they serve us. But, as we all know, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility- though without some really committed volunteers who are willing to devote their time, energy and focus their ministry around this area, our churches would be less safe and people would be at risk.
The work that our churches are doing in safeguarding is often unseen and unnoticed. No-one knows how much time is spent updating Parish dashboards. No-one (other than our trainer Nick Harding) sees the thousands of individuals sitting on their laptops completing their training. No-one is there in the middle of the night when you can’t get to sleep because something traumatic has occurred and you’ve been part of the Case Management Meeting trying to find ways of moving forward.
But God sees all those things. His arms of love surround and enfold you, his wings are spread over you giving you protection and shade. His strength helps you to stand and be strong. He catches your tears in a bottle and treasures it for ever. So you are never on your own – God is always with you and has promised to never leave or forsake you. His grace is sufficient, his power is perfected in weakness and his mercies are new every morning for great is his faithfulness. And can I encourage you to allow our Safeguarding team to help and support you too for that is what they are there for. And as well as that professional help and support, can I encourage you to offer peer support to one another through the PSO network and make the most of the resources available to you.
Part of being human is accepting that no-one is perfect, we are all fallen, we all make mistakes, we all need help and we all need God’s forgiveness. As we remember with gratitude all who work within our churches supporting the work of Safeguarding, we pray for the ways in which we as individuals, and our Church as an institution, has failed in our duty to protect people. And failed in our calling to love as we have been loved and provide a safe place for all to thrive. We need to learn from those failures and do everything in our power to move forward in the way God wants us to be.
For those who have been the cause of pain, we pray that the love of God will show them the error of their ways and grant them the grace to repent and change, and opportunities to atone and make amends, where that is appropriate and possible. And for all perpetrators we ask that God will convict them of their sin and change their hearts.
And as we close, I invite you to hold before God all survivors and especially those who have suffered as a result of the failings of our Church. Each one is a unique individual made in God’s image, known and loved by God, infinitely precious and treasured by him. Let us commit ourselves to praying for them, for their healing and protection and that they might encounter the love of God and find safety in the shadow of his wings.
Ben says he had a sense of God calling him for a long time and that he was called because of his love of being around 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.
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:
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