Items filtered by date: August 2025
One of the great things about going to school is that you get fed!
And whilst not every child relishes the thought of having a school dinner, at least those that do don’t go hungry.
But what happens during the school holidays? If parents are struggling to make ends meet there is a real possibility that some children can start the new term malnourished.
Breakfast and lunch clubs during school holidays have proved to be part of the solution for some areas.
Our Diocesan Vision is that the Kingdom of God is good news for all, and that fundamentally includes Children, Young People and Families.
A key priority of our Parish Support Team strategy is to support and enable parishes to Grow Active Young Disciples. The Growing Younger team has been put together around this priority and a lot of our work is based around the national Church of England movement that is Growing Faith.
Growing Faith is the movement that exists to change the culture of the Church of England, so that everyone instinctively puts children, young people and families at the heart of all the ministry and mission of the Church.
Growing Faith involves churches, schools and households working together to help children, young people and families have life in all its fullness.
As a diocese we are adopting Growing Faith as the basis for our strategic plans to grow younger.
Growing a Younger Church newsletter.
Are you on the mailing list for our mailing? It's packed full of creative ideas and resources for you to use in your Parishes; whether you are starting out with a dream to build something new with your children and young people or whether you have an established group and are looking for fresh ideas.. We've got you. We are also going to be sharing stories from accross the Diocese of ways that churches are ministrering to their children and young people so do send in your stories that we can share with others.
We send the mailing out every couple of months.. all you need to do is sign up and you will receive the mailing direct to your In-Box.
Sign up for our mailing by following this link
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Meet the Growing Younger Team
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Strategic Lead for Youth MinistryRevd Aidan Watson 01332 278144 aidan.watson@derby.anglican.org Aidan Watson (Strategic Youth Lead) oversees our efforts to Grow Younger active disciples and Growing Faith. -
Growing Younger Communications & Resourcing Officer (job-share)Debbie Patrick 01332 388665 debbie.patrick@derby.anglican.org Debbie works on a Monday and Wednesday -
Growing Younger Communications & Resourcing Officer (job-share)Rowan Rankin 01332 401726 rowan.rankin@derby.anglican.org Rowan works on a Monday and Wednesday
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The Revd Louise Petheram, Priest-in-Charge of Youlgreave, Middleton, Stanton-in-Peak and Birchover, has been appointed House for Duty Priest-in-Charge of Hope, Castleton and Bradwell in the same Diocese. Mrs Petheram hopes to take up her new post in 2020.
The Revd Sarah Watson, Assistant Curate in the Walbrook Epiphany Team Ministry, will transfer her curacy and become Assistant Curate of the Derwent Oak BMO (including St Philip’s Church Plant) and of Spondon in the same diocese with effect from 1 November 2019.
The Revd Peter Green, Vicar of Old Brampton and Great Barlow and Priest-in-Charge of Loundsley Green LEP, has been appointed Vicar of the benefice of The Abbey Group of Parishes, Diocese of Lincoln.
The Revd Richard Benson, Vicar of the White Peak Group, retired with effect from 31 August 2019. Mr Benson will move away from the Diocese after retirement.
We are aware of some suspicious emails that appear to be from clergy and even from Bishop Libby. Responding to the emails will result in requests for money or gift cards.
Please DO NOT reply to the emails.
We are not currently aware how many may be affected; however, it is important that we are all aware and be vigilant to protect our online safety and security.
We are not aware of any system security breach and are in the process of compiling some website best practice guidelines so that our churches can take action to greater protect themselves.
Steps to take if you receive a suspicious email
- DO NOT reply to the email.
- Check the email address of the sender – is it the same email address as usual?
- If in doubt, type in the usual email address of the clergy, rather than just hit reply. Better still, talk to them and check if they have sent this email.
- Run a complete anti-virus scan of your computer.
- If you have sent any money as a direct result of the email, please contact the Police to report the matter.
Steps to take if you are the named sender of a suspicious email
- Reassure any recipients that you have not sent the email and verify your correct email address.
- As a safety procedure, reset your email password and any clergy portal passwords.
- Run a complete anti-virus scan of your computer.
- If you receive any reports of money being sent as a direct result of the email, please contact the Police to report the matter.
When I was a teenager my ambition was to be a missionary, taking the gospel to the indigenous people of the Amazon on a jet ski! While it’s not been quite that exciting, my faith journey has taken me through some interesting experiences, both here and abroad.
Since those early days I have remained interested in how God calls people to service; following their journey as they discern the voice of God calling them to service in the church, both lay and ordained.
I am committed to helping the church to be more inclusive in its selection of clergy. Being one of very few Black priests I think I may be particularly helpful to those from ethnic minority backgrounds, but I would be privileged to work with anyone who came to me.
On Sunday, 6 October 2019, four candidates were Admitted and Licensed by Bishop Libby as Readers at a very special service in Derby Cathedral. The service also served as a Thanksgiving for 50 years of Reader Ministry by Women.
Our special congratulations to:
Katherine Mary (Kate) Brookbank
Jacqueline Haywood
Anthony (Tony) Hill
Roberta (Bertie) Walker
In addition, Brenda Silcock, who was formally Licensed in the Diocese of York was given Permission to Officiate in the Diocese of Derby.
On a later occasion, Martin Cox, Licensed in another diocese will be Licensed to the Diocese of Derby.
Photographs from the day are available to view and download on our Flickr page.
Readers in the Church of England are lay people froma range of backgrounds and experiences who are trained and authorised to preach, teach and lead worship.
There are more than 8,500 Readers actively involved in ministry in the Church of England today.
Men were licensed into the role in 1866, but it was over 100 yars later before women were permitted to become Readers.
Legislation was passed in 1969 and since then the ministry of both women and men as Readers has continued to be a vital part of the life of the Church of England.
Congratulations to all those who were awarded Bishop's Badges in two special services. See the photos here.
Hannah Grivell reflects on Christ Church Belper's involvement in the town's first Pride festival.
As soon as I heard that Belper was hosting its own Pride event, I knew that Christ Church had to be involved.
Snowballing from a small picnic planned in the memorial gardens to the town-wide event it became as interest grew, Pride in Belper presented a fantastic opportunity for us to spread Christ’s redeeming message of love and acceptance to a community who had, directly or indirectly, often had painful experiences with the church.
This was in line with our mission as an Inclusive Church, which we signed up for in November 2017. Inclusive Church is a network of churches, groups and individuals uniting together around a shared vision:
"We believe in inclusive Church - a church which celebrates and affirms every person and does not discriminate. We will continue to challenge the church where it continues to discriminate against people on grounds of disability, economic power, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, learning disability, mental health, neurodiversity, or sexuality. We believe in a Church which welcomes and serves all people in the name of Jesus Christ; which is scripturally faithful; which seeks to proclaim the Gospel afresh for each generation; and which, in the power of the Holy Spirit, allows all people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus Christ.”
The celebrations kicked off, like most Prides, with a parade—but this being Belper, it was far more fitting for this to be a ‘Strutt’ down from the marketplace, along King Street, then back up to the memorial gardens. Crowds lined the streets, with people leaving shops to watch the Strutt—even mid-haircut!
We were grateful to have been allocated a stand in a prominent position—as were the Unitarian Church and the Quakers—to ensure that the healing message that God’s love does not discriminate was front and centre.
>> More about Christ Church Belper
>> Read Together Issue 6 online
>> More about Together Magazine
This was a deliberate move by the organisers which not only allowed us to have many conversations with all kinds of people, it also meant that our sign quoting 1 John 4:16—“God is love. Those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them”—was unmissable by all walking by, with some stopping just to photograph it.
We encouraged any who visited the stand to write names or prayers on a second sign with the word ‘LOVE’ written out, which a truly touching number of people chose to, and our intercessions the following day were centred on holding each of these people and situations in prayer.
Our shirts, provided by One Body One Faith who run the Christians at Pride movement, also proved a valuable witness and meant that even away from the stand people would stop us to ask questions or to simply thank us for being there.
With around 2,000 people estimated to have attended, the reaction we received was overwhelmingly positive, though even the most heartwarming reactions to people receiving the message that they are loved and accepted for who they are carried an undertone of sadness for the lifetime of alienation, rejection and secrecy that this revelation betrayed.
We will continue to carry the stories and situations we heard in our hearts and prayers, and hope that the spectacular success of the festival is the spark for wider change and growth in the church.
This feature was originally published in Issue 6 of Together Magazine
