Items filtered by date: May 2025
Click on the link to find services and prayers from The Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship.
Eucharistic material
You can find links to all the principal services of the Church here.
Common Worship also provides Eucharistic Prayers for use with Children
Lay Ministers of Communion. Training Session Handbook
Seasonal Material
Look at Common Worship Times and Seasons
Saints days and festivals
Look at Common Worship Festivals resources
For Collects and Readings for the Festivals and Lesser Festivals of the Calendar of the Church of England from Exciting Holiness click here
Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery
Resources for Prayer, Preaching and Reflection
All those working (paid or voluntary), alongside clergy, are encouraged to look at attending courses provided by the Local Safeguarding Children/Adults Boards as well as training offered by the voluntary sector. Many of the courses are free and may provide excellent training outside the church context. This is often a good way of introducing you to a new topic, before exploring the training offered by the Diocese (focussing on the church context).
The Diocese training programme has been designed to reflect the different roles in the church. This does not mean that courses are ‘ring fenced’ so if you are interested in a particular course please ask the Diocesan Adviser if you can attend. The training programme has been approved by the Safeguarding Management Committee and available dates will be posted in the main training section as they become available. Information is also available here The programme runs over a three year period and not all the courses run each year.
Facebook is the biggest social media network with millions of people worldwide using it. It offers a brilliant opportunity for your church to link into the local community, share events, photos or discussions.
If you would like more tips on making the most of your Facebook page, click here to download our guide.
Twitter is a remarkable social media platform. It's a way to connect with new people, keep in touch with those you know, find out what's going on in your world and get your message out there...all in 140 characters!
Confused about where to start? Click here to download our quick guide
Ministry for Mission
I have recently been re-reading the Venerable Bede – monk and church historian in the eighth century. His Latin text was part of my syllabus as a student! I have been reminded of some important principles about ministry to deliver God’s mission in our time.
Principles for Today
In July the General Synod discussed the Reform and Renewal Programme being pursued by the Church of England in order to mobilise our resources to be most effective for God’s mission in the twenty-first century. There is the challenge of maintaining our inheritance of a parochial system that embraces every community in the country. Further, there is a challenge to find new and appropriate ways of being ‘church’ in our times. Both challenges depend upon the leadership and witness our church can offer.
Key proposals include:
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Doubling the number of candidates for ordination.
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Discipleship being our key priority – equipping the people of God.
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Creating a learning community to shape and support the leadership of the Church.
Bede and His Wisdom
In the eighth century, as the parish system was developing, there seemed to be a huge gap between the resources of the church for mission, and the needs of disparate communities not easy to reach (then because of poor roads; today because of cultural confusions about Christianity).
Bede wrote to the Archbishop of York making some suggestions:
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More priests to preach in the villages, celebrate the holy mysteries and baptise – we would call this traditional church today.
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The need to employ ‘adequate leaders of salutary life’, who could ‘teach the truth of the faith, and the difference between good and evil’. We would call this discipleship – focused on the two great issues that perplex our time: truth, and an understanding of good and evil.
Ministry for Mission
How should these resources be best deployed? Bede believed in the importance of minsters – we might use the term Resource Churches. Centres where priests and lay ministers were gathered for prayer, support and strategic deployment. We would call such arrangements ‘learning communities’. Locally in the Diocese we are using the term ‘School of Formation’.
Bede was content for each minster to ‘develop its own system of regulation’. Resources need to be marshalled appropriately. We see this as the potential role of the new Deaneries.
He concludes his advice with the observation that Bishops should ‘ordain priests, and institute leaders’. I am up for that – how many of you are ready to offer yourselves for such service?!
