Bishop Libby has ordained six new deacons at a special service at Derby Cathedral.

>> See the pictures here

Bishop Libby has ordained eight new priests at a special service at Derby Cathedral.

 >> See the pictures from the service

Ordained deacon on 2 July 2023

Hello everyone,

I am excited to be joining the churches of All Saints, and St John the Evangelist, Mickleover, and the church of St Andrew Radbourne to serve my curacy.

I am originally from Bedfordshire, but before beginning training for ordained ministry, I was a secondary school history teacher, and head of department, in Derbyshire for more than a decade.

I completed my training for ordination at the wonderful Westcott House, Cambridge, but am greatly looking forward to being back in Derbyshire.

My journey to faith was a long one, fully coming to faith as an adult.

I have very much enjoyed my time at Westcott studying theology, which has deepened my faith even further. I have loved the opportunity of experiencing different styles of worship in Cambridge and have developed a deep love of choral evensong during my time at Selwyn Chapel. With the help of the wonderful Director of Music and choir of Selwyn College, I have even managed to overcome my fear of singing.

I am particularly interested in ecumenical work, and a particular pleasure over the past two years has been studying alongside students from other denominations.

I remain a history geek at heart, and I have developed an interest in medieval mysticism and church history. I also cannot resist the lure of local museums and historical sites.

At heart I will always remain a teacher and I am looking forward to exploring faith with families, and when I can, discussing faith in schools.

To relax, I enjoy cooking of all kinds, but particularly sugar craft. I love to walk or visit gardens, and enjoy various different crafts, including embroidery and painting. I particularly enjoy reading historical novels and biographies.

I am looking forward to getting to know everyone in my new parish, discussing faith, life, history, and finding good places to walk and explore in Derbyshire.

Ordained deacon on 2 July 2023

I’m excited to be moving to Derby to join in with what God is doing there. I’ll be moving with my wife, Rachel, and two boys, Simeon (4) and Felix (2). 

I felt called to church leadership soon after becoming a Christian as a teenager in my local parish church. I started leading things in the church and then when I turned 18, I took the next logical step… I went to study chemistry!

The sense of call remained in the background though and I had a bit of time to grow up (and I also got married). After a while I began exploring my call to ordained ministry with the encouragement of people around me, thankfulness for the gifts God has given me, and my excitement at seeing people transformed by the gospel of God’s grace.

After a less than succesful BAP (selection conference) I got a job managing a local Christian charity in Colchester, where we were living at the time.

The charity ran a drop-in centre supporting vulnerable people struggling with all kinds of things but especially mental illness, homelessness, and addictions.

Alongside this we had a Sunday service in the city centre Baptist church, and it was my privilege to pastor that precious and thoroughly chaotic group of people.

God taught me a lot and I saw him do incredible things.

After another BAP (more succesful this time) I have had three great years in Cambridge studying at the wonderful Ridley Hall.

Following five years in full-time ministry, it has been a welcome opportunity to step back, read, learn, and think deeply. I’ve also benefitted from being on the pioneer training pathway and I’m excited about seeing God bring new forms and expressions of church to life.

As a family we’re excited to be moving to Derby where my wife grew up and where we’ll be close to her parents.

We’re also looking forward to being able to climb hills again (Cambridge doesn’t have any).

Most of all we feel called to be part of the church family at St Francis in Mackworth. I’m excited to learn, serve and lead in that community.

Ordained deacon on 2 July 2023

Hi, I’m Emma and I will be serving my curacy at St Peter's, Littleover with Blagreaves.

I grew up in a Christian family so have always known Jesus and had a faith.

This has been further strengthened and confirmed within me through different experiences over the years, so that it has become vital to me, and I am passionate and excited to share this faith with others.

I have just finished two years studying with St Mellitus College East Midlands in Nottingham. Here I have completed a degree in Theology, Ministry, and Mission, having completed the first year with All Saints college and he Diocese of Derby before going to BAP.

I have loved learning, and discussing ideas and concepts with others, but not the essays so much!

I feel called to ordination as I believe God has called me to serve his church.

When I was younger, I had a few years away from church and a period where I was angry with God. But when I resolved this and returned to him, I was filled with such a passion and love for the church; a passion to see people’s lives transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and to see the church grow and thrive.

I am always disappointed to hear stories of church decline, and of churches being closed, and I long to see this being turned around, and for the church in this country to be renewed. As part of this I am very keen on church planting and new ways of being church that are relevant and engaging.

I moved to Derby in 2017 as part of the team planting a new congregation into St Werburgh’s church in the city centre. I was the Operations Manager here for four years before leaving to train for ordination.

For my placement church as an ordinand, I joined the team who moved from St Werburgh’s to St Francis in Mackworth, to revitalize that church, and to work with the existing congregation.

I am single, and I enjoy reading, going to the cinema, and meals with friends.

I also love visiting National Trust places, so Derby is a great location for exploring from.

Ordained deacon on 2 July 2023

I felt called to ordination when I was 21 in my final year at university studying neuroscience.

At the time I’d hoped to become a psychiatrist or do research to help enable people to become the fullest versions of themselves they could.

Becoming a priest very much felt like an extension of the hope I’d always had for my life: to see people flourish.

I’m particularly passionate about diversity in the church and seeing people who think differently and have had different experiences of life come together in community.

I’d love to see more of those not currently represented in church leadership supported to offer the gift of who they are. 

My husband Jack and I are both from North Devon but have been involved in church planting in the midlands in recent years before my training for ordination at Trinity College Bristol.

I’m very excited to begin ordained ministry in Chesterfield at St Thomas Brampton.

Ordained deacon on 2 July 2023

Hello to you all!

I’m Nicholas, the soon-to-be curate of the Benefice of Buxton with Burbage and King Sterndale.

I grew up by the coast in the West Country but have spent the last eight years living in Northamptonshire. Since September 2020 I have been studying and training for the ordained ministry at St Mellitus College (East Midlands centre) in Nottingham following a contextual training pathway, which has seen me spend three days a week working in a parish in Wellingborough, and three days a week studying.

My journey to ordination started in 2006 when I spoke with a vicar about having a feeling of being called to something.

I wasn’t sure what I was called to, but he seemed sure that it was ordination.

I decided he was wrong and spent some time doing youth work and trying to avoid any talk of ordination.

To my surprise people asked me if I’d considered being ordained in various places and situations. When working for a wholesaler in Exeter, when attending a church service whilst on holiday in Cornwall, or chatting with a stranger during breakfast in Wetherspoon’s… It seems that there is no hiding from God and his call!

I came to faith in a non-denominational church and have journeyed with the Church of England through its various traditions.

I believe that God calls each of us in our diversity to serve in many and varied ways, and that a part of my ministry is to encourage, enable, and empower others in their calling.

I will be moving to Derbyshire with my partner, Michael, and we look forward to exploring the Peak District together.

Ordained deacon on 2 July 2023

I am excited to be joining Revd Adele Barker as Assistant Curate in the benefice of the White Peak Group and the benefice of Youlgreave, Middleton, Stanton in Peak and Birchover. 

I am married to Guy, and we have 3 adult children, a daughter-in-law who is also a curate in Doncaster, a soon to be daughter-in-law and a very well-loved and spoilt 10-year-old sprocker spaniel. We are also expecting out first grandchild in the autumn so have much to look forward to. 

Before sensing that God was calling me to ordained ministry in the Church of England, we lived in Taunton, Somerset where I worked as Director of People for a hospice.

Before this we lived in Castle Donington so in many ways are returning to a familiar and well-loved part of the country. During our time in Taunton, we were part of a large and lively village church on the edge of the town.

For the last two years, I have been studying full-time for the Diploma in Theology, Ministry and Mission at Trinity College in Bristol, where I have also played an active part in two wonderful and very different church communities in Clifton. 

Ordination was not something I had considered for myself - I had been praying for some time that God would show me where he wanted me to be for the next stage of my life, and about ive years ago I experienced a distinctive answer to those prayers when I had a strong sense, a sort of ‘settled knowing’, that God was directing me to consider ordained ministry in the Church of England. The two-year discernment process was a wonderful time of deepening my faith and knowledge of myself and our faithful God.

I am so excited about learning from and serving the people in the White Peak and Youlgrave Benefices - I love being outdoors; walking, off-road running and cycling are some of my favourite things to do so I’m very much looking forward to exploring the wonderful hills and countryside of the Peaks and catching up with old and not-so-old friends who live nearby. 

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 a few that have caught our eye recently:

Why posting event flyers and posters on social media is a really bad idea…

So the date for the event is set, someone has put posters around the village and now you want to get the message out there on social media.

Surely the thing to do is post the flyer on Facebook and Instagram, right?

No!

Posters advertising events on social media never do well, and there are two good reasons why.

First, you need to make your event discoverable and searchable in as many ways as possible. But when you simply upload a flyer to Facebook, what actually happens is that effectively it disappears... all Facebook sees is a photograph of your poster.

That means it doesn't know what your poster is all about and so it doesn't know whom to show it to!

That in turn means that people cannot search and find it and your event won’t show up in local searches looking for events.

So it’s highly unlikely anyone will come across it – unless they are a follower of your page (and it is already well known that Facebook doesn’t show your posts to ALL your followers).

Too hard to read

The other reason is that, in this digital age, event flyers don’t belong on Instagram or Facebook.

With so much information now being uploaded to the internet, people don’t really stop to read blocks of text.

Social media is made up of platforms that are, in the main, visual and what you need is something that ‘stops the scroll’ and lets people see that your post is worth pausing for.

A flyer packed with text isn’t going to do that.

And imagine how small all that text looks on a mobile phone screen! Remember, most people who use Facebook and Instagram view them on mobiles.

So what should we do?

Use Facebook Events!

Yes, there’s a special feature in Facebook that is designed for promoting events! (It’s free, by the way.)

It’s a little bit more effort than simply uploading a poster, but Facebook Events have the potential to be seen by many more people and, importantly, they are searchable.

They are also included in local lists of events. See some examples here.

Another nice feature of Facebook Events is that people can click to say they are interested or even that they are going. This can encourage others.

On Facebook Events, you could use the artwork from a poster to illustrate your summer fair or concert, for example, but you’d be better to use a striking image from last year’s event together with an engaging caption about the forthcoming event.

>> See Facebook's guide to creating an event

When wording the information (and this applies to all platforms) remember to start with the information people NEED to know. What is important to THEM (not to YOU).

Don’t try to fit in every detail.

What’s the headline?

Is it catchy enough to stop the scroll?

The rest of the details can follow but you MUST grab people’s attention first.

Take a look at the image at the top of this page - that was enough to get your attention and draw you in... there's no detail, just a headline. Keep it simple!

If you know how to use Instagram Stories, try using those. Stories are perfect for promoting events because you can talk about the event multiple times without it living on your feed forever.

Plan ahead - Reach Out!

The earlier you can get your event on Facebook Events the better.

Not only will it give you more time to promote, but your followers will be able to look at what you have coming up and plan accordingly.

Also, don't confine your event promotion just to Facebook. 

Spread the word about your event across all your social media channels and your website. Your Facebook Event can serve as the information hub where people can learn more and get specifics.

Time to stop using those flyers on social!