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Canterbury Deanery

Welcome to the website of the Canterbury Deanery

This webpage is just a start; we hope soon to provide much more information about the Deanery of Canterbury. What is a Deanery? It is a small collection of Church of England parishes which work together in worship and mission.

This is a small diagram showing the borders of the various churches that form the Canterbury Deanery. You can find more information about churches in the Canterbury Deanery here, including contact details. Soon, we hope to have much more information here on this site. However, the Deanery of Canterbury embraces the City of Canterbury and some of the rural and suburban areas around it. The Cathedral is within our Deanery. These centres of worship and mission may be parishes or groups served by chaplaincies. They each have their identity and offer ministry and worship to their communities. The Deanery brings us together to listen to each other, to learn from each other and to share experience in mutual love and trust. The Deanery can help us to discern opportunities to work together to address needs that cross boundaries or require more resources than one parish or group can offer.

There are times when we share what we do separately; there are times when we work together.

How the Deanery hopes to grow

By listening

• Be committed to Synod and Chapter
• Worship together
• Talk to each other
• Learn from the ecumenical scene
• Engage with Diocesan forward thinking

By learning

• Share good practice and valuable experience
• Develop and use efficient communication
• Encourage partnership
• Study together
• Encourage Churchwardens to meet

By loving

• Consider strategies for new residential developments
• Support Citywide and local mission initiatives
• Share our resources
• Advise on the deployment of clergy and ministers where they are most needed
• Be economical with time and paperwork

What the Deanery hopes to achieve in the following months

• Financial support for the Churches Together revised leaflet for Parishes giving information about the Churches of Canterbury.
• Awareness, & prayerful and practical support of mission projects taking place where you are throughout the Deanery.
• Encouraging collaboration and teamwork

Some local projects that need your prayers during 2008

• St. Mary Bredin: the redevelopment of the church building and the ongoing work of helping with orphanages in Vietnam and water projects in Uganda.
• Christ Church University and St. Martin & St. Paul Canterbury: working together to fund a Youth Minister for University & Parish to engage creatively with those on the margins of faith.
• St. Nicholas Thanington:: promoting a Credit Union sub-branch for Thanington and the facilitation of a "Wholeness & Healing" ministry.
• City Centre parish: working to make the churches accessible as community assets, centres of worship and sanctuaries of silence.
• St. Michael's & All Angels Harbledown: a new Hall for Parish outreach.
• Canterbury Cathedral: a ministry of welcome and hospitality to all who visit.
• St. Dunstan's: a new youth group and, in order to keep the church open and to protect visitors throughout the day, a CCTV installation funded by grants.
• Sturry & Westbere: a week of guided prayer in July.
• St. Stephen's Canterbury: providing a variety of worship for all and encouraging family involvement in Parish life and worship.
• All Saints' Canterbury: to take the Church out into the Parish.
• Blean: developing with CMS as a local/global parish & developing the Church Room for young people's work and community use.
• HMP Canterbury Chaplaincy Team: being a prison for foreign nationals, our chaplaincy focus is to continue to encourage good relations in this international community.

Other Deaneries

There are fiftenn other deaneries in the Diocese of Canterbury, covering the whole of East Kent from the Isle of Thanet to Maidstone and from the North Kent coast to Romney Marsh. More information is available here.

© The Canterbury Deanery 2008