What is a Deanery?

 

What is a Deanery?

 

A question you are no doubt asking! It could be the house in which a Dean lives. But not in this case.

 

“The Anglican Communion is a family of 42 autonomous and independent-yet-interdependent national, pan-national and regional churches in communion with the see of Canterbury” operating in over 165 countries.

 

These churches are composed of Provinces, in the case of the Church of England, Canterbury and York. There are also, as it happens, 42 diocese in the Church of England, ours being Chichester, which roughly covers Sussex.

 

Chichester Diocese is made up of four Archdeaconries, ours being Hastings. And these are composed of Deaneries, benefices and parishes.

 

Our diocese comprises 478 churches in 361 parishes grouped into 275 benefices with a clergyperson overseeing each. These are grouped into 21 rural deaneries, each served by a rural dean who is also a parish priest. Ours are largely rural but they need not be. Brighton is a rural deanery. Some diocese have switched to having Area rather than Rural Deans.

 

 The word “deanery” comes originally for the Latin for ten: deaneries originally comprised about ten parishes. Nowadays they are geographically-based, and may contain twice that number, or (for very rural areas) fewer. In this Diocese, some of the deaneries have ancient names, after some of the oldest parishes. Our deanery is Dallington, which though it is a tiny village based around The Street is an ancient settlement mentioned in the Domesday Book. The churches here date from the 13th Century. Dallington is roughly central within the Deanery though people living in the deanery might look to various different surrounding towns for their shopping and other amenities. There’s no real shared centre, which is rather different from a deanery such as Hastings or Eastbourne which is very much based around a single town.

 

Our Deanery of Dallington extends from Hailsham in the south to Hurst Green in the north, Waldron in the west and Salehurst in the east. A map of the deanery showing the churches is available on the Church Near You website. Hailsham is the largest town in the Deanery. Other centres include Heathfield and Burwash. The Deanery is largely rural.

 

When fully staffed, the Deanery is served by 12 licenced clergy, plus any training curates and a number of clergy with Permission to Officiate, who may be retired or have some other work, possibly as a chaplain or in secular employment.

 

The Deanery Chapter of clergy meets roughly every couple of months, usually for lunch, prayer and mutual encouragement. Notices are shared and any business is contracted and sometimes we are joined by a guest from the Diocese or elsewhere. Recently Bishop Will, the Bishop of Lewes, visited.

 

The functions of Deanery Synods are formally set out in the Synodical Government Measure of 1969. A cynic once said that a Deanery Synod is thirty people waiting to go home, but in fact they have lots of potential for good. Deanery Synods exist to promote co-operation between parishes and as a unit of mission and organisation between the level of the parishes and the diocese. It can be useful to work together and share best practice. A Deanery Plan might guide pastoral reorganisation and we also have a Deanery Mission Action Plan which sets out some our shared priorities. We have also done some work on listing the main things each parish is working on and any areas where parishes feel they may have resources or expertise to share with one another.

 

The Deanery Synod normally meets three times a year in a different church or church hall. This consists of the House of Clergy and the House of Laity who are elected by their parishes according to the number on the electoral roll of the parish church. The Church Representation Rules and the Standing Orders govern business. The Deanery Standing Committee (a Secretary and Treasurer and others) help the Rural Dean and the joint (lay) chair to plan the meetings. Normally there is a speaker. And we always have one parish share items for praise and prayer. General Synod (rather like the church’s parliament) or Diocesan Synod can refer matters to the Deanery. And a motion could go all the way from a Parochial Church Council to General Synod via the Deanery and Diocese. Importantly, the members of Deanery Synod are also the electors for General Synod.

 

Only members of synod are entitled to speak and vote but anyone is normally welcome to attend.

 

(This article draws on material from the Anglican Communion, Church of England, Diocesan and Deanery websites as well as other sources).