Items filtered by date: December 2015

Lullington All Saints' Remembrance display this year will be memorable after villagers got together to knit and crochet 10,000 poppies 

The poppies have now been assembled into a waterfall, cascading from the church building in the South Derbyshire village.

The idea was the brainchild of Jean Burgess. Speaking to BBC Radio Derby, Jean said: "I put it on Facebook, and then another lady in the village said she'd put it on Facebook, another said 'I'll knit you some poppies' and it just escalated.

"We started the waterfall and we thought we'd need about 3,000 [poppies] - and my husband measured up and said 'no way!'

"I thought we'd never do it."

Jean, who knitted around 5,000 poppies herself, said that putting the appeal on social media and a websites in other villages got many more people involved.

>> Listen to the full interview on BBC Sounds

>> See more photos on Facebook

30 November

The Revd Catrin Hubbard, Assistant Curate in the Buxton with Burbage and King Sterndale Team Ministry, Diocese of Derby, has been appointed Student Missioner (Assistant Curate) in the parish of Derby St John the Evangelist in the same diocese. Catrin will be licensed on Wednesday, 17 January 2024 at 7.30pm at St John’s Derby by the Bishop of Repton.

The Revd Christopher (Chris) Smedley, Rector of Wilne and Draycott with Breaston, Diocese of Derby, has announced his retirement. Chris’ last day in post will be Friday, 31 May, with his retirement taking effect from Saturday, 1 June, 2024.

23 November

The Revd Mark Griffin, Rector of St Martin and St Paul Canterbury, Diocese of Canterbury, has been appointed Priest-in-Charge of Beeley and Edensor, Diocese of Derby.

The Revd Jonathan Page, Vicar of Belper Christ Church with Turnditch and Priest-in-Charge of Hazelwood, Holbrook and Milford, Diocese of Derby, has announced his retirement. Jonathan’s last day in post will be Wednesday, 31 January 2024, with his retirement taking effect from Thursday, 1 February 2024.

16 November

The Revd John Wigram, Vicar of Ripley and Priest-in-Charge of Swanwick and Pentrich, Diocese of Derby, has announced his resignation. John’s last day in post will be Tuesday, 30 April 2024, with his resignation taking effect from Wednesday, 1 May 2024.

15 November

The Revd Christopher Holden, Assistant Curate (Associate Priest-SSM) of the Denby Group, Diocese of Derby, has announced his retirement. Chris' last day in post will be Thursday, 30 November, with his retirement taking effect from Friday, 1 December 2023. Chris will hold the Bishop of Derby's Permission to Officiate in retirement. 

3 November 

The Revd Kenneth (Ken) Johnson, Assistant Curate (Associate Priest-SSM) of Somercotes, of Alfreton and of Riddings and Ironville has announced his retirement. Ken’s last day in post will be Thursday, 14 December 2023, with his retirement taking effect from Friday, 15 December 2023. Ken will hold the Bishop of Derby’s Permission to Officiate in retirement.

You've spent a lot of time organising your Christmas events and services, so make sure as many people as possible know about them!

The first thing to remember is to think about the language you use:

Mind your language

Make your welcome message current and invitational.

We assume people know they are always welcome in church, but the sad truth is that many don’t realise that or find it intimidating.

A genuine, warm, welcome will ease any anxiety. 

However, do try not to use:

• 'Join us' - although it sounds welcoming, many perceive this as them having to join in the activity of an exclusive club that they are unfamilar with. Instead, try 'Come along to...', 'All welcome'
• 'our church' - again, this sounds like they are joining an established club. Instead, try 'the church', or even 'your church' if it fits the context
• Don't go heavy on the theology! Many people who go to church only once or twice a year may not be thinking about the original significance of Christmas; to them, it is a time for families, lights, trees and togetherness - and that is a great start! An invitation to enjoy carols and a Christmas atmosphere will resonate with some more than 'celebrate the birth of Jesus', so be sure to consider all audiences and not just those who are already engaged with the Church. Remember: write for your intended audience, not for yourself!

Where to spread the word

Don't rely on just one method of getting your event known about.

Channels you can use include:

• Posters
• Local event publications
• Local newspapers and local radio stations
• Social media

Poster top tips

• Limit the number of fonts you use (two is plenty) and ensure that they are easy to read.
• Limit the information included to the essentials, if you need to say more include a link to your website or social media.
• Keep it simple - one large image is generally better than lots of smaller ones.
• Don't be afraid of white space!
• Ask someone to check your work before you print.
• Is it clear what the event is?
• Have you included the date, time and place?

How to promote your event on Facebook

Once you have your event planned, you might think the simple option is to post a picture of your poster on Facebook. No! 

Posters shared on your page are not searchable, meaning that anyone looking for an event near them will not see it, as Facebook sees this only as a  picture and doesn't know what it says.

By far the best option is to set up an event on your Facebook page - that will allow people searching to find you and your event.

People can also share the event; reply to say they are attending - and that will show in their timeline, meaning their friends might also see it and want to attend.

It is like word of mouth online!

You can also invite people to the event to help spread the word

Setting up events is easy, and Facebook has a brilliant help section taking you through the process step-by-step.

The tutorials are available as text to read or as a series of short videos, however you prefer to learn.

Find out more here and see an example here.

Promote on X (formerly Twitter)

X can play a great role in promoting your Christmas services and events and now is theperfect time to take a few moments and makesure your profile picture and information are upto date.

Use images but remember that they don't show up in searches so include text too.

Good tweets are engaging, thought provoking and open.

Where possible, use warm and welcoming words, not isolating ones.

For maximum audience reach, look for active community online groups in your area and share the tweet with them.

Don't forget to also include tags like #Christmas #FollowTheStar #Carols #Community, #ChristmasTreeFestival and also include @DioceseofDerby and @churchofengland.

Connect with your community

Putting a poster up on your noticeboard is great, but don't forget to put them up in places that people outside of your congregation can see them.

Think about:your local school, shops, scout and guide groups, library, village hall, WI group and supermarket.

Have a look at local facebook groups and share your event with them too.

Use your local media

Don't forget to let your local newspaper and radio station know about your events.

At the very least, send them a list of your events but better still, send them a well-written press realease.

If your event has a strong visual element (eg a Christmas Tree Festival) let your regional TV broadcasters know too - they're always looking for potential colourful and interesting images.

Stretton Handley School writes:

On Tuesday, 3rd October, Stretton Handley Church of England VC Primary School had a very special visitor.

The Rt Revd Libby Lane, Bishop of Derby, kindly gave up her afternoon to join the children in a special Collective Worship service.

Staff, governors, parents / carers and members of St Mark's Church congregation were also in attendance.

The school's Church Council members led the service with prayers and the lighting of candles.

Bishop Libby gave an interactive talk to the children which included telling them what she did and what she wore.

She asked five pupils to come out to the front and allowed them to try on each part of her 'Episcopal vestments' and gave an explanation of what each part meant.

Also in attendance was Mr Ernest Fox, whose grandfather originally started the giving of a Bible to Year 2 pupils annually; he gave an explanation of how it all started.

His own father, Sam Fox, took over the tradition when the Sunday school ceased to run in 1960 and the Fox family have continued with the tradition, for which the school is extremely grateful.

On this particular occasion, pupils from Years 3 and 4 who had missed out before the Covid lockdown and unforseen circumstances also received a Bible.

Bishop Libby and Mr Fox presented the Bibles together.

In September 2021, St. Mark's Church started the tradition of giving out 'Special Bears', which came in a decorative bag with its own poem, to all the pupils attending the school.

This has now moved forward and each new starter receives their own "special bear" at the start of the new school year.

These have proved to be very popular and a source of comfort at times for the children.

This small gift confirms the link between the church community and school; let's hope it will continue to do so into the future.

Bishop Libby presented the new children with their own "special bear", but the biggest surprise of the afternoon was when the tables turned and Bishop Libby was presentedwith her own 'Special Bear' by one of the school church council members.

Knitted in purple wool, it came complete with it's own gold vestments showing the school badge.

Bishop Libby was very pleased to receive it and said she would treasure it.

A very pleasant afternoon was enjoyed by all in attendance with a wonderful atmosphere that was difficult to miss.

>> Derby Diocesan Board of Education website

The recent Storm Babet forced the vicar of St Alkmund's, Duffield, to move a wedding to a neighboring parish after river water innundated the church.

St Alkmund's, which is in the flood plain of the River Derwent, was one of many in the diocese affected by the storm.

This is the second time the church has flooded in the past four years and the third time the church hall has flooded.

The vicar, Revd James Hughes, said he had to move Saturday's wedding to nearby St Paul's Little Eaton: “By Friday, previous experience told me that flooding in the church was a distinct possibility.

"So I kept in close contact with the couple and we decided to delay the final decision until Saturday morning.

“With three inches of water in the church building on Saturday, it was a quick decision, not to mention the two feet of water in the church hall!

"When we did the wedding rehearsal on Wednesday, little did we know that things would not go according to plan, though the bride and groom were very understanding about the situation, even though it wasn’t quite what they had in mind.”

The clean-up operation is now underway, though it may be a week or two before services can resume in St Alkmund’s.

It is hoped that the local Church of England school can host the church’s services and there have been a number of offers of help with the clean-up.

Other parts of the village flooded too because the River Ecclesbourne also burst its banks, a scene that was repeated around Derbyshire and in Derby.

The Rt Revd Libby Lane, Bishop of Derby, said: “My prayers are with everyone affected by the flooding as once again so many lives and livelihoods have suffered.

"We give thanks for our local authority teams and emergency services who rose to the challenge of keeping us safe, and for the resilient partnerships across the city and county that facilitated such a coordinated and generous response to the crisis.

“The people of Derbyshire have an incredibly strong sense of community and I know that many neighbourhoods, businesses and individuals are rallying round to support those who need it most.”

A weekly series offering tips and ideas to help you promote your events and services to your local community and further afield.

Making sure your A Church Near You page is up to date is really important.

As always, the Church of England's national campaign will be sending people to the main A Church Near You website.

From there, people can find the relvant pages for our churches and if your details are not there, you will be missing out on attracting potential visitors to your church over Chistmas. 

Remember too that being an A Church Near You editor also gives you access to a whole load of Christmas resources that you can use for free!

A little time invested now could easily see you rewarded with people engaging with you for the first time over Christmas and beyond.

Adding information to ACNY is easy and the functionality is improving all the time. Incumbents are automatically editors of their church’s ACNY pages, but special arrangements are easily put in place for those parishes in vacancy.

People are already planning which events and activities they will attend this festive period so don’t leave it until Advent before updating ACNY – make sure you have access now so you can get everything in place before the seasonal rush!

At the very least:

1. Ensure your contact details are up to date on ACNY. That means an up-to-date telephone number that people can call (if possible) and a link through to your church's website and/facebook page.
2. Make sure your page's welcome message is there and is actually welcoming! Make it invitational and, most importantly, make it relvant to those visitors to the page who may not already be regularly enganed with the Church. We assume people know they arealways welcome in church, but the sad truth is that many don’t realise that or find it intimidating. A genuine, warm, welcome will ease any anxiety.

 Ideally:

1. Post details of all your Christmas services and special events (such as Christmas tree festivals). This makes them searchable and more easily findable by the general public.
2. Use the system's 'tag' facility to make your events stand out even more.
3. Add your other regular services and group activities. If people like what happens at Christmas, they may want to come back – so make it easy for them!
4. Facilitate your facilities! Does your church have toilets? Accessible toilets? Do you serve refreshments? Is it wheelchair friendly? Do you have a hearing loop? It’s all useful information to let first-time visitors know what to expect.
5. Lighten up! Christmas is a time of joy and hope and of giving and sharing, so let your communicatios reflect this and don't be afraid to inject a little humour.

See also:

>> How to become an editor of your A Church Near You page (CofE website)

If you struggle with your A Church Near You page, please contact the Communications Team. (Please note, the Comms team cannot give you access to your page or update it for you, but we can help you get there!)

Want to take this further?

Watch how to use your ACNY page as your main website

11 October 

More than 70 Bishop's Badge Awards have been presented to church and community volunteers in the Diocese of Derby this year.

The final presentations were made in a special Celebration of Lay Ministry, in Derby Cathedral on Sunday, 1 October.

The annual awards celebrate lay ministry and service in church and community, and recognise the distinguished service and dedication of many individuals contributing in Jesus’s name to the mission of the church.

Bishop Libby said: "It is always a pleasure to mark and celebrate the gifts of people across the Diocese of Derby and to thank those who offer so much to develop and sustain the life of the church and its work in the wider community.

"We give thanks for the often hidden, yet crucial and remarkable work of people who do not seek recognition, but whom we honour specially today."

>> See the photos from Sunday, 1 October

>> See the photos from Sunday 17 September

There were three Bishop's Badge Services this year.

The first was held to celebrate generosity and courage shown by school children towards others.

The other two services, held in September and October, recognised missional innovation and missional long service in parishes, churches and communities thoughout the diocese.

Recipients of the Bishop's Badge are nominated by clergy in the parishes of the diocese and the reasons for the nominations can be wide and varied.

On receiving his Bishop's Badge in September, John Sterland said: "My late father whilst being a member and former tower captain of St Andrew’s (Swanwick) received a badge a few years ago for his work supporting the major refurbishment of the clock and bells at St Martin’s Alfreton. I feel quite reflective and privileged at being recognised in a similar way."

And nominating Cara for a Bishop's Badge Schools Award, her head teacher said: "Cara goes above and beyond to show love and support to her peers; always noticing if someone is struggling or left out and offering friendship; showing what it means to build community by supporting and welcoming everyone. Her unquestioning support for others during tough times, even when she herself has been experiencing difficult situations, is transforming to those who she stands alongside and a model for others to follow."

Those presented with Bishop's Badges on Sunday, 1 October were:

Awards for Missional Innovation

• Helen Hodgson, Belper, St Peter
• Beryl Hill, Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby
• Ann Johnson, Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby
• Ann Jwala, Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby
• Sue McIntyre, Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby
• Anne Parkin, Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby
• Barbara Walford, Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby
• Margaret Bromby, Cotmanhay and Shipley, Christ Church
• Robert Henry Glassey, Elmton with Creswell and Whitwell with Steetley
• June Fawcett, Great Longstone, St Giles
• Su Woollen, Great Longstone, St Giles
• Hilary Maltby, Matlock Bath, Holy Trinity
• Sue Wells, Old Whittington, St Bartholomew

Awards for Missional Long Service

• Barrie Birkin, Ashford in the Water, Holy Trinity
• David Lee, Ashford in the Water, Holy Trinity
• Kathryn Naylor, Bakewell, All Saints
• Carol Wicksteed, Bakewell, All Saints
• Joy Layton, arlow, St Lawrence
• Alan Milner, Barlow, St Lawrence
• Roger Stubbins, Barlow, St Lawrence
• Geoff Walker, Barlow, St Lawrence
• Keith Wollerton. Belper, St Peter
• Robin Norman, Blackwell, St Werburgh
• Julie Barker, Boulton, St Mary
• Iris Armett, Buxton Team Parish
• Josephine Fry, Buxton Team Parish
• Alan Kirk, Buxton Team Parish
• Eric Thompson, Buxton Team Parish
• Pam Woodroffe, Buxton Team Parish
• Brian Moorhouse, Castleton, St Edmund
• Doris Gould, Chesterfield, Holy Trinity & Christ Church
• John Holmes, Chesterfield, Holy Trinity & Christ Church
• Audrey Musson, Chesterfield, Holy Trinity & Christ Church
• Julie Hart, Cotmanhay and Shipley, Christ Church
• Alwyn Tew, Cromford, St Mary
• Kim Hardy, Derby, St Anne
• Alison Haslam, Derby, St Anne
• Dennis Bull, Derby, St Barnabas
• Dorothy Ann Oliver, Derby, St Barnabas
• Valerie Dykes, Etwall, St Helen
• Jennifer Rowson, Great Longstone, St Giles
• Jennifer Rowson, Great Longstone, St Giles
• Peter Rowson, Great Longstone, St Giles
• Andrea Clarke, Hatton, All Saints Church
• Alison Mottram, Hatton, All Saints Church
• Frances Toye, Hatton, All Saints Church
• Michael Osborne, Holbrook, St Michael
• Susan Crabb, Matlock Bath, Holy Trinity
• Lindsay Steele, Matlock Bath, Holy Trinity
• Rachel Coupe, Melbourne,St Michael with St Mary
• Hazel Hole, New Mills, Saint George the Martyr
• Margaret James, New Mills, Saint George the Martyr
• David Wellens, New Mills, Saint George the Martyr
• Pat Hassall, Sawley, All Saints and St Mary
• Anne Ball,Stanley and Stanley Common
• Janet Costall, Stanley and Stanley Common
• Sue Hartley, Sutton on the Hill, St Michael
• Janet Hopper, Swadlincote, Emmanuel
• David Hopper, Swadlincote, Emmanuel
• Maggie Fenby-Taylor, Ticknall, St George
• Jenny Stewart, Ticknall, St George
• Margaret Whyte, Ticknall, St George
• Paul Whitehall, Walbrook Epiphany
• Jean Parsons, West Hallam, St Wilfrid
• Ruth Bennett, Whitfield, St James
• Gillian Booth, Whitfield, St Luke
• Laurie Gill, Whitfield, St Luke
• Janet Magson, Wingerworth, All Saints

Those presented with Bishop's Badges on Sunday, 17 September were:

Awards for Missional Innovation

• John Bird, Littleover, St Peter & Blagreaves
• Jim Davison, West Hallam, St Wilfrid
• Gen Tarr, New Mills, Saint George the Martyr
• Margaret Weightman, Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby
  
  

Awards for Missional Long Service

• Michèle Aspinall, Allestree, St Edmund
• Kate Bassford, Sawley, All Saints and St Mary
• Janet Bradshaw, Sutton-cum-Duckmanton
• Liz Broomhead, Hartington
• Christine Brown, Blackwell, St Werburgh
• Bryan Clarke, Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby
• Margaret Clarke, Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby
• Emson Maneya, Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby
• Ann Cooper, Youlgreave
• Averill Crisp, Swadlincote, Emmanuel
• Lynne Dawson, Old Brampton, St Peter & St Paul
• Christopher Dullage, Hartington
• John Entwistle, Matlock Bath, Holy Trinity
• Jane Entwistle, Matlock Bath, Holy Trinity
• Rob Groome, Risley, All Saints
• Brenda Harrop, Youlgreave
• Hannah Hawkins, Brimington, St Michael and All Angels
• Sylvia Homer, Stanton by Dale, St Michael and All Angels
• Zoe Leleux, Stanton by Dale, St Michael and All Angels
• Sue Marsh, Bakewell, All Saints
• Sally Renshaw, Tibshelf, St John the Baptist
• Patricia Rhodes, Tibshelf, St John the Baptist
• Cyril Roberts, Old Brampton, St Peter & St Paul
• Melanie Rose, Belper, St Peter
• Phil Sparrow, Chesterfield, SS Augustine
• John Sterland, Swanwick, St Andrew and Pentrich, St Matthew
• Mary Thompson, Smalley, St John the Baptist
• Mo Tolson, Risley, All Saints
• Alan Tolson, Risley, All Saints

Recipients and their families take the opportunity for a photographic memento with Bishop Libby