Deanery Reorganisation Consultation

Background

At the end of July 2020, the Bishop of Worcester opened a consultation into proposed changes to the Deanery structure, reducing the number of deaneries from 13 to 6. This would be brought about by a “Bishop’s Pastoral Order”.

The consultation ran until 4th December, and we were grateful to receive more than 80 responses – from individuals and on behalf of the PCCs, Deanery Standing Committees or Deanery Synods.

As a result of your feedback the Pastoral Order has been amended:

1. Most of the parishes in the “Holy Cross South group” ( with Fairfield, Churchill-in-halfshire with , Broome and ) expressed a desire to be in a different deanery from the proposed Greater deanery, although they didn’t all agree which deanery this should be. As they are all currently served by one vicar, the Pastoral Order has been amended to keep them together, and place them in the Redditch and Deanery. The parish of Clent was the exception, wishing to stay linked with and stay in the Greater Dudley Deanery. As a result, the Diocesan Mission and Pastoral Committee has approved seeking the views of interested parties on a proposal to move the parish of Clent to the Hagley benefice once patrons have confirmed their agreement. A number of representations were received from Churchill and Blakedown expressing a desire to be linked with . This will be explored through local discussions . and it is anticipated that a scheme will be drawn up for consultation in 2021. 2. The “ Severn” benefice also expressed a desire to move to a different deanery, but wished to stay together. As a result of their feedback, the Pastoral Order has been amended such that they will form part of the Kidderminster and Stourport Deanery. 3. The deanery changes will now come into effect in February 2021 following suggestions that it would be better to have a slightly longer period between the announcement of the new deaneries and the implementation, to support consultation over the appointment of Area Deans.

Two suggestions that led to further consultations:

1. We received the suggestion that the Kidderminster and Stourport Deanery would be better named “The Wyre Forest Deanery” as the proposer felt this gave a more representative description of the overall area. Further consultation took place with the Kidderminster and Stourport deaneries, whose clear preference was to remain with the name of “Kidderminster and Stourport” as a) some of the deanery was in the Malvern Hills local authority rather than Wyre Forest, and b) there was potential confusion with the Wyre Forest West benefice. 2. Following a proposal that we should create two deaneries for the area of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough rather than one, the Archdeacon of Dudley and the Diocesan Secretary met with the Dudley Deanery Standing Committee, and engaged with others in the three deaneries. Our conclusion was that there was some real merit in the proposals from the Standing Committee, but there was also a significant benefit in maintaining a single deanery that could take an overview of mission planning across the Dudley Deanery. The Bishop’s Pastoral Order will therefore create a Greater Dudley Deanery, but we see that this could be useful for clergy chapters or other sub-groups for example.

Some common threads emerging from the consultation

 There was broad agreement that simplification was needed – with some respondents suggesting that 7 might be better than 6, and one proposing that 5 might be better than 6. There was little feedback that did not support the broad proposal.  There was a concern that the work of the Area Dean may become too great. We have strengthened the support package for Area Deans, including ensuring that some administrative support will be paid for.  Some respondents raised questions over timing, suggesting that we might do all of the restructuring necessary and then change deaneries, or that we might determine local groupings first and subsequently rearrange deanery boundaries. It is clear that pastoral reorganisation will continue in various parts of the diocese over the coming years and in some places changes won’t happen until there is a vacancy in a particular benefice. This makes it difficult to make all of the changes first and then change deanery boundaries. Moreover, working with larger deaneries makes it easier to make changes to clergy deployment as it gives more options.  Others asked whether it would be more important to tackle the financial challenges facing the diocese first – to which we can reassure that we are also working on addressing those.  Two respondents feared that this was a fait accompli. The first section of this document hopefully reassures that it was not. The above represent a range of common threads – there were of course a range of other views and comments, and with more than 80 responses to the consultation we cannot address them all here. We are, though, grateful to all who responded.