A reminder of our next national deacons’ conference! It will be on 16 May 2020 at the same venue as last year, the Frances Young Centre at Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham. Put the date in your 2020 diaries now and ringfence it! Accommodation will be available on site at a very reasonable cost. If you’re eligible, you can apply to your diocese for CME funding.
The speaker will be the Rt Rev Martin Seeley, Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, and Chair of the Church of England Ministry Council.
His theme will be:
‘Towards a Flourishing Diaconate: Theological, Pastoral and Formational Perspectives’.
This autumn we will once more put up the booking details on Eventbrite.
Some people might be feeling a bit disappointed that it seems so far away. I’d like to encourage you to see the next few months as a way of preparing for the conference.
Please consider getting together with deacons nearby: either in your own diocese, or, if you’re on your own, in nearby dioceses. It doesn’t have to be big or posh or even a conference: it could be an informal lunch, diaconal chat and time of prayer.
Think through the three issues that +Martin will be addressing. What are our hopes for the diaconate? How do we want it to flourish? What is involved with making it flourish, in theology, in pastoralia and in training and formation?
But most of all – just enjoy being with other deacons! Feel the love – of like-minded others, and most of all, of God for you and of you for God.
CofE Network of Distinctive Deacons 