2025 CENDD Annual Report
Members of the Steering Group July 2024-5:
Angelika Bocchetti (Southwell & Nottingham)
Lucy Bunce (Ely)
Terry Drummond (Leeds)
Rachel Fielding (Blackburn) – Minutes Secretary
Jonathan Halliwell (Diocese of Europe)
Gill Newman (Chelmsford) – Chair
Chris Sheehan (Worcester)
Looking Back
Steering Group changes
This year we have welcomed 2 new members to the Steering Group: Dcn Terry Drummond (who returns to the Steering Group after several years), and Lucy Bunce. We were also delighted to welcome back Dcn Angela Bocchetti after her maternity leave.
We said a sad ‘farewell’ to Dcn Michael Turnbull, grateful for his work as Secretary since the founding of CENDD. With Michael’s departure, Dcn Rachel Fielding kindly offered to be Minutes Secretary.
We also said a final farewell to Dcn David Bean, grateful for his work over the years as our Treasurer and then Honorary Treasurer. We are delighted that Dave Cosslett has agreed to join the Steering group and take on this important role.
Conference
CENDD’s main event last year was the organisation of a very successful online Conference. Last Orders? Restoring the priority of the diaconate was attended by around 60 Distinctive Deacons, Ordinands and Enquirers from around the country. The conference began with the opportunity to meet our new patron, Bishop Pete Wilcox. Attendees felt encouraged to hear he has a vision for the diaconate as a fully restored third Order in the Church of England and by his stated commitment to work for the establishment of a national database of DDs as a first step towards this.
In the first main session, Joy Gilliver (Head of Ministry in the CofE), supported by Revd Dcn Rebecca Swyer and Revd Dcn Rachel Bennett, unpacked what ‘Oversight’ ministry means for Distinctive Deacons – a subject that often causes confusion.
After coffee, DDs had the opportunity to meet one another in breakout groups – a session which, as the feedback demonstrated, was greatly valued.
The final afternoon session looked at the challenges and opportunities of being a DD curate, with contributions both from DD curates and training incumbents (TIs).
Feedback from the conference was overwhelmingly positive and, following on from the session about curacies, the Steering Group, led by Jonathan Halliwell, has been developing a Curacy Guide for DDs, Training Incumbents and DDOs.
My thanks to the Steering Group for working so closely together to organise and present the conference- it was a true team effort; also to Ken Farrimond for advice and practical help with the technology, to Rachel Fielding for collating the feedback, and to Jonathan for writing a report for the blog.
Regional Groups
In my Annual Report two years ago, I reported that our system of having Regional Coordinators (based on the Episcopal areas) who would act as a link between CENDD and DDOs in their area, and also host regular zoom meetings to bring DDs in their areas together, was not working well. This has continued to be the case, with only one group still meeting and many areas lacking an active Coordinator.
This year, the Steering group took the decision to disband the Regional Group system, partly because the area groupings were felt to be too large. Instead, the aim is to try to find a ‘link’ DD in each Diocese who will keep in touch with their DDO to pass on information about the diaconate and about CENDDs activities and to offer vocational support, as and when appropriate. With the disbanding of the regional groups, the Steering group encourages individual DDs to support one another in their own informal groupings, and to communicate any concerns and issues with the Steering Group via our well-established social media channels.
Ecumenical Links
Thanks to Terry Drummond for representing CENDD at the Methodist convocation this year and for his report about the gathering. He writes: The key theme of the gathering was a reflection on Philippians 1.1-11 ‘Continue to become the people God wants us to be individually and as an order’, for the sake of the world.’ [It was] a reminder for all of us who us who are called to be Deacons, that our ministry is rooted in the Church but takes us into the wider community.
Social Media
Thanks are due, once again, to Dcn Gill Kimber who has faithfully continued to monitor and update our social media channels including Whatsapp, Facebook and the website, in the absence of others who feel able to take these responsibilities on.
The website statistics are particularly encouraging, as Gill Kimber reports:
- In the last 5 years there have been 83,000 views and 50,000 visitors.
- Each year the number of stats has climbed
- Most-viewed page is the Home page, followed by ‘what is a distinctive deacon?’
- Our reach is global: people have accessed our website from an astonishing 188 different countries
- The most popular post last year was ‘A Deacon’s Prayer’ at 2.7K views
- Most-downloaded file is ‘Deacon in an Interfaith Context’ (by Jess Foster in resources)
- By far the most-read section of the website is the blog, as we’d expect, followed by Resources
- There are 154 subscribers
This is a fantastic reach and demonstrates the importance of social media in increasing knowledge and awareness about the Diaconate to interested Enquirers, as well as supporting DD and DD ordinands.
Looking Ahead:
As we look ahead at the coming year the Steering Group is aware that DDs ministering in the Church of England face many different issues and challenges. The challenge for the Steering Group is to discern where to channel its limited capacities.
National database
As mentioned above, our Patron, Bishop Pete Wilcox, supports the establishment of a national database of Distinctive Deacons. At present, dioceses are not required to specify how many Distinctive Deacons they have in their annual clergy return and, even if they were, it would be difficult for them to do so because the systems used by most dioceses to record their clergy do not seem to be set up to record clergy by their Order of Ministry. Therefore there are currently no national statistics for DDs in the CofE.
CENDD compiles its own unofficial list of DDs but this involves contacting each DDO individually and is very time-consuming. The Steering Group aims to work with +Pete towards the establishment of a national register of DDs as a starting point to greater national recognition of diaconal ministry within the CofE.
Completion of Curacy Guidelines
Thanks to the work of Jonathan Halliwell and Angelika Bocchetti, we now have draft guidelines for DD curates. Over the coming year, the Steering Group aims to distribute these for wider consultation and discussion with the aim of having a workable document that can be made available to Dioceses.
Conferences
Conferences and events which bring DDs together for mutual support, encouragement and teaching are considered an integral part of CENDD’s aims. The Steering Group aims to organize an online event in Autumn 2025 and an in person/online conference in 2026.
Vocations Workshops
A Vocations Zoom organized this year for Discerners and Enquirers was well-attended and demonstrated a need for further such events. It is hoped to organize an online event specifically about Stage 1 Carousel conversations for Discerners, and also to offer a general zoom about the Diaconate to Enquirers, possibly to tie in with Vocations Sunday.
Link DDs
As mentioned above, the Steering Group would like to build a network of ‘Link DDs’ to raise awareness of the diaconate in each diocese and to offer vocational support to DD enquirers as and when possible. It is envisaged that Link DDs will be in regular contact with their DDO/DDM to keep diaconal vocations ‘on the agenda’, will be someone DDO’s can refer new enquirers to for a chat, and will be able to pass on information about CENDD and CENDD events. The Steering Group would welcome hearing from any DD who would be willing to take on this role in their own Diocese or who is interested to find out more.
Final thoughts:
There is still so much that could be done and needs to be done to help raise the profile of diaconal ministry within the Church of England and to encourage further vocations. There is still so much to be done to resource DDs in their training. There is still so much ahead of us to ensure that the ministry of Distinctive Deacons is properly recognized, valued and supported at a local level, a diocesan level and a national level. There is a lot to be done!
The CENDD Steering Group is comprised of ordinary DDs who give their time voluntarily whilst leading busy lives in ministry and secular jobs like all other DDs. As it says ‘on the tin’, our responsibility is to give a ‘steer’ to the network of which we are all a part. Maybe you could join us. Whether there’s a specific skill or area of experience you could offer, or whether you are simply willing to ‘lend a hand’ we’d love to hear from you.
If you don’t feel able to join the Steering Group, we’d still love to hear from you: what are the issues you feel strongly about as a DD or DD ordinand or Enquirer? What’s working really well for you? Are you facing particular challenges? Could you write a blog post about an aspect of your DD ministry or training that you’d love to share more widely? If so, the Steering Group would love to hear from you. You can contact us via the Whatsapp group or send an email deaconsonthemove@gmail.com or via the website.
Finally, an enormous ‘thank you’ to all those who have served on the Steering Group this year.
I end with the quote cited by Joy Gilliver at our conference as being particularly important for deacons:
“We need heralds of the Gospel who are experts in humanity, who know the depths of the human heart, who can share the joys, the hopes, the agonies, the distress of people today, but who are, at the same time, contemplatives who have fallen in love with God.”
Pope John Paul II
Revd Dcn Gill Newman
Chair of CENDD Steering Group
June 2025
CofE Network of Distinctive Deacons 