As a deanery we are not unique in becoming a single parish, it is all part of our Diocese Pastoral Plan. Here’s more detail on the plan.
Bishop Richard issued his third Pastoral Plan for the Diocese, "The Word Who is Life: The Call to Mission” in January 2024, appointing Canon Kieron O’Brien as the Episcopal Vicar for Pastoral Planning. In a reflection shared with Catholic churches in Epsom recently, Canon Kieron explored the progress of the Plan: "Over the past seventeen months, across the Diocese, our eleven former deaneries have started the process of becoming eleven new parishes, served by a team of clergy, who - while retaining their particular connection to a specific community - will be working more closely with each other than before.
"Each of these new parishes is at a different stage, with the pace of change tailored to local circumstances, but it is hoped that by the end of this year (2025) all 11 new parishes will be formally established. This new model will hopefully facilitate some economies of scale and sharing of resources. However, if we see this purely as a structural change to enable greater efficiency, we will be missing the whole point of the Pastoral Plan. To this end, we need to return to three key words: Vision, Mission and Synodality.
"It is essential that the leadership (clergy and laity) in our new parishes can unite around a shared vision of what the Catholic Church, in this time and place, can look like, and feel like. Bishop Richard shares his vision for the Diocese in the opening pages of the Pastoral Plan; that is a good place to start, but the vision also needs to set the direction of travel locally, so that the Parish can be truly mission focused...This can only be achieved in a spirit of synodality, which is 'church speak' for 'walking together and accompanying each other in faith.' Key to this are conversations in the Spirit (which can be one-to-one or in small groups) whereby we listen deeply to each other, to discover what is in our hearts for our new parishes."
Canon Kieron's reflection in full
Wednesday 25 June 2025 | Top | Home