Hounslow Deanery

Parish Churches serving communities across north-west London

Category Archives: News

25 May

Message from Archdeacon Richard Frank

(For a PDF version of this letter, click here)

Dear Friends in the Hounslow Deanery Chapter,

Resignation of The Revd Sarah Guinness as Hounslow Area Dean

Sarah Guinness has been a wonderful colleague and friend to many of us during this past year as she has so ably carried the role of Hounslow Area Dean. Bishop Graham asked Sarah to take on the task at the beginning of 2020 and she agreed to serve for a year to see how it sat alongside settling into her time at Brentford. Little did she, or any of us, know what that ‘initial year’ would involve!

As the new Archdeacon (and her predecessor in Hounslow, of course), I have had good reason to be grateful for her willingness to say ‘yes’ and I know that her fellow Hounslow clergy, the other Area Deans and Bishop Graham have felt the same.

This week, Sarah has decided, after much consideration, not to continue as Area Dean. She wants to focus her time and energy on the parish of Brentford as she anticipates a new curate starting this summer, the reopening of the St Paul’s café and plenty else in the pipeline. I know you will join me in praying for her in this next chapter of her ministry and time in Brentford. We are very glad to continue as her colleagues and partners in ministry and mission.

Bishop Ric (Acting Bishop of Kensington) and I feel that appointing a new Hounslow Area Dean should be for Bishop Graham on his return. I am grateful therefore that Elis Matthews, at St Mary’s Osterley Road, who has been Assistant Area Dean for much of the past year, has agreed to continue in that role and ‘hold the fort’ until the summer. When Bishop Graham returns, he will consult with the Chapter and make his decision on whom to appoint longer term.

In the meantime, may I thank you for all you have done over these past months to pray for, minister to and lead your churches through the astonishingly difficult and tiring time we have been living through. Please do be in touch if I can support you and those you serve in any way.

Every blessing

The Ven. Richard Frank
19th May 2021
cc. Bishop Graham; Bishop Ric; Fred Michell (Hounslow Deanery Lay Chair)

14 Jul

Message from the Archdeacon

Archdeacon’s Update

The speed with which things are changing means that any detail I might write about re-opening our churches & buildings could be out-of-date within days (hours?)…

However, the main CofE Covid-19 page contains links to all the relevant guidance (church and government) and is updated very regularly. In the meantime, a few key links to note and use:

If in doubt, do contact your Area Dean Sarah Guinness and/or me – between us we’ll find a sensible way through the complications and questions that we’re all dealing with.

Praying for wisdom, energy, and grace in the coming days.

Richard

22 Apr

Updates and Useful information 20th April 2020

Dear Friends,

Following Thursday’s Zoom meeting, below is a list of important information for clergy to know during the current COVID-19 outbreak. This is a long email, but please do read through to the end!

Funeral Information

  • Funerals are currently being organised locally by Funeral Directors. The centralised system is available, but most people are just using the normal means of contacting clergy. If you are isolating and unable to do any funerals at the moment or have more than you’ve got capacity for, please email me as we can help to share the load.
  • Funeral Fees are currently waived. This is an expectation rather than guidance and applies whether the deceased is a COVID19 death or not. Please make sure your local Funeral Director’s know about this.
  • Funeral Pastoral Care for Clergy is available in the Kensington area from John Ryeland. He can put you in touch with a wide range of services that might prove helpful, such as a listening ear, prayer, psychotherapy and more. Email: john.ryeland@london.anglican.org
  • New Funeral Standards have now been released by London’s Strategic Coordination Group (SCG), please do familiarise yourself with them (available here) and let me know if you have any questions. The press release from SCG is here. 
  • Liturgy for Thanksgiving and Memorial Services for future use are currently being put together. Watch this space for the update on this along with any new liturgy.

Community Care

  • The Food Bank at St Paul’s Hounslow has capacity to deliver more widely so do refer people if you need to. The Referral pack isavailable here.
  • They would also appreciate additional volunteers to sort the food into bags in preparation to be collected/delivered. If anyone has volunteers who are under 70 and don’t have any underlying health conditions please email Revd Claire Clarke with their name, email address and telephone number so they can be added to the list of volunteer helpers.
  • Do people in your community need meals? Working with charities, the landlord of the Anglers Pub in Teddington is making meals that are frozen and can be delivered to vulnerable or older people who are isolating. Delivery and collection are available. They are still working out the logistics, but if you want to know more please click here, or contact Ben (07921 331508) or Jamie (07900 681167).
  • Looking for more sources of help? The Hounslow Rotary Club has put together this useful document that outline areas you can go to for different problems

TrainingBuilding Church during the COVID19 crisis. This week’s zoom, on Thursday 23rd at 2pm, will be an hour with Daniel Mackintosh, from Citizens, focusing on Community Organising and Congregational Life.

How could our congregations be different coming out of Covid19? We barely had a chance to plan upon entering this crisis, but we can plan for how we come out of it. Churches are adapting and finding new ways to grow and deepen in this moment. To build on that join us for an hour to share stories of how community organising, through organising charity Citizens UK, has been used to strengthen congregational life, develop those who have stepped up to leadership and inspire innovation in church practice.

Join the  Zoom Meeting on Thursday 23rd of April at 2pm
Click this link (https://zoom.us/j/334060828) or use the meeting ID: 334 060 828

Financial Support

  • Giving to Churches. Churches are taking different approaches to encourage ongoing financial giving from the congregation during this crisis. Some are putting links to giving pages/ via church suite on their website, another church is using DONATE by text to encourage people to give as they don’t seem to take a percentage (details can be found here), others are putting BACS information on church emails so that people are encouraged to keep giving, despite not being at church.
  • Helping people during the Crisis. Capital Mass has published this guidance to helping people financially during this crisis, we really do encourage taking a look through.


If you’re not on the clergy WhatsApp group please send me an email with your mobile and I’ll add you to the group.

I hope to see as many of you as possible on Thursday 23rd at 2pm for the training on Building Church during the COVID crisis.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch,

07 Apr

Funeral Guidance during the Covid-19 Outbreak

Thank you so much to everyone who has volunteered to help with funerals during this difficult time. For your information, with effect from 6 April 2020, the London Diocesan Fund authorises parishes and their clergy to waive all fees for funerals, whether due to the PCC, or Diocese.  This is due to the COVID 19 / Coronavirus, and will be in place until 30 June 2020 when this matter will be considered again.
At the bottom of this post, please see four documents supplied by the diocese to assist in your funeral arrangements during this time. The areas we would like to highlight to you are:
  • The Central point of contact for all churches in the Diocese of London: funerals@london.anglican.org / 020 3837 5008 from Wednesday 8th April, from 8am to 10pm 7 days a week.
  • Every funeral should have a celebrant
  • Shortened services – see Funeral Ministry Info below
  • Pass the details of funerals you take to keiron.ronan@london.anglican.org
  • Consider Memorial services at a later date

Funeral Ministry Information. The updated briefing paper that has been issued to Area Deans is available here.

Funeral Directors.  For details of a central funeral line for you to pass to your local funeral directors at your discretion please click here

Clergy Support Team. A list of those available to support clergy who are officiating at funerals is available here.

Supporting Ministers in Funeral Ministry. The notes from Hilary Ison for those taking funerals can be found here.

14 Mar

Coronavirus Planning and Resources for Clergy

Some useful links and resources to save:

General Advice

  • Church of England page: keep checking this – support if you need to make unpopular decisions, and clear boundaries within which to make good local decisions. Additional detail on London Diocese page.
  • Official UK Government Advice.
  • Catering: Exeter Diocese has helpful informal (i.e. not mandatory) guidance – thanks to Sarah for passing them on. PDF here.

Financial Issues

  • If you have any questions relating to financial issues due to the Corona Virus outbreak, please see the latest newsletter from the Diocese of London Finance Team here.

Church and Community

Online – or on the phone – Church

  • While services are still happening – but some are having to stay away – here’s how to set up your church for live streaming.
  • Start thinking about to connect with people who do not have access to social media? Prayers by post, phonecalls (pairing people up to pray together each morning on the phone?) etc…
  • If services cease for a while, think now about how you might keep connecting with the congregation – would they benefit from a daily email with prayer, a regular blog or a weekly webcast?
  • And don’t forget the CofE Prayer for the Day online (and on Alexa).
15 Jan

The Power of Invitation

The Power of Invitation

7.30pm Monday February 4th 2018 – St Michaels Church, Elmwood Road, W4 3DY

Join us at the first Deanery Synod of 2019 where Hounslow Deanery Synod is delighted to host international speaker Michael Harvey. Michael has spoken to thousands of church leaders in his Seminars and has to date seen hundreds of thousands of Christians mobilised to invite others to church services and events. He launched the first National Weekend of Invitation in June 2018 and is author of the books ‘Unlocking the Growth’ and ‘Creating a Culture of Invitation’. As an itinerant speaker he has a ministry across 18 countries and 5 continents and in February he will join us to unwrap the topic of evangelism in a whole new way.

Following Michael’s talk we will have time  time for questions, and the sharing of resources and good practice. As always, we will finish by 9pm.

If you would like to register your interest please sign up here

17 Jan

Good News for All Creation – Joint Synod

Resourcing the local church to take action…

7.30pm Tuesday February 6th 2018 – All Souls Church, TW1 1PBHounslow, Hampton & Spelthorne Deanery Synods are delighted to host a joint open meeting to hear from A Rocha. The Christian charity works for the protection and restoration of the natural world as a response to the biblical mandate to care for the earth, and to demonstration the Christian hope for God’s world.

A Rocha’s new CEO Andy Atkins will be speaking about their work: practical involvement in conservation through projects and research; campaigning on biodiversity & also engaging with churches, schools, communities and individuals.

Helen Stephens (until recently Hounslow Deanery Secretary) will also be speaking. She is A Rocha’s new Church Relations Manager and works with local churches particularly as they work towards the Eco Church awards.

The evening will feature time for questions, discussion and the sharing of resources and good practice. We will finish by 9pm.

This Synod meeting is open to all interested church members, not simply Synod Representatives.

Please note that parking is limited around the church. Do aim to come by public transport (St Margarets Station & the H37 bus) or leave extra time to park.

Find out more about A Rocha at arocha.org.uk and download a pdf to pass on to others.

19 Jun

A statement on the attack outside the Muslim Welfare Centre, Finsbury Park – on behalf of the Deanery of Hounslow (CofE):

My Friends

Last week we had the pleasure of meeting as fellow faith community leaders from across the Borough of Hounslow.

We committed ourselves, once again, to building healthy relationships of mutual respect and appreciation between communities and individuals of different faiths and cultures. We found ourselves in agreement across faiths about the importance of countering extremism, speaking out against hatred, building mutual understanding and remaining open and welcoming worshiping communities.

In that context it was especially heartbreaking to read with growing horror, early reports this morning of the attack outside the Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park.

On behalf of Church of England parishes across the Borough, I join the Rt Revd Adrian Newman, Bishop of Stepney, in condemning the horrific attack.

As Bishop Adrian said: “An attack on any faith is an attack on us all. As a Church, we stand together with Finsbury Park Mosque, in the wake of this morning’s appalling news. It sadly comes after a weekend, in memory of Jo Cox MP, that celebrated all that brings us together, and I know that the Mosque, hand-in-hand with other local faith and community groups, was at the heart of events in the Finsbury Park area. We will offer up our churches to help our friends at the Mosque in any way we can. We will not be cowed by those who seek to terrorise our communities.”

I will be supporting my clergy colleagues as we reach out in friendship to local Muslim centres of worship and express our solidarity and support.

Our heartfelt prayer continues to be that people of every race, culture and creed should have the freedom to worship and live as members of local communities here without fear of threat or prejudice. We will continue to do all we can to foster a society where this is the experience of every person.

RSF signature

Rev Richard Frank
Hounslow Area Dean
19th June 2017