I think all the Annual Meetings have now taken place (or if not, there are only a couple left). That means that the Deanery Synod representatives have been appointed for the next three years. Some of these will be new (welcome!), and some will be the same as before (welcome back!). This post is for all the new or returning members and for those who have come to the end of their term of office. I hope it will also gain a wider readership across the deanery amongst folk who might be generally interested in deanery matters. Members of past Synods who have ever registered with the deanery website will also be advised by email that this blog post has been written. I encourage you all to share it with friends from your churches who might like to know how the parishes of the deanery are Living God’s Love.
Anyone who wishes to keep in touch with news from the Synod and the activity of the parishes across the deanery more generally, is invited to register as a member of the deanery online community through this website. You do not have to be a Synod Representative to do this. The website has been reconfigured so that different users will be given different levels of access to the site and sent different emails depending on their own interests and roles within the deanery, e.g. those who have been appointed to Synod will see more of the site than those who have not, and those who are appointed to the Standing Committee will have even more options available.
What does this mean practically? Well, it means that everyone who wishes to receive emails from and about the deanery needs to register as a member of this site. Yes, that does mean that if you were a registered member previously, you need to register again. I’m sorry about that, but the only way of upgrading everything properly was to start over. I will shortly be pulling the plug on the automated mailings that have been used to circulate this and past blog posts in favour of something that is easier to administer and more in keeping with our own website content generally. (You’ll see what I mean when you sign up!)
So how do you do it? It’s really simple. Just click the button at the bottom of this article and fill in the relevant boxes on the application form:
- Use a username that you don’t mind people seeing (so probably best not to use your email address!). And please don’t use spaces in it – they will be ignored.
- You can set your own password, or choose the one that is recommended. A word of warning, though – if you choose the complicated one recommended by the website, make sure you write it down somewhere before submitting your application to join the site or you will have problems remembering it when it comes to logging in!
- Enter the parish or benefice with which you’re associated.
- Tick as many boxes on the list of roles (paid or voluntary) that you hold within the life of your church. There’s even an “other” box if you think we’re missing something! In time, we hope this will help us to create tailored content for the website which will serve our members and their churches and communities more effectively.
Once you’ve filled it all in, submit the form and it will come to me to approve. After a short while (within a week!) you can expect to receive a brief email back from me asking you to confirm your application. (This process just ensures we don’t get lots of fake accounts “signing up”.)
After that, you will be able to log in (you’ll get another email to tell you that) and you will start to get our emails as appropriate and begin to play a fuller part in the life of the deanery.
To those whose time of office has come to its end: thank you for your service to the Synod and its mission within the deanery. Please do sign up to keep up to date – your expertise and input is still valued, and you may find an avenue for further service in something we publish that doesn’t require you to be on the Synod formally!
To those who are returning or are just starting new terms of office: thank you for your willingness to serve. I look forward to working with you over the coming years. Please sign up as quickly as possible, otherwise you will miss valuable information. We intend to use the website and its new facility for as much of our communication as possible because it is the simplest way to ensure we are GDPR compliant.
To anyone else who is interested in the mission of God in the Deanery of Hertford and Ware: You might be a church warden, musician, PCC secretary or lay leader of worship; you might be someone who is interested in helping the churches meet their Net Zero targets or someone who knows about planning legislation who could help us engage well with developers and councils as they look to build houses in our parishes; you might be someone with a heart for the homeless or poor, a teacher in a church school or a retired member of the clergy: whoever you are, please do sign up to keep informed. Your expression of interest will help us shape our work for the future.
Thank you all very much.
Mark Dunstan
Rural Dean