The Current Situation of the Deanery

During the past six weeks, the nine remaining parishes and larger communities comprising the Deanery have held general meetings and voted (mostly with large majorities or unanimously) to remain in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and therefore to come under the omophorion of Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain. He had made it clear that parishes must go through due processes before being received into the Archdiocese.

We are now a total of 9 parishes and 7 communities, and 21 clergy, including retired and semi-retired. Hierodeacon Nectarius departed this life on 4th November 2019, and his funeral took place in Brighton on 22nd November. On 15th November we held our first clergy meeting with Archbishop Nikitas, and received much encouragement from him. The following day we held a clergy-laity meeting which dealt with the routine business of and then closed the old Deanery and, at a second reconstituted meeting, voted to form a new Deanery under the Archdiocese of Thyateira. Practical arrangements and revised statutes will be drafted over the coming months.  Archbishop Nikitas has made clear in the course of preliminary meetings, and confirmed at the clergy meeting, that we are to continue as a distinct body with our own languages, traditions and organisation within the Archdiocese of Thyateira.

After the meetings, the clergy and lay delegates were invited to Thyateira House, where Archbishop Nikitas greeted and welcomed everyone.

Archpriest Patrick Hodson