The Dover Town Team Ministry (also known as the Dover Town Benefice) is a collection of parishes/churches working together to serve the town of Dover.  Member churches are:

• Parish of St Mary, Dover
• Parish of St Peter and St Paul, Charlton
• Parish of St Andrew Buckland-in-Dover with St Nicholas Buckland Valley
• Parish of St Martin, Dover
• Parish of St Martin, Guston
• Cross-Links (partner in mission)

Team Rector’s vision

“Above all, I want us to be spiritually fruitful; to follow Christ and be his disciples.  My vision is for our churches to work together in their unique ways to show our love for our Lord, our neighbour and our community.  That will involve inspiring worship; deepening faith; persistent prayer; mutual care and reaching out with God’s love to those in need.”

Rector’s Report 2018

The Staff Leadership team consists of:

VACANT                                        Team Rector with pastoral responsibility for St Mary’s Dover

Revd melissa Carter                      Team Vicar with pastoral responsibility for St Martin’s Dover

Revd Josias de Souza                   Mission Priest with pastoral responsibility for Buckland and Charlton parishes

Revd Trish Godfrey                         with responsibility for Aycliffe congregation

Revd Sean Sheffield                      curate

Nigel Collins                                   with responsibility for St Andrew’s and St Nicholas’ congregations

Angie Stupple                                 Pastoral Team Leader

Malcolm Gavin                                 Deanery Lay Chair

Jill Sarjeant                                     TeamDevelopment Officer

Working together; being unique

Together, we can combine resources to give us energy and time to do more things, and to do things no single parish could manage.  And each church community has a unique character and calling to its locality.

Inspiring worship

Each of our congregations has its own minister responsible for worship and pastoral care:

Aycliffe congregation                                              Trish Godfrey

St Andrew and St Nicholas congregations             Nigel Collins

St Mary congregation                                             John Walker

St Peter and St Paul, morning congregation          Joss Walker

St Peter and St Paul, afternoon congregation        Josias de Souza

St Martin, Dover congregation                                Team Vicar/Josias de Souza

St Martin Guston congregation                                John Walker

Deepening faith

Opportunities open to existing, new and future disciples include:

The Alpha course

Alpha is an opportunity to explore life, faith and meaning; courses run a couple of times during the year. 

Advent and Lent courses

During Advent and Lent we run courses and activities to enable participants to draw closer to the heart of God in hi9s birth and death for us. 

Dover College of Ministry

The Dover College of Ministry meets regularly through the year and is open to anyone in a leadership role in our churches.  

Connect Groups

These are small groups which meet weekly in people’s homes designed to help connect us to God, each other and our wider community. 

Provision for children

This is an area we hope to develop further; currently there is some provision for children in each of our parishes. 

Mutual Care

Pastoral care teams were established in each parish under the oversight of Angie Stupple as team leader.

Reaching out

Our Mission Priest plays a key role in encouraging us to reach out to show God’s love to people in our communities, especially to people who do not yet know Jesus.  Here are some ways in which our churches reach out…

Pastoral services of baptism, marriage and funeral

A co-ordinated approach ensures the best, seamless care in both administration and pastoral need at these crucial times of life, and by keeping in touch afterwards.

Ignite-D

This is a new kind of service for those for whom life is especially tough or who can’t cope with usual Sunday worship.  Ignite-D takes place on Mondays at St Mary’s Church from 7pm.

Links with local children and schools

Members of the team regularly spend time helping local schools with collective worship, RE, governance and other dimensions of their life.

Community Café

This takes place at St Mary’s Parish centre, not only is it popular, it provides a safe space for people in need on a Saturday morning.

Dover Soup kitchen

This ecumenical venture runs every evening at 6pm from the St Mary’s Church porch.

Dover Winter night shelter

This ecumenical venture runs through the winter months with a different church hosting guests each evening.

Keep up with what's going on

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