The Dover Town Team of Churches Vision
First, we want to be spiritually fruitful; to follow Christ and be his disciples. Second, we want our churches to work together in their unique ways to show our love for our God, our neighbours and our community. That will involve inspiring worship; deepening faith; persistent prayer; mutual care, and reaching out with Jesus’ love to those in need.
Inspiring worship
The unity of breaking bread together in the Eucharist; the soaring beauty of choral music; the joy of contemporary worship songs; the awesomeness of catholic ritual and symbol; the creative quest for discovering God at Messy Church – all this is experienced somewhere in our Team of Churches week by week. Wherever you are in your journey with God, there is something for you.
Deepening faith
Vibrant, enlightening and inspiring sermons not only from our clergy team but also from our growing team of licensed lay preachers.
Deepening Discipleship and Alpha Courses; Advent and Lent courses; Connect Groups, designed to help connect us to God, each other and our wider community.
Messy and Mini-messy Churches; Youth Alpha, and other groups for young people and children.
Persistent prayer
Morning and evening prayer throughout the Team every week; times of a special call to prayer, such as in Holy Week or the Novena – that 9-day period between Pentecost and the Ascension. Much of our prayer is, of course, hidden. But we will explore this year how else we might learn the practice and discipline of prayer together.
Mutual care
We aim to give a warm welcome to visitors at all our services. We want to share what we have found beneficial with others.
A lot of the care we give each other goes on behind the scenes, but our Pastoral Care Teams visit those who are unwell or housebound and lonely in a more formal way.
Prayer for healing is offered at some of our services, but we’re hoping to develop this in other ways too.
Social events happen at all of our churches. They strengthen our church communities and provide a way for others to join us.
Reaching out
There are so many ways in which our churches reach out to show God’s love to people in our communities…
Pastoral services of baptism, marriage and funeral
A co-ordinated approach to develop the best, seamless care in both administration and pastoral need at these crucial times of life, and by keeping in touch afterwards.
Ignite-D
Church, but not as you know it: A new kind of service for those for whom life is especially tough or who can’t cope with usual Sunday worship.
Links with local schools
We help local schools with Collective Worship, RE, governance and other dimensions of their life. A number of church members are governors.
Community Café
Run at St Mary’s each month, it is extraordinarily popular and provides a safe space for people in need on a Saturday morning.
Conversation Club
Run in Charlton Church Crypt, it is especially for those for whom English is an additional language, and fosters friendship alongside language skills.
Dover Soup kitchen…is now situated in St Mary’s porch, but is run by many teams, including some from each of our congregations.
Dover Winter night Shelter…is hosted in some of our church halls, but many of our church members volunteered in a variety of venues.
Other Dover initiatives
Many of our members also volunteer at the Dover Outreach Centre, The Dover Foodbank and the Dover Street Pastors.
What can you do?
Embrace something of this vision – some part that resonates with you.
Pray for all those who help to run our projects, and those we seek to help.
Join in with something - anything or anywhere that seems to call out to you.