Building relationships and trust is the key to being a successful Strategic Rural Dean as far as Revd Helen Baber from the Pydar deanery is concerned.

The role of Strategic Rural Dean was introduced to the diocese in November 2024 to lead deaneries in implementing their deanery plans. The process to fill the 12 Strategic Rural Dean roles is well underway with seven now in place.

Helen, who has been in her incumbent post in the deanery for eight years, was previously Pydar’s Rural Dean and agreed to take on the Strategic Rural Dean role earlier this year. Helen said: “I don’t think I could have taken this on before. I needed to establish myself in my benefice first, establish those relationships and build strong teams, so that I could take the time out to do this role and trust that my benefice can function effectively without me always there.”

Local Leaders should lead local churches

Helen says she is a firm believer that Local Leaders should lead local churches because they have that relationship with their community. She is proud to say that in Pydar they have many fantastic lay leaders who take on work and lead but is keen to point out that it takes time.

“I have some great local leaders, and we are building up strong local teams, but it takes time. My role is to identify and develop local leaders and build teams. You have to speak the same language, and you must enable them. It takes trust and relationship building. If you don’t enable them, you are basically just telling them what to do. Part of my role is to accept they may not do it the way I would, but as long as you trust God, speak the same language and have the same ideas, it will work.”

To support the development of Local Leaders, Helen uses the gift of time from PtOs sparingly. PtOs are all licensed to the deanery rather than individual churches and benefices and many are active in social and charitable events, one is even a PCC secretary.

Funding from the diocese enables the deanery to employ a deanery admin for seven hours a week and Helen says this is invaluable.

Helen said: “Through identification, development and upskilling, they have become a fantastic asset to our team. They provide the admin support, and this is helping me get a good oversight of the whole deanery. Because we’ve taken time to build relationships, I know I can trust them to do that job.”

“..fantastic opportunities available such as Sens Kernewek..”

Jackie is one of two Local Leaders supporting Helen who completed the diocese’s Sens Kernewek programme which helps people to discern their calling during its first cohort. “I always use the diocesan resources to train my team. There are fantastic opportunities available such as Sens Kernewek and the Worship Leader course run by Lydia Remick and as a result, I have people who now bring such gifts.”

Helen believes it is important to have a confident, developed team so that if someone with a collar walks in, they don’t automatically defer to them and expect them to do everything. “This benefice can function without me because it has good people.”

Culture change takes time

The benefice’s new ways of working have led to culture change, but it has taken time occurring little by little and driven by continuing to talk, Helen hopes this is beginning to transfer to the rest of the deanery.

“Culturally we have come on by leaps and bounds. It’s largely been done by focusing on relationships. Finding people who want to see change, people who talk the same language and at times it has meant leaving behind the people who don’t want to move forward. That can be very difficult because I think most priests are people focused, and we want people to feel part of the church but it’s about accepting its ok if people do move on.”

The role of the Strategic Rural Dean is to drive the implementation of the deanery plan and is an oversight role for the whole deanery. It is quite different from the previous Rural Dean position which was largely a pastoral post supporting clergy colleagues and acting as a point of contact when parishes were in vacancy.

Helen is clear that the strategic role requires that she has an awareness of the whole deanery not just from the incumbents’ perspectives, but from the parishes and local leaders right through to deanery synod. “Working in this way means you don’t lose any of the knowledge or wisdom, particularly if a parish goes into vacancy.”

Supporting Helen in her role is the Deanery Implementation Team (DIT) and the Deanery Synod Standing Committee. Having the right people on each enables them to work more effectively together.

Key is to have the right people

“It really is key to have the right people. The DIT is made up of people who have relevant skills and experience. The Deanery Synod is elected people from across the parishes who are there to represent their community.”

A key part of the role of the DIT is to keep deanery synod informed of the work being done on their behalf and to provide information to the diocese about how funds are being spent on key projects. A good standing committee for synod helps this process run smoothly. “In Pydar Deaney we are trying to link these two groups, so communication is more fluid.”

Helen says that the deanery plan in Pydar is still being implemented and there may need to be changes. “When we started our deanery planning, we had four distinct benefices with different incumbents and each virtually had their own plan. It made implementation hard. With movements and changes due to incumbent vacancies we reached a stage where there was me, the team at St Gregory’s and our lay people and we took the opportunity to look again at the plan and saw there were actually lots of crossovers. That’s when my benefice and St Gregory’s decided to start with work around deprivation and poverty and we set up a CAP project.”

Helen says the team started doing small things that could be done while the wait for more incumbents happened. They used the LICF funding to set up the CAP and now it operates across the deanery. The same process is happening with their children and young people’s work.

Helen says they review all the work they do at six months to ensure something is worth continuing with.

“When you are looking at any change, it is important to celebrate endings. We aren’t good at marking or celebrating endings and so things tend to drift off into oblivion and then people see them as failures. It didn’t fail, it just ended, and we didn’t acknowledge it. That’s why we do six-month reviews. We start something, review it at six months and then at that point we can end it if needed.”

After almost a decade in the deanery, Helen feels she can take a longer-term view of the ebb and flow of parish life. “One of my churches is struggling with money this year. They had previously been in a situation where they were struggling for people to take on the key roles but following discussion with the community people came forward. They wanted to keep the church building open and alive in their community. They are more focused in the practical tasks of their roles, but their faith is growing for some slowly; they come to services and bring their families along to festivals such as Easter. Some of these newly established PCCs can be quite insular in how they view the C of E, it is all part of the ebb and flow and parish church life, but cultural change can take time. It does mean their focus is the community interest, and diocesan or deanery plans just aren’t relevant to them and they don’t see why they should pay MMF. They are more than happy to fundraise for the church roof or practical things needed in the building.

“This year may be a lower year in terms of money. It’s not failure, it just part of a bigger, longer journey. I have been here long enough now to see the pattern of up and downs. I can see that the changes over time have been positive.”

Advice for wannabe Strategic Rural Deans…

When asked what her advice would be to someone considering being a Strategic Rural Dean, Helen said: “If you’ve been a Rural Dean before, it’s nothing like that! You need to get to know people, find out what their gifts are. Go to meetings and listen to who people are talking about. It takes time, you need stability, good relationships and trust.”

She added: “I do really love this role though and feel that through the AMD programme for Strategic Rural Deans and the support from the Archdeacons, I am being enabled and empowered, to take on this leadership role.”

Isaac McNish, Head of Ministry, said: “Oversight Ministry is at its best when it’s rooted in relationships -discerning the gifts within each community and equipping local leaders to step forward. When we invest in people and trust them to lead, we see our churches flourish in ways that are both fruitful and sustainable.”