Welcome to Southampton! This is an exciting and growing city and the deanery of 19 parishes looks forward to welcoming you into our Chapter and Synod. The city itself is growing in population and in diversity. There are many new developments of housing as well as commercial and cultural spaces adding to an already rich offer of theatres, concert halls, parks, and museums. Major employers in the city include the two universities, a large regional teaching hospital as well as the passenger and cargo ports which keep Southampton Water busy with some of the largest ships in the world. Our city also has its challenges, and some of our parishes are amongst the most deprived in the diocese and in the country. Churches in our deanery are committed to sharing the love of God in practical action in mission to the people we serve.
Our Deanery Chapter alternates between meeting as a whole chapter (normally with a speaker or topic for discussion) and as two half-chapters (for prayer and mutual encouragement). You would be warmly welcomed into the west-side half-chapter. Two of the other parishes on this side of the city have recently entered a new phase of their life and ministry, so you would be joining at a time when others around are also discerning fresh vision from God for what mission and ministry looks like in this part of Southampton.
