Directory

You can search the diocesan database for parishes and mission communities and to find out contact details for clergy, readers and parish officers, where they have given their permission to be included.

Deanery Details for Shirwell

Archdeaconry: Barnstaple

Benefices in the deanery

Ilfracombe, Lee, Woolacombe, Bittadon and Mortehoe

Ilfracombe Saint Philip and Saint James, Combe Martin and Berrynarbor

Lynton, Brendon, Countisbury, Parracombe, Martinhoe and Trentishoe

Shirwell, Loxhore, Kentisbury, East Down with Arlington, Bratton Fleming, Challacombe and Stoke Rivers

Swimbridge, West Buckland, Landkey, and East Buckland

Deanery Officers

Mr Neil Derek Hobbs (secretary)
Phone: 01769 573493
Email Mr Neil Derek Hobbs

Mrs Maureen Richards (lay chair)
Phone: 01271 883880
Email Mrs Maureen Richards

The Rev Rosie Austin (rural dean)
Phone: 01598 711962
Email The Rev Rosie Austin

Follow the Star into church this Christmas

A number of churches in Devon are planning to display giant stars throughout Advent and Christmas as a way of inviting people to come along to a Christmas church service. It’s part of a national Church of England campaign called Follow the Star which launched at the Archbishop of Canterbury’s official residence, Lambeth Palace, on 25 November with a spectacular light show. Exeter Cathedral has a large four-point star on its West front as part…

Devon’s churches and cathedral offer a ‘service to democracy’ by hosting hustings

Churches in Plymouth are playing their part in the General Election campaign by hosting candidate hustings. The first took place on 25 November at Methodist Central Hall. The hustings have been organised by the Churches Together in Plymouth organisation and this is the fourth General Election it has run them, the previous ones were 2010, 2015 and 2017. Its chair, Chris Clewer, said: “We were initially asked by the Plymouth University Chaplain if we’d consider…

Devon gets comic treatment with new Grass Roots discipleship course

An exciting new resource using comic-book illustrations set in Devon to help people explore Christian faith has been developed by Jon Curtis, Diocese of Exeter Lay Discipleship Advisor. Grass Roots is a collection of ideas and activities aimed at Christians and people interested in learning more about the life lessons that Jesus offered in the Bible. Jon said: “Jesus spent much of his life showing his friends and those he met stepping stones so that…

Exeter Cathedral Girl’s Choir celebrates 25 years with specially commissioned canticles by Nico Muhly

Exeter Cathedral Girls’ Choir is celebrating its 25th birthday this month by performing two new choral works specially commissioned for the anniversary. The new versions of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimitis are by the renowned American composer Nico Muhly. His previous works have included two operas for the New York Metropolitan Opera, film scores, pop collaborations and church music. He was a boy chorister in Rhode Island and says that when he wrote the pieces…

Inspiring stories at special St Boniface Award service

“Liz so deserves this medal, she’s helped hundreds like us. It’s just the little things that Liz does that touches the heart of people. She’s our driving force and without her we wouldn’t be where we are today, none of us.” Christine Hole says when she and her husband were in debt they were saved from taking their own lives by the advice and prayer offered to them by Liz Camp, one of the first…