Church of England

Church of England
Diocesan Church House, 211 New Church Road, Hove , BN3 3ED. T# 421021.
http://www.diochi.org.uk/ or http://mission.diochi.org/

Diocesan interfaith liaison team: The Revd Dr John Twisleton and Ms Bonnie Evans-Hills.

The Revd. Canon Neil Milmine ( Brighton ) and the Revd. Phil Moon ( Hove ) are the rural deans who have oversight of the work of the parishes and clergy.

Christians are called upon by Christ to love the Lord their God with all their heart and all their soul and all their strength, and to love their neighbour as their selves.

The Church of England is one of the Christian churches in England and traces its origins back to a mission sent by Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century CE.  Christians had been here long before that, perhaps even in the years immediately following the time of Jesus himself.  Christians worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus.

Although after the Reformation Christians in Western Europe divided into different denominations, the Church of England is committed to the quest for unity between divided churches.  It is a broad or comprehensive church which allows a wide diversity of interpretation while maintaining some essential core beliefs and structures, for example the Bible, the creeds agreed by early councils, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper (mass, eucharist, holy communion,) and government by bishops in succession from the apostles.

The smallest level of organisation of the Church of England is the parish, a geographical area which means that nowhere is the country is outside or beyond the concern of the church. In a changing and increasingly pluriform society, the Church of England wants to maximise its fellowship with adherents of other faiths and to work with them for the good of the community as a whole.  Having been for many years in the forefront of struggles against slavery and racism Anglicans and other Christians are especially concerned to ensure that the policies of our own country respect the dignity and rights of everyone.

The Church of England is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a fellowship of dioceses (local churches) organised in about 38 autonomous "provinces" with approximately 70 million members.

Brighton and Hove is part of the Diocese of Chichester which covers the whole of Sussex , East and West.  In Brighton and Hove there are over 50 Anglican church buildings, with an average total Sunday attendance of about 5,000 served by approximately 50 clergy (priests and deacons.)  In the city there are 8 Church of England schools whose combined membership is about 1800.