Welcome to the Thanet Deanery Website

We hope that you enjoy this website and can find out more about us. Please give us feedback because we are always wanting to improve our site. Perhaps before you look at the individual parishes it is helpful to have some background information.

There has been a Christian presence on Thanet for a long time. St. Augustine landed at Ebbsfleet in Thanet in 597AD, on a mission to bring Christianity to Britain. The St. Augustine Cross at Cliffs End stands at the spot where, it is believed, Augustine first met King Ethelbert, whom he later converted to Christianity. Minster Abbey was the site of the first English monastery, founded in 670AD.

Today, Thanet has a population of approximately 127,000 spread across the three main towns of Broadstairs, Margate and Ramsgate with significant villages of Minster and Birchington. There are approximately 50 different churches offering Christian worship and ministry across Thanet. The Church of England in Thanet has 25 places of worship welcoming over 2000 weekly worshipers. We are a very mixed community but hold a very common identity. The rich diversity of parishes is challenging but each tries to reach out to their local community through a variety of projects. As churches we try to work together across Thanet and this will be exemplified this year through the work of HOPE 08.Thanet Deanery is part of the Diocese of Canterbury. The Diocese is at the forefront of empowering the local church through the Deaneries.

In the future more of the strategic decisions that affect the local area will be addressed through the Deanery. This is both an opportunity to develop but also a responsibility to work more closely together and to own our future. We hope that better communications will help us as we move forward and that this website will be well used and prove helpful.

Thanks for your visit and please pray that we will be faithful to what the Lord wants of us in our day.

David Roper - Area Dean

Judith Rigby - Lay Chair