The Methodist Church in Britain has a network of District Ecumenical Officers (DEOs). They work alongside of other denominational ecumenical officers, and the County Ecumenical Officers, to support churches developing ecumenical work.
Their work varies from place to place and person to person but one role they have everywhere is to help with the technical toolbox for ecumenical work, such as constitutions and Sharing Agreements. Each tradition has its own rules and so it can be helpful to have someone on the ground who knows what they are! But the DEO role is much wider, they are there to support churches and to encourage new developments.
Most Districts have at least one DEO. As Districts usually cover more than one county, some of them appoint a DEO for each County.
It is worth contacting your DEO if you are thinking about:
- starting a Local Ecumenical Partnership
- forming a Sharing Agreement, for shared premises
- starting a Churches Together Group
- contemplating collaborative work with other traditions, where you want to explore the possibilities.
Today, is the annual meeting for District Ecumenical Officers. Each year, DEOs have two opportunities to meet. One in the autumn is usually a joint meeting with Church of England Diocesan Ecumenical officers (and occasionally denominaitonal officers from other traditions) and the other is a Methodist only meeting in the spring. This latter is an opportunity to catch up on new developments nationally and locally. Usually, there is a speaker on a topic chosen by the DEOs in the autumn. This year, they asked for an opportunity to share stories and identify some of the issues they are facing. About 18 DEOs will be meeting with officers from the Methodist Church and some of our ecumenical partners.
Image by Austin ampersand Zak via Flickr
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