About Us

We are a benefice of six rural, welcoming, active and inclusive churches who love God and care deeply for our local communities. Our churches have different characters and spiritualities but we are committed to being a united benefice, in order to glorify God through our outreach and worship. Our communities describe us as "welcoming". All of our church communities cherish the word of God and love in-depth preaching, whilst some are lower or higher up the candle in terms of service style.  "We aren't [all] young but we rarely act our age!"

As part of the diocese of Salisbury, we are committed to 'Making Jesus Known' in our communities, through service, outreach, and worship. All of our churches are inclusive and strive to make everyone truly welcome.

Our beautiful benefice is situated above the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We fill the valley between Dorchester, Puddletown and Cerne Abbas and we share strong relationships (as well as congregants) with our neighbouring teams. 

We are surrounded by rolling hills and wonderful walks, whilst a world of picturesque coastal towns is within easy driving distance. Our demographic is mixed in economy, with the large majority classed as either 'Rural Reality' or 'Country Living' by MOSAIC (Experian). Dorset is approaching a slow growth into a more multicultural existence; our parishes have been growing larger and younger through several new developments, which have brought new life and some much needed diversity into our communities.

Across our benefice, we have 6 villages, 15 hamlets, 5 pubs, 3 Post Offices/shops, 2 cafés, 2 care homes (and a specialist dementia home, arriving soon), a hotel/restaurant, a psychiatric clinic, a doctors' surgery, an animal park, a nature reserve, 2 Sites of Special Scientific Interest and 6 churches.