Rector and Priest in Charge : Fakenham, Fulmodeston

Introduction

Fakenham and Fulmodeston are delightfully different churches set in very different contexts, who have learned to enrich each other’s life and ministry by working with the same parish priest. You will find collaborative and engaged communities, desirous of supporting their priest and their parish, and keen, with you, to share the joy of the faith with those around them. Their ‘can-do’ approach makes this one very attractive post and not two impossible ones.

Both the parishes of Fakenham and Fulmodeston need, and want, to nurture missionary disciples who can draw others into the joy of faith. While the diversity of worship available at Fakenham has many advantages, a new Rector will want to ensure that the church is knows its tradition and is confident in that, in order to grow. We will be looking for a candidate who is able to encourage lay people to take active leadership roles, and to support those who already have such roles, who is intentional about church growth with concrete ideas as to how to bring this about, and who has a good track-record of building relationships. Underpinning this, we are seeking a candidate who is rooted and grounded in prayer. We do not need someone who can do everything, but rather an incumbent who can envision, motivate and liberate colleagues to engage young and old alike. We hope for a priest who can build up the Christian congregation, create compassionate community in and beyond the churches, and concentrate enough, but not too much, on finance and administration. We believe that our new diocesan vision, to be Transformed by Christ: Prayerful, Pastoral and Prophetic, provides an excellent foundation on which to build and against which to revise and update Fakenham’s Mission Action Plan.

Main Responsibilities

Who we’re seeking…

As Rector, Fakenham Parish Church

Our desire is to grow in the understanding and sense of our mission. We seek a new Rector who can walk with us in God’s mission in our parish and encourage us to take part in living out and sharing the good news of Christ in a genuinely attractive and tangible way.

To help you to recognise and reflect further on our needs, we offer a few questions for you to consider:

• Does your strong personal faith shine through in an encouraging and inspirational way?
• Are you friendly, caring, sociable, inclusive, and able to relate to all the residents of the parishes and not only church members?
• Are you passionate about sharing God’s love with young people and young families?
• Do you enjoy preaching and teaching the gospel of Christ in a modern, engaging, intelligent, and inclusive way, recognising the relevance to life today and the differing life experiences of your congregation?

As Priest in Charge, Christ Church, Fulmodeston

We are a thoughtful and committed congregation and look for a priest who will minister to us in the traditional mould, with an appreciation for the value and dignity of the traditional liturgy at the same time as embracing other styles of worship and inviting all to feel nourished by them. He or she would hopefully do that with leadership and energy to reveal the further mysteries of scripture and religious thinking.

• Christ Church is a very collegiate and welcoming congregation and we hope for someone who will respect and contribute to this: we will give our new Priest-in-Charge our full support in return for his/hers.
• We hope for a priest who will respect our traditions of BCP worship sympathetically and genuinely, not just paying lip-service, but will recognise that we are also open to services of a range of complexions. The most important thing to us is that whatever is done is done with dignity and integrity and that the existing congregation continues to feel at home at Christ Church.
• On the pastoral side, we need someone who understands the workings of rural community life and will engage actively with the non-church community, thereby positively supporting the life of this small village in a way that is accessible, approachable and accountable. The right person will thus, by example, encourage people in the village and wider area to feel even closer to what is, after all, their church.
• We are committed to fund-raising in order to look after this beautiful building which is at the heart of the village and in order to pay our share of the costs of ministry. We hope that our new Priest-in-Charge will give full and active support to the range of fund-raising events which we mount.
• We enjoy sermons which make us think. Our new Priest-in-Charge needs to be able to project into a generous but tricky acoustic in order to be heard: microphones and loud-speakers are neither one hundred percent reliable nor fool-proof but the human voice should be!

The Ideal Candidate

We believe we need a very special person to be our new priest. Of course, we do! We are ambitious for our churches and our communities. But we don’t expect you to be perfect! We’re certainly not!

We’d like to think that some essential qualities are a given - that you have a strong personal faith that shines through your preaching and teaching of the gospel of Christ.

We need you to embrace difference, and inclusivity, and in turn, we will value you as an individual, as we are all individuals. You should not feel you have to be a ‘one size fits all’ priest.

You should bring your knowledge, skills, and experience to our greatest challenge – that of relating to young people and young families and enabling this age group to discover God’s love. This is so important for building and strengthening our church community.

Our congregation and residents want someone who is friendly and approachable, and a good listener - essential if you are to build positive relationships with both church people and the wider community.

And while we are looking for someone who will lead, we too have gifts and talents to offer. We’d like someone who can help us all work together as a team.

About us

Diocese and Deanery

The Diocese of Norwich’s vision is to be Transformed by Christ: Prayerful, Pastoral, Prophetic. You can find out more information about this at https://www.dioceseofnorwich.org/about/vision-priorities/. Work is currently underway on the nine priority areas that will help us live out and deliver this vision. The next parish priest of Fakenham and Fulmodeston will be someone who is excited by this vision and who is able to see ways in which it can be made a lived reality in the benefices.

The Rt Revd Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich since 2019, wrote an introduction to the Diocese which you can find at https://www.dioceseofnorwich.org/app/uploads/2020/12/Our-Life-Together-2021.pdf. This will tell you more about the character, structure and organisation of the Diocese. Please be aware that it was written when the Diocesan vision was still being worked out and when the Bishop of Lynn who writes this letter to you had not been appointed. The document is nevertheless well worth reading.

The benefices of Fakenham and Fulmodeston fall within the Archdeaconry of Lynn. They are in the Burnham and Walsingham deanery whose Rural Dean is The Revd Clive Wylie, and in the Archdeaconry of Lynn. The Diocese of Norwich operates an informal area scheme and the Bishop of Lynn’s area of oversight is coterminous with the archdeaconry. The Archdeacon is the Venerable Ian Bentley and Bishop and Archdeacon work closely together for the welfare of the benefices