Despite being registered blind, Rev Canon Simon Stokes, vicar at St Cuthbert’s Church in, Sprowston, will take part in the Beachy Head marathon on Saturday, October 22, with his two sons and guide dog, Tigger (pictured right).

 

Simon and Tigger completed the run last year along with his sons James, 20, and Matthew, 18 and raised £600 for the Bowthorpe Community Trust Workshop.

 

Simon will again be raising money for the trust which runs St Michael’s workshop to teach skills to people with physical or learning disabilities and unemployed people.

 

To donate and support Canon Stokes, please call 01603 426492 or email vicar@sprowston.org.uk

 

 

From staying in a village in Zimbabwe to helping the privileged in New York, Earlham’s new vicar hopes to use her experience to make the church as welcoming as possible.

 

The Rev Clare Dowding, 38, has become vicar for the parish of Earlham in her home city of Norwich after years working in Manchester, New York and Zimbabwe. The Earlham parish covers four centres of Anglican worship and has not had anyone in place for a year.

 

“I love ministry and being with people in a way that can help them, and seeing how God is connected to their everyday lives and not separate to it. In the midst of people’s difficulty the church can be there. I want to reach out to the community in fresh ways, anything that sparks people’s imagination.”

 

 

---

 

The Rev Heather Cracknell, a 34-year-old University of East Anglia graduate, has recently become curate at St Peter’s Church in Cringleford near Norwich.

 

She has also become the first pioneer minister in the Norwich diocese, a role which will see her taking the traditional values of the Anglican church out into the community in new ways. She will have a special focus on the new housing development area of Round House Park, where she now lives with husband Paul and their two children.

 

“Everybody has moved there in the last few years and there is a great opportunity to build a great community,” she said. “You talk to people on the estate and they are really keen on doing something, and there is a sense of ‘where do we start?’ Some of the ideas I have bouncing around at the moment include a quiet meditation group in my living room for people who want to find some space in their busy lives, and perhaps a curry club or a running club.”