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Our vision is of a church that is welcoming, scripture-based and Holy Spirit led; a church that engages with, and is relevant to, the issues, concerns and needs of people living in the modern world.
Mission statement: The fellowship of St Andrew's church, North Pickenham, exists to serve Jesus Christ by;
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Location
The parish is located in the heart of rural Norfolk, approximately 3 miles from the market town of Swaffham. The parish is adjacent to the A47, the main east-west link through Norfolk that joins Kings Lynn (20 miles to the west) and Norwich (25 miles to the east).
North Pickenham has a pub and village shop, with a sub post office. There is no village hall.
The nearest rail station is Downham Market or Kings Lynn.
Social mix
The parish includes the village of North Pickenham and several outlying homes. There are 219 homes and approximately 500 people in the parish. The village is a mix of social, rented and private housing. A small housing development and some infill building has recently added relatively expensive houses to the housing stock.
The community can be loosely divided into 3 significant social groups,
1. retired people (both long term residents and recent incomers, some on low incomes and others
relatively well-to-do),
2. low income or unemployed individuals and families and,
3. families and individuals in employment (typically commuting out of the village to work)
Consequently, the parish needs a living church that is welcoming to young families and adults, while not excluding or ignoring older people, and goes out of its way to reach and welcome the unchurched, while seeking not to alienate the (dwindling numbers of) occasional visitors who expect a 'traditional' church service.
Electoral roll
There are 26 on the Electoral Roll, of which 7 are non-resident. The number on the Electoral Roll has changed little recently, although there has been an overall fall of 13 in the last 10 years.
St Andrew's C of E Primary School
In September 2005 the school in North Pickenham became a primary school and now retains pupils to age 11, when pupils (typically) move to Hamonds Secondary School in Swaffham. There are 30 pupils on the roll (September 2005) and 2.5 staff (FTE). The future of the school, in the medium term, has been assured by the Local Education Authority decision to make it a primary school. As a voluntary controlled (VC) school North Pickenham School has a governor nominated by St Andrew’s PCC.
Village Development Trust
The village has a development trust, a charity and company limited by guarantee, that was established 1998 and charged with developing community facilities in the two villages of North Pickenham and South Pickenham, including a village hall, for the benefit of the community.
Women's
Institute
The village has a WI of approximately 21 members, which meets regularly on the 2nd Thursday of each month.
Whist and croquet
There is an active group of whist players who meet on alternate Monday evenings. In the last few years a group of villagers have met on the village recreation ground on Thursday evenings, during the summer, to play croquet.
First
Responders
The village has a small group of ‘First Responders’ trained in CPR and the use of automatic defibrillators.
The congregation
The regular congregation at St Andrew’s for morning prayer is around 20 adults (aged 50 – 90+) and between 1 and 5 children and young people. Attendance at special or festival worship services can be up to 60 adults and children. The regular congregation is made up almost entirely of evangelical Christians, some with charismatic leanings, some raised in the Anglican tradition but others have backgrounds in other denominations.
Description
St Andrews is a grade II listed building. The tower, porch and parts of the North transept are medieval but the remainder is a Victorian reconstruction on the site of older buildings.
The building is in a quiet location near the centre of the village. It stands in an extensive burial ground (still in use), and has plenty of off road parking outside the church gate.
State of repair
Overall the building is in good repair, although there are some cosmetic issues, such as loose or missing wall plaster. The latest Quinquennial report (2003) identified no serious urgent repairs but recommended several repairs/maintenance tasks. Matters raised in the Quinquennial Report will be addressed within the re-ordering project (see below).
A pressing need is to re-wire the building but this is being delayed in hope of including it in the re-ordering
Re-ordering
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Ten years ago the church had to decide whether or not to raise £48,000 to repair and make safe the tower. At the time the PCC agreed to pursue this exercise only on the understanding that this would be Phase 1 of a project to re-order the building and review our mission and role. Since this Phase 1 project was successfully completed a Task Group has been moving forward a re-ordering project that will provide kitchen, toilet and meeting room facilities, at the same time replacing the heating, re-wiring and re-decorating. The DAC has approved the project plans. The overall cost of the project was greater than anticipated and the Task Group has recently revisited the project plan to differentiate repair/re-ordering costs and so best target approaches to potential funders. Approaches to funders are ongoing. |
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Times and attendance
Morning Prayer from Common Worship is held on the 2nd and 3rd Sundays of the month at 10:00am.
Communion is on the 4th Sunday of the month at 10:00 am (this is a Common Worship service) and the second Sunday of the month at 8:30am (1662 Prayer Book service).
The first Sunday of the month is an all age worship service.
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Festival and special services may make use of specially prepared printed materials. We have recently purchased ‘Sing Glory’ and use this along with Mission Praise books I and II. Coffee is served after the service on the first Sunday in the month and refreshments are sometimes provided after festival services, notably the carol and harvest services. The congregation are used to an informal worship style and we have a relaxed policy on the wearing of robes when leading services. The PCC upholds marriage as a lifelong commitment before God but recognises, with regret, that some marriages irrevocably break down. There may be particular circumstances that make it appropriate for divorcees to re-marry in church and consequently applications must be sensitively considered on a case-by-case basis. |
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For those who are not regular church members the PCC would prefer the use of a Thanksgiving for the Birth of a Child service rather than a Baptism Service.
Typically a Carol Service, Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Mothering Sunday and Harvest Festival are celebrated with special services. In 2004 we introduced an innovation, a Christingle Service at 4:00pm on Christmas Eve, this was very successful and may be repeated in the future.
School use
The church has good relations with the school. The school uses the church for their harvest and Christmas services. Church members go into the school to lead and participate in collective worship.
Home groups
The church runs two home groups in the village, both meet on Tuesday evenings.
Alpha courses
The church has run several Alpha courses, led by lay members, over a period of about 8 years. These have mainly attracted existing members of St Andrew’s, but included one or two members of other congregations in the benefice or elsewhere. As a result of the Alpha courses the spiritual life of the church has improved significantly.
Sunday club
Despite the limited facilities in the church we have, over the last 2 years, successfully run two small children's groups during Sunday morning worship. This is an opportunity that could be developed, especially if the re-ordering project can be completed.
Other events
Strawberry teas, concerts, prayer vigils and other occasional events have been held in the church building as a means to encourage non church-goers to visit and to try to meet the needs of the local community.
Other members of the ministry team
Readers (St Andrew’s and benefice)
St Andrew’s has two licensed readers Mr Ron Marriott and Dr Ray Mathias, neither of them regularly lead worship outside the parish/elsewhere within the benefice. The benefice has 4 readers and one reader in training.
Retired
minister(s).
One retired minister (Rev Geoff Platt) lives in the parish and regularly leads worship/preaches at St Andrew’s.
Lay involvement in ministry.
St Andrew’s has a tradition of using lay congregation members in worship. This includes leading prayers, reading and, on occasion leading. The PCC would want this lay ministry to, not only continue but to be actively developed.
Working with other members of the benefice
There are occasional shared services in the benefice, notably Christmas Eve midnight and Maundy Thursday communions, which are willingly supported by St Andrew's.
Individual members of St Andrew's also support festival and special events organised by other churches in the benefice.
Several members of St Andrew's are active participants in the benefice's rambler group.
St Andrew's is irregularly represented at the bi-monthly Men's Breakfast. No sustained effort has been made to use the evangelistic opportunities this potentially provides to reach men in North Pickenham.
National and International Mission Links
St Andrew’s has a history of generous missionary giving and support but a dwindling and ageing congregation has seen mission giving diminish in the last 10 – 15 years.
The first Director of Outlook (a UK mission to the elderly) was a member of the St Andrew’s congregation at the time she established the charity. St Andrew’s has continued to support the charity, despite the retirement of the Director. St Andrew’s has long term links with Middle East Christian Outreach and also supports Mission Aviation Fellowship and Tearfund.
Financial state
While our financial position gives no cause for complacency, in the last financial year (2004-2005) we were able to cover the costs of running the church from the congregation’s regular giving, supplemented by relatively small amounts from extra fundraising activities. We have always paid our Parish Share in full, although this is a considerable burden and last year, and again this, we have had to temporarily suspend payment to ensure we can cover immediate running costs and then make up shortfalls at the end of the year. In addition to our current account we have dedicated Mission and Church Restoration accounts.
