Welcome to St. Stephen’s Church, Norwich

“St. Stephen’s in Chapelfield”

We are pleased to welcome you to St. Stephen’s, especially as this month May 2012 sees us moving back into St. Stephen’s after three years of restoration work. We will move back into our church for our Sunday services on Pentecost Sunday (Whitsun)  27th May.

A Welcoming Tradition

Revd. Madeline Light writes…..

“St. Stephen’s has a long history of being welcoming and forward-thinking. In the 1400′s a vicar based here embraced the Reformation and new ways of thinking, such as the movement to make scriptures accessible to people in the pews.

Today, the way the congregation has embraced the new Chapelfield shopping centre development next door continues this tradition. Historically there’s always been a path through the churchyard (previously it went to the St. Peter Mancroft vicarage), but the congregation took a lot of stick from the public when the path was reopened to what is now Chapelfield. The upshot has been the opening up and re-landscaping of the churchyard, and around 50,000 people now walk past the church each week.

At the beginning of the Annual Report we use an opening that Hereward the previous incumbant first used: “In fulfilling its God-given purpose, St. Stephen’s practises a shared parish ministry between all members of the church, a ministry of all the talents”. This is not just “pretty words”. We really mean it.

If our first role in St. Stephen’s is to do what we are good at or have a talent for the second is to take seriously becoming more like Jesus which will turn out to being the best we can. Before the 11.30am service was established the small working group worked on a vision statement – it came up with “to be a church that impacts the heart of Norwich with the love of God” and a mission statement to “love God, love one another and love the community around us”.

St. Stephen’s has a long illustrious history of reaching out into the city with acts of faithfulness to God and kindness. The friendliness and welcome is part of the culture of this church. We are demonstrating our love of God in our everyday lives and in a varied Sunday worship, we are building community as we meet together and working on our character as we learn more and share our lives with one another.”

In May 2009 the wall cracked at the East end of the church which led to our moving our services out to the Chantry Hall whilst the church was repaired. Although not completely finished yet we can move back into St. Stephen’s with new heating, a new floor, new toilet facilities and a meeting room. The insurance stabilising work cost around1 million pounds. The congregation has raised £450,000 for restoration. We now have to provide a kitchen, draught-proof lobby and office. This will cost a further £100,000…  any help towards this will be greatly appreciated…

There will be an opportunity to see something of  our ‘story’ of the past three years in an exhibition at the church of photographs of the extensive restoration works -open most weekdays in June 10am-2pm exhibition. Admission Free.

In due course, when our facilities allow, our Coffee Centre will re-open and the church be open mid-week for visitors.

Our website will be kept updated. Our church office is now at the vicarage. Tel. 07787 472 678 or e mail: ststephensnorwich@googlemail.com.

Bank details for donations: Barclays Bank, Norwich

For background to the structural repairs see Eastern Evening News article.

Header photo “Nativity window detail” - acknowledgement: Leo Reynolds