With sadness mixed with deep thankfulness for her ministry, we announce the death of Revd Sally Kimmis, Rector of the Heart of Norfolk benefice in the Diocese of Norwich. Sally’s funeral will be conducted by the Bishop of Lynn at North Elmham church on the 21 September at 11am.
Sally spent 15 years- the entirety of her ordained ministry- within the Diocese of Norwich and died on 2 September 2026 following a short journey with cancer.
Sally was ordained Deacon in 2010 and Priest in 2011 after studying at Westcott House in Cambridge. Her curacy was spent in King’s Lynn at St Margaret, St Edmund w St Nicholas churches. She then spent the remainder of her ministry rooted in the same part of rural Norfolk, in the Deanery of Ingworth and Sparham.
From 2010-2016, Sally was Priest in Charge in Foulsham, with Guestwick, Stibbard, Themelthorpe and Wood Norton. Later on, Sally’s ministry broadened to include North Elmham, with Billingford, Bintree, Guist, Twyford and Worthing, and Bawdeswell w Foxley. From 2016-2017, these parishes were reorganised to make Sally the Team Rector for the Heart of Norfolk Team Ministry, comprising, Bawdeswell, Billingford, Bintree, Foulsham, Foxley, Guestwick, Guist, North Elmham, Stibbard, Themelthorpe, Twyford, Wood Norton and Worthing.
Further pastoral reorganisation followed. From 2017 until her death, Sally was Rector for the Heart of Norfolk benefice, now comprising Billingford, Bintree, Guestwick, Guist, North Elmham, Stibbard, Twyford, Wood Norton and Worthing.
Revd Andrew Whitehead is Team Vicar for the Western Parishes of the Aylsham & District Team Ministry. Revd Andrew said;
“I first met Sally when we overlapped at theological college in Cambridge back in 2010. I remember Sally as a thoughtful and introspective person, a gifted preacher and a deep thinker. When I arrived in Norfolk in 2015, Sally had beaten me to it and we became near neighbours in the Deanery of Ingworth and Sparham. She had a deep love and affection for the rural parishes of the Church of England, and she will be especially missed by her parishioners.”
The Bishop of Lynn, the Rt Revd Dr Jane Steen said;
“Sally saw the benefice grow, become a team ministry and then be reshaped as a smaller benefice again. She was a very private person, a thoughtful preacher and a priest of deep spirituality. In the last weeks of her life, following a completely unexpected terminal cancer diagnosis, she exercised a remarkable ministry of joy and reconciliation, receiving outstanding care from the benefice and unfailingly grateful for all the blessings God had given her. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.”