This year the Bishop of Norwich’s Lent Appeal is raising money for people in our link diocese in Papua New Guinea.
It will help clergy families pay for the education of children who might otherwise have to be taken out of school. Clergy in Papua New Guinea do not receive a stipend and rely on their congregations to support them. The money raised by the 2026 Lent Appeal will help clergy children complete their education.
Bishop Graham said: “I was struck, when I visited Papua New Guinea, how many clergy children have to miss a year of school because their parents can’t afford to send them.“
Last September he led a group of pilgrims to Papua New Guinea. The visit included meeting clergy and congregations and seeing some of the work of an Anglican school, The Martyrs Memorial School.
Children from Martyrs Memorial School go on into careers including medicine, governance and teaching.
The Diocese of Norwich and Papua New Guinea have had close links for many decades. The first Archbishop of Papua New Guinea, David Hand, grew up in Norfolk, where his father was the vicar of Tatterford, near Fakenham. He travelled to Papua New Guinea in 1946, inspired by the story of a missionary priest martyred during the Second World War. He became the first Archbhishop of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea in 1977 and was also the first European to apply for citizenship of the newly-independent country.
The link was built upon by Peter Fox, who was ordained in Norwich Cathedral and served as a curate in Wymondham. He became bishop of Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, before returning to the diocese of Norwich as an honorary bishop and priest-in-charge of Lakenham. The Revd Lynn Fry, of East Harling, and her husband Tony, spent three years teaching in Papua New Guinea, culminating in the building of a new church.
To find out how to support the Lent Appeal for Papua New Guinea visit our Lent Appeal page.