The Revd Canon Richard Lamey has been announced as the Director of Mission and Ministry in the Diocese of Norwich. In this role, he will be supporting parishes, clergy and lay leaders in the local church, as well as encouraging discipleship and vocations.
The new post is funded from external sources including grants from the Church Commissioners and the Anne French Memorial Trust. Richard will start in September 2024 subject to the usual legalities.
The Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher says:
“We are very pleased to welcome Richard to the Diocese at this exciting time. He brings a wealth of experience of mission and ministry in a parish setting and at a diocesan level, which will give him great foundations for his work with us. I look forward to seeing all that God will do through him in this next season.”
Tim Sweeting, the Diocesan Secretary for the Diocese of Norwich says:
“As a key leader within our Parish Support Team, Richard will play a vital role in supporting parishes, clergy and lay leaders in their local mission and ministry as well as encouraging discipleship and vocations. We believe he will add much to our collective efforts to fulfil our diocesan vision and will inspire life and hope in others.”
Richard says:
“I am really excited to be moving to Norwich for so many different reasons, getting to know the area and the churches of the Diocese, joining a team of such commitment and vibrancy, finding out what God is already blessing and inspiring and encouraging others to join in with where God is at work.
It is also exciting that this is a new role and I am looking forward to helping to lead those working in Mission and Ministry as we support and encourage the local church to be more Prayerful, Pastoral and Prophetic, and as we listen together to local experience, local longings and learning from the things that are already working well in parishes, chaplaincies and new congregations across the Diocese.”
Richard is currently Rector of the three Churches of the Parish of St Paul in Wokingham in the Diocese of Oxford. He is also the Area Dean of Sonning, a member of Bishop’s Council and Diocesan Synod, and Young Vocations Champion for the Archdeaconry of Berkshire.
The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft says:
“Richard goes to Norwich with our thanks for a wonderful 12 years’ service at Wokingham and in the wider Diocese. He has made an outstanding contribution to the pastoral life of the parish in Wokingham where I am sure his leaving will be felt the most keenly. Richard has also served as Area Dean, Acting Assistant Archdeacon and a member of Bishop’s Council and has offered wise counsel and support to many. We will be praying for him, his wife Becca and family as they embark on this new adventure.”
Richard is married to Becca, a Secondary Maths Teacher and has three children who are 20,19 and 18 and an elderly Border Collie called Bramble.
Richard says:
“In my spare time, I enjoy reading, especially history, fiction, biographies and crime fiction. I also run and follow American Football. We enjoy family challenges and are currently walking the Thames Path from its source to the Thames Barrier, and we are really looking forward to getting to know Norfolk by following some of its long distance paths.”
Background notes:
Richard was brought up on the border of Cheshire and Manchester. After reading History at University, and a year as a Lay Assistant in Dulwich, he trained for ordination at Westcott House in Cambridge.
Ordained Deacon in Chester in 2002 and Priest in 2003, he served his curacy in a Team Parish in Stockport before moving to Newton, Hyde as Priest in Charge of a small parish set in a Manchester overspill estate. After seven years there, including four as Rural Dean, he moved to Oxford Diocese in 2012 to be Rector of St Paul’s, Wokingham. The parish consists of three churches- a large Victorian parish Church, a small congregation worshipping in a village hall and an Anglican-Methodist LEP- and Wokingham is a large market town in Berkshire, close to Reading.
Richard is an MDR Reviewer and a Vocations Advisor specialising in Young Vocations. He is also an elected Member of Bishop’s Council and part of the Diocesan Safeguarding Board. After five years as Associate Area Dean he was made Area Dean of Sonning in 2018 and has spent 15 months as half-time Associate Archdeacon of Berkshire, half of them at the start of the Covid pandemic. He is Vice-Chair of Governors at two Church of England Primaries in the parish as well.