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During Thursday Market Day a
visitor handed me a copy of Fakenham Parish Magazine in
1907. It was a fascinating read giving details of life in
the church in the late Victorian Age. Most of interest was
that the magazine includes the parishes of Hindringham, East
and West Barsham, Little Snoring, Great Snoring and
Thursford in its readership. With a very small amount of
local news, a national insert, entitled’ The Dawn of the
Day’, looking like a JW handout (!), is used to fill up the
magazine. Also one could see that confirmations were
organised on a Deanery basis, and because the town has grown
in size, we have far more baptisms and funerals than in
1907. But far more interestingly to me was the town is not
mentioned, nor any events going on outside of the church.
With Pentecost on Sunday,
and the church celebrating one of the most important
festivals in the church’s year, one realises that the church
still has an immense task to do in reaching out to the
community with the Gospel. In a secular age, when fewer
people go to church you might think that it is all doom and
gloom. But actually Pentecost, and the remembrance of the
coming of the Holy Spirit, should encourage us to realise
that the church through its members is working immensely
hard in the community bringing Jesus Christ’s message of
love and salvation.
There is no doubt that
Fakenham Parish Church is so fortunate in being at the heart
of the community as the church sits beautifully in the
market place and visited by over 50,000 people a year. This
fact is used to reach out to so many people from those
attending the weekly pram service to the monthly coffee
morning for the bereaved. Few in the town have not visited
the church or attended a service. This year we have a record
number of weddings taking place in the church through hard
work, outreach and the general care of couples.
After Peter had preached his
extraordinary sermon on the day of Pentecost, the work of
the church began. However good a sermon is, people believe
in the church when they see the church at work and at
worship. With alterations to the church next year we shall
see a permanent side chapel for private prayer and the
opportunity to use the church for further events and
activities as we enlarge the staging area of the church. The
use of the church changes by the hour but always it must be
a place of worship, refuge and safety, and to have some
peace.
Recently we had a day off
and visited the medieval Wroxham Barn on the coast. Having a
cup of tea there I saw an amusing sign which read, ‘Have a
balanced diet, have a cake in each hand’. As Christians we
should have balance in our lives, we should balance the
needs of the church and the community and in a difficult
year for many the church should always be there as a place
of worship but also a place of care, support and counsel. I
hope that we have the balance about right in Fakenham
Adrian Bell |
