The church has become a community hub, hosting regular events such as after-school games, crafts and activities, a toddler group, holiday activity days, a food bank and a Monday market.
They have also been holding ‘interactive’ services where parishioners move around and talk to each other, and even trailled a mobile phone app where people could give live feedback about the service they were sitting in.
Mr Beane said of the app: “That’s a sign of how we like to experiment. We’ve been trying to blend contemporary and traditional worship together.”
He said they had also created a group of 18 rural churches, and this “collaborative model” meant some of the rural parishes could now have full-time clergy.
Mr Beane said he had presided over almost 1,000 funerals in his time at the church, as well as hundreds of christenings and weddings.
A popular rector whose tenure at a Norfolk church has seen the nationwide trend of shrinking congregations well and truly bucked is about to say farewell. https://t.co/rJwrbrNVjT
— North Norfolk News (@nthnorfolknews) July 15, 2019