Our Staff Team of three Presbyters is led by our Superintendent, Rev Derek Grimshaw (from 1st September 2024), and our extended Staff team includes an Administrator and three preaching Supernumeraries.
Rev Derek Grimshaw (from 1st September 2024)
Our Story Derek and Karen
Karen and I come as a pair and I thought that you might like to hear a little bit about our story, we are both what is sometimes referred to as “cradle Methodists” having attended Church from being small babies.
I was born in the village of Calverley in West Yorkshire which sits midway between the cities of Leeds and Bradford. I have one brother who is a year older than me, both my parents were extremely active in the village chapel, so it was inevitable that my brother and I would be absorbed into the “Chapel culture” and attended Sunday school and I became a Church member aged thirteen.
Karen’s paternal family were evacuated from Guernsey during the second world war and settled in Bradford and like me, Karen’s family were involved in the life of one of the other Churches in the same circuit. Karen has two sisters both younger than her and they all attended Church from an early age.
I left school at sixteen, chiefly because my dad was seventy-two that year and after a lifetime of working in the woollen mill as mule spinner, he was retired, and my brother and I had to go out and earn some money. All I wanted to do was to work as sales rep, chiefly so that I would be supplied with a company Ford Cortina, I was very driven, and my dream came true and in my late teens I was travelling the length and breadth of the country.
The only problem with my career choice was that I wasn’t very good at it and aged twenty-two, I was promoted into a management position and spent the next twenty-five years working in what became known as logistics management, running large distribution centres.
Karen and I met at the Methodist Association of Youth Clubs MAYC London weekend in May 1980, my brother and I sat behind her and her friend on the coach, he married one girl, I married the other. My brother and sister-in-law celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary last year and Karen and I mark our Ruby wedding in September 2025.
We hit a rocky patch in the late eighties when both my parents died, our eldest daughter Laura died when she was just sixteen hours old, and Karen’s father was involved in a fatal traffic collision. But against all this sadness we were blessed with our two girls, Amy and Emma. I was working hard in my management role and Karen was working as registered childminder, looking after a string of children who became an extension of our family.
After being a local preacher for fifteen years and having felt called to the ministry for many years, I had never followed my call, because with a young family, taking time out to attend theological college didn’t feel viable. Things changed and the Methodist Church opened a pathway for training part time while working full time.
Looking back, I don’t know how I ever managed it, I started my training in 2001 while working full time, spending time on placement in a neighbouring circuit, and being a husband and dad at the same time. Relocating was always a big deal, and we were stationed to Hethersett, Framingham Earl, and Brooke in the Norwich Circuit in September 2005 and I was ordained at the Blackpool conference of 2007.
What is fascinating is that my maternal grandmother grew up in the National Children’s home and for most of my life I knew nothing of her story. I have now discovered through research that her mother lived in the village of Brooke in Norfolk, the very place where my presbyteral ministry began, and my great, great, great, grandfather grew up in the village of Sporle in Norfolk during the early nineteenth century and candidated for the Primitive Methodist Ministry as an eighteen-year-old following a camp meeting in the village and served in and around East Anglia.
Even though my roots are firmly fixed in West Yorkshire I feel to be back where I belong, and Karen and I look forward to working with you. Amy and our grandson Alexander live in Hethersett and Emma and her husband Alex will be living with us in Dereham, so the family feels to be back together again.
From 1st September 2024 Derek will be Superintendent to the Central Norfolk Circuit working in the Dereham section which includes: Beetley, Dereham Trinity, Garvestone, Gressenhall, Mattishall, Toftwood and Wendling.
Rev Anne Richardson
Anne Richardson began her ministry in Central Norfolk circuit in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic! This was a return to circuit work - however Anne began her ministry in circuit in Plymouth, in 1995, and was ordained in 1996. During these years of early ministry, Anne developed an interest in working among the Deaf community and started learning British Sign Language. In 2005 she went to London to work for the London Diocese as Chaplain among Deaf and Deafblind people. She developed her BSL skills, becoming a qualified Sign Language Interpreter in 2012. Following God’s call to come to Norfolk, Anne re-established the Church among Deaf people and set up Sign the Cross, a form of Network Church, which encompasses the ministry among the Deaf Community in the District. This is now overseen by a District Management Committee and has been adopted as a District ministry. Anne currently combines working with the Deaf community and the Swaffham section in our circuit which includes: Great Ellingham, Hingham, Litcham, Saham Hills, Sporle, Swaffham, Tittleshall and Watton.
Rev Jonny Bell
Jonny Bell is a minister in the north part of the Central Norfolk Circuit, covering Wells, New Holkham, Sculthorpe and Fakenham, Stibbard, Thursford, Fulmodeston and Holt churches. He lives in Holt with his husband, Seb, and their black Labrador, Bagel. Jonny has been attending a Methodist Church since he was 15 years old and began his training to become a local preacher in 2011, at the age of 22.
His love of God drives a lot of what he does, with a keen desire to know God more. Jonny believes that God is for everyone, that God’s love is for all, and he strives to express this in everything he does and not just in his Sunday services. Being creative and learning new ideas are both a big part of his spirituality. As to deepen his connection with God, Jonny often draws and paints, or writes poetry, but he also loves to use Ignatian imaginative prayer, icons, or his rosary beads. Additionally, he encounters God in others, which is experienced well with a group of people having fun, frequently around a dinner table.
Jonny has a background in teaching, union work, support work and youth work, with a BA in Fine Art, a PGCE, and an MA in theology. He has a keen interest in the arts, theology, philosophy, and psychology. He also enjoys painting, crochet, gardening, playing computer games (typically RPGs or MMOs), board games and tabletop role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. In a nutshell, you could describe Jonny as a nerdy, creative person who believes in God.
LINKS TO STAFF PRESENCE ONLINE
As well as the Central Norfolk Facebook page, (on which a variety of people post a Thought for each Day) members of staff have their own social media platforms:
Rev Anne Richardson is involved with 'Sign the Cross' - a Christian network for people across East Anglia using BSL (British Sign Language). The Facebook page can be found here.