Ministry Team

 

  • Team Diary



  • Thought for the Day







    I begged you to remember me
    But feared that you might say
    ‘It all depends on how your prayer life grows
    As everybody knows you cannot go to Heaven
    If your quiet time is short.

    And have you let a wicked thought
    Pass through your wicked mind today?
    I trust you fought it all the way – and won.
     
    A word about your worship – is it from the heart?
    Do you take part with lifted arms
    And loudly echo ‘Hallelujah!’
    When the pastor socks it to yer?

    Do you think predestination
    Is the stop before your station?
    Such a weak apology for genuine theology
    Will never gain you access to the place where I must go.’

    You might have said those fearful thing oh Lord
    My heart was faint within me I confess.
    But when I said ‘Will you remember me?’
    You simply smiled and softly answered, ‘Yes’.

    ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’  Luke 23 v 43
    [Adrian Plass]


We are eight parishes (Bardwell, Barnham, Euston, Fakenham, Honington with Sapiston, Ingham with Ampton & Gt & Lt Livermere, Ixworth with Ixworth Thorpe, Troston) with eleven church buildings in the Ixworth Deanery of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. We are situated in a rural part of north Suffolk and midway between two major East Anglian towns, Bury St Edmunds and Thetford. The Blackbourne Team was established by a Pastoral Scheme in 1992 as an amalgamation of three existing benefices.

Our aim is to Worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to teach the Bible in a way that is relevant to everyday life, to enable people to grow in faith, understanding and love, equip people to serve and to offer people the opportunity to meet with Jesus and discover forgiveness and new life.

 
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Where are we?

The Team takes its name from the Blackbourne River, which rises near Ixworth and crosses into Norfolk from the parish of Euston, there to be swallowed into the Little Ouse. The river was a vital element in the farming scene of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries since it powered no fewer than five mills, one of which still grinds corn.

The villages within the team are served by a wide variety of minor roads and lie mostly between two A-class highways running more or less south to north, one coming from Bury St Edmunds and the other from Ipswich, meeting at Thetford over the county boundary in Norfolk. The Icknield Way long-distance footpath crosses the Team area at its northern end and there are many other footpaths along historic routes linking ancient settlements.