Actively raising up people from within the community
Date Posted: Apr 13, 2026.
30,000 bees live in the apiary at the church of St Mary Magdalene in Gorleston, Norfolk. Or do they? Did they survive their first winter in the garden, and why are they even there?
St Mary Magdalene serves a parish that has a strong spirit of community, but whose residents face a number of challenges.
The Magdalen ward in Gorleston is listed as one of 225 ‘Left-behind Neighbourhoods’ in England. This reflects the dual disadvantage of high levels of deprivation and socio-economic challenges, combined with it lacking the community and civic assets, infrastructure and investment required to mitigate these challenges.
Rev Matthew Price has been the vicar at St Mary Magdalene since January 2018. Right from the start he and his team intentionally reached out to serve the needs of the community. Coming from the next-door parish in Bradwell, just two or three miles away, he could easily have assumed that his new neighbours’ challenges and needs were the same. But he double checked using CUF’s Look Up Tool, and found remarkable differences.
With just under 10,000 residents, Magdalen is the 551st most deprived parish in the UK.
- 42% of working age people live in poverty
- 36% of pensioners live in poverty
- 55% of children live in poverty
- 27% of people have no qualifications
With a similar population (11,580) St Nicholas, Bradwell ranks 6,443 out of 12,154.
- 17% of working age people live in poverty
- 13% of pensioners live in poverty
- 26% of children live in poverty
- 23% of people have no qualifications
But what use is the deprivation data?
Rev Matthew told us: “We’ve actively prioritised the most vulnerable in the community, in the neighbourhood, and how we serve them, and let the rest follow on from that.”
Anna Price, Community and Discipleship Lead at the church goes, further, saying: “We’re committed to raising up people from within the community so that they can take ownership and leadership.”
Anna and her colleague Anna Heydon, Deputy Community Lead, use the Look Up Tool to help guide their programmes.
Anna P told us that the tool has been critical, with Anna H explaining: “It shows exactly the area that we're covering. I find it really easy to use, and having the comparisons within the diocese and nationally is really helpful to get a sense of perspective.
“It helps us to identify the areas of strength and the areas where there is more need, and then shaping the sorts of activities we offer. We’re in an area of higher general deprivation, and one of our particular areas of need is lack of qualifications.
“We've run literacy and numeracy classes, and we've also done things like cooking cookery classes. And we do training for our volunteers as well, like the barista training to try and develop people’s skills and have something to be able to offer employers.
“I also find it very useful for grant applications that enable the many activities that take place at the church over the week. We run an emergency foodbank, fuel bank and household provision, 10+ volunteer-led community groups and projects, five annual community events, an onsite signposting and advice service, and a structured volunteering programme.”
Anna and her team work as much as possible at grassroots level. They start with people, and what their needs are, but also with what the passion is as well.
Which brings us back to the bees
Lynn Ellis has lived in Gorleston for 52 years. She lives round the corner from St Mary Magdalene but wasn’t a regular church goer. She started taking her granddaughter to the toddler group at the church and helping out, and someone asked if she was interested in hearing about beekeeping. So, she and her daughter went along to the meeting, and started caring for the bees once a week.
“And we absolutely love it. They are fascinating. I could sit here and talk to you for two hours about bees alone. I think it's a wonder with nature as well. And when I come on a Wednesday to do the bees, I found myself coming a little bit earlier and earlier, because I was enjoying coming to the Open House, too, and enjoying the community.” 80 people regularly enjoy refreshments community and activities at the weekly Open House café space.
“I love being involved, and I love helping other people to be involved and just coming and seeing what it's all about. I now do Bible study once a week, I was baptised, and I'm also hoping to get confirmed.”
“It's not a very wealthy area but it is rich in community. You know, people look out for one another and care for one another. What goes on at the church through the week helps that sense of community. There's so much love when you come into this church.”
For Anna H the work at St Mary’s is reflective of what Jesus did on earthBeing with people, empowering people, engaging people at whatever stage of their journey, not waiting for them to necessarily have everything sorted in terms of their faith, but engaging them in His work as He was doing it.
And the data helped.
Find out more about what the challenges in your community might be, and start your journey