The Diocese of Norwich is committed to the empowering and equipping of the whole people of God for informed and imaginative Christian discipleship. It wants to support the parishes in their task of deepening the faith of all God's people and of releasing their gifts for service of many kinds.

The Lay Development Co-ordinator for the Diocese of Norwich is Susanna Gunner. Her overall brief is to build the profile of lay discipleship and to facilitate programmes which will offer Christians opportunities to learn more about their faith, to grow in the every-day living out of that faith, and to journey forward with confidence, embracing the creativity of challenge.

We mean everyone who isn't ordained - in other words, the vast majority of Christians in the Diocese!

However, there are two groups of lay Christians - Children/Young People and Licensed Readers - who are served by their own support systems. For support with children's work click here. For the continuing ministerial education of Licensed Readers in this diocese, please contact the Reader CME Co-ordinator, Wendy Sargeant.

We mean the life-long process of growing and maturing in Christian faith and service. The word disciple comes from the Latin verb ‘to learn’, suggesting that those who are disciples of Christ are, by definition, ‘learners’…. The work of Lay Development in this diocese exists to endorse, to encourage and to enable the culture of a continually learning church. This learning might lead to skills needed for particular tasks such as caring for a particular group within the community or playing a part in worship, but learning is also embraced and celebrated for learning’s own sake and seen as a vital element of Christian discipleship.

As well as setting up new initiatives to help lay people keep learning and growing in the faith, the work of the Lay Development Co-ordinator entails co-ordinating the learning offered by other providers across the region and disseminating information about what is on offer.