The Plough Sunday service was held at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, where Sally has been a Canon and member of the Chapter.
It featured interviews with people who had been involved with the ‘Growing in God in the Countryside’ project which Sally had led for six years. They spoke about how finding faith had helped them with mental health, drinking issues and/or helped them to discover their personal call to serve God in ministry.
The service ended with Dean Joe Hawes blessing a plough, kindly lent for the occasion by Elveden estate.
The “Growing in God in the Countryside” project was funded by the national Church of England and has been focussed on helping people find faith in God in rural areas. The project supported creative developments in the countryside from pop up cafés and foodbanks in Forest Heath, to walking and pub meetings near Aldeburgh.
During Covid, the project started a new drive-in Harvest Festival on the Showground started by its rural chaplain, Graham Miles and led the Suffolk in Prayer movement involving different denominations across the county. Its ‘Doorstep Carols’ initiative caused a spike in the listening figures for Radio Suffolk.
The work has particularly drawn children and young people into faith. In the 2024 count, 657 new people had regularly joined a Christian community in a rural area because of the projects work, often through the Lightwave Community.
The Lightwave Community is a dispersed church community made up of small groups the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. It was started by the project to have a focus on innovative mission and prayer. This has been one of the important factors leading to a significant increase in church attendance in the county, reported in the Church of England’ s national figures.
The rural project has been praised in a national review as having “much to offer other dioceses in terms of learning about the practice of mission in similar contexts”. It has been particularly focused on helping new people to find faith in a rural environment and for in releasing of creativity in the local church.
In September, the Project hosted ‘LoveRural’ a national conference on Rural Mission at St Edmundsbury cathedral with contributors from all over England. This was so valued that Sally will be leading another with the support of the Church of England, Methodists and rural mission agencies in 2026.
Work begun by the rural project is continuing under new leadership – especially the Lightwave Community, now led by the Revd Diane Grano and the rural chaplaincy continues to thrive with chaplain Graham Miles.
“It has been a great privilege to serve God in the beautiful county of Suffolk,” said Sally, “I’ve learned so much – especially to listen more and to trust people as they discern what is needed in their local area. The best thing for me has been seeing and hearing how many people’s lives and circumstances have been transformed through prayer as they discover faith for the first time.”