Archdeacon Rhiannon King

 

Picture by Philip King.

The Venerable Rhiannon King has been the Archdeacon of Ipswich since March 2019. In her archdeaconry she has almost a quarter of the population of Suffolk.

She is also the Director of Inspiring Ipswich, a six-year initiative jointly funded by the Church Commissioners and the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. It involves all the Church of England churches (around 25 of them) in the deanery of Ipswich and aims to double the number of congregations by 2025. Its vision is to see 15,000 contacts made, 7,500 new people exploring faith and 1,500, God-willing, becoming disciples. The Inspiring Ipswich Team of 3 Pioneer Developers, a Project Manager, Creative Communications lead, Administrator, Mission Accompanier Co-ordinator, 15 Mission Accompaniers, Community Engagement Co-ordinator and Evangelist Adviser work alongside the Archdeacon, the Deanery Leadership Team and the Deanery clergy to progress the project’s ambitious goals. Already, several new churches have sprung into life.

Inspiring Ipswich | Weblink

‘This is one of the most exciting projects I’ve been part of’, says Archdeacon Rhiannon. ‘I thank God every week for the privilege of being allowed to be involved with it. Ipswich is a great place to live and work, with fantastic people, and it’s a joy to be part of God’s work here. Perhaps God is nudging you to find out more and to come and join us!’.

Before moving to Ipswich, Rhiannon was the Director of Church Planting, and before that the Director of Mission, in the Diocese of Birmingham where she served for eight very happy years. During this time she headed up a team to help the diocese ‘Grow Younger’ and helped the diocese to devise and implement its church planting strategy.  It was also during this time that she met her husband, Philip, who is a Physicist working in Oxford (where she grew up) and whose passion outside of work is photography.

From 2004 - 2010 Rhiannon was the Rector of Fulbourn and the Wilbrahams, a benefice of four beautiful villages just outside Cambridge, having moved there from a curacy in the market town of Huntingdon. She was also on the Church of England’s General Synod and related committees for most of this time, and loved working with dozens of ordinands from the local theological colleges as well as with inspiring colleagues in the ministry team. One of her legacies was setting up a shop in Fulbourn’s High Street to act as the churches’ base and village hub, and setting up a Parish Assistant scheme, both of which continue today.

Outside her core work Rhiannon is also on the national Peer Review team for dioceses, on the national ‘Leading your Church into Growth’ team and regularly speaks at conferences and churches on mission.

In her spare time she loves travelling, walking, reading, getting involved in interior design projects and trying to avoid being in Philip’s photos!

Page last updated: Tuesday 7th July 2020 9:29 AM
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