Long-serving churchman who has officiated more than 200 weddings retires

A senior churchman who has led the parish for 14 years will be retiring at the end of the month.The Rev Canon James Nash, rector of the church in the Woottons, held his last service on October 6 at All Saints Church in North Wootton.He has been an honorary canon of Norwich Cathedral since 2015 and was the rural dean for Lynn Deanery for nine years, vocations advisor for 12 years and the diocese’s assistant director of ordinands for two years.

Rev Canon Nash reckons he has taken part in more than 200 weddings and “countless” amounts of funerals in the 14 years he has been in charge of the parish.“It’s been such a privilege to do what I do,” he said.“I must have taken more than 200 weddings, countless funerals here.

“To be with people for their joys and their sorrows, to walk alongside them to help and support has been lovely.” Rev Canon Nash’s career did not start in the church. Born in a village near Harpenden, Hertfordshire, James Nash was the eldest of three children.His father was a marketing manager and his mother a secretary, and they were based in the home counties. His mother was a county commissioner for the Girl Guides, so he says there was a strong public service background in the family.He started out in agriculture, going to Scale-Hayne Agricultural College near Newton Abbott and then working in Dorset and Berkshire before landing a job in Hundon, near Bury St Edmunds.Then he came to Saham Toney in South Norfolk to work for the major Norfolk pig company Bowes of Watton. But James was increasingly being pulled towards the church, not least of all because of his wife Linda’s strong Christian faith.So in a complete change of direction, he resigned from his job in 1994 and went to theological college in Nottingham to study to become a priest, and worked in some deprived areas of the city.After he was ordained at Norwich Cathedral in 1997, he served his curacy in the rural North Norfolk parish of Trunch – quite a contrast.“It was paradise really,” he says. “There was a great big rectory with two acres of garden. Our three girls, then aged between 10 and 14, loved living in Trunch.” From there he went to take charge of his first parish, Long Stratton in South Norfolk, where he stayed for nine years before coming to the Church in the Woottons, which is based at St Mary’s Church, South Wootton and All Saints Church, North Wootton.“It was very welcoming, very warm,” he says. “I have loved being here.”He has brought innovations to the area – breakfast church where people can have a meal together before the morning service, a regular drop-in for people to meet up inNorth Wootton village hall, and a fledgling Wootton community choir, which became part of Lynn Community Choir. During the Covid pandemic, the rectory dining room became a film studio to stream services to parishioners during lockdown, with James and his curate Dan Tansey becoming expert film-makers as the weeks went by.So after such an active ministry, what are Canon Nash’s plans for retirement?“I am looking forward to seeing more of my family around the country, and spending more time taking photographs – photography is a passion of mine.“Linda and I enjoy walking in the countryside and we will get a new puppy and I shall enjoy training it properly. I got hooked on gardening a few years ago so I shall spend more time in the garden and getting our new home in North Wootton ready.”