Our Services page shows all services across our Benefice.

The church of St Mary’s, Gissing, lies, as it has for the last thousand years, at the heart of the village.
A round towered Norfolk church, it is also known for its double hammer beam roof, (rafters in effect); one of only 32 in the country, with carved angels on the posts. Described as a ‘Faberge egg of a church’, the fabric represents every epoch of English Christianity. The tower is either late Anglo-Saxon or early Norman … opinions vary…, and the hammer beam roof, porch and Kemp chapel (undoubtedly originally a Lady Chapel) date form the last quarter of the 15th century. Most of the interior furnishings are Victorian, dating from the restoration of 1877. For more than five centuries, the Kemp family were the landlords of most of Gissing, and after the Reformation, they appropriated the Lady Chapel for themselves. The chapel and chancel contain a variety of monuments to them.

Today, the church continues to have regular bi-monthly services. In recent years a very active ‘Friends of Gissing Church’ has become involved in the maintenance of the church building. A lottery grant obtained by the Friends resulted in a major programme of repairs and revovation, including the installation of improved electric current and under pew heating. As a result, we now welcome people to our ‘new’ medieval church. The acoustics in the church are superb and there are plans to make it a centre for performance, especially music, to enhance and expand its remit to the village. As we continue through the 21st centry, we hope to maintain our splendid church as the centrepiece of Gissing, as it has been for more than a millennium.