“Since the 70s there’s been an asset grab. The [property, rectories and endowments] of local churches have been nicked by the dioceses and Church Commissioners, and have been sold off. Actually, if we start reinvesting in the local, and allow local churches to build themselves up again, there’s a huge scope for those churches to survive.”
More than 400 churches have been shut down in less than a decade, The Telegraph can reveal, as senior clergy warn of the “shocking” threat to parishes as “the bedrock of the Church of England”
The parish consists of a village community set in a rural area together with a number of outlying hamlets. It is served by a parish Church in the village of Sandford (Grade I listed building), a smaller Church at Upton Hellions (now effectively used as a “festival Church”) and a Read more…
Dear STP Supporter, Thank you. Thank you for your support, or at the very least for signing up to hear what we’ve been up to at Save the Parish. This has been a movement that has developed very quickly, tying together many different strands of concern. In all honesty, this Read more…
In a diverse and highly distributed organisation such as the Church, purpose can be thick, but it needs to be both inclusive and clear. During the past few years, we have seen the C of E’s purpose shift to a very specific and narrow understanding of discipleship which is very Protestant, highly confessional, confident, metropolitan, and self-perpetuating. Sociologically, it comes from a place that is both wealthy and privileged.
Community and answers to life’s deepest questions draw people to church. Some of us prefer to gather in a church erected by the people who inhabited this place before us, rather than a converted warehouse or cinema. Judge this not as mossy traditionalism. The historical continuum of place (and ministry) inspires the reassuring feeling of each generation’s being moored to something precious. Despite society’s secularisation, there is some hope that the baton of faith can be passed on. One-third of this country’s schools are church schools.
Action is needed now, not when they have the time, when they have shut all the parishes and think they are financially and politically viable. By then it will be ”TBL.” What God plans to do in the event that those whom he has called have thrown all their toys out of the pram and the world is achieving its own destruction – aheu!
How can we bring this Diocesan Office empire down as they generate no income, and have no contact with the public, so that we can get more clergy into communities and try and win people back to us?
In two years time, we will lose our Vicar. He will not be replaced, though discussions are taking place about merging our Parish with another. If this does happen, the number of Churches within the Group will be around 10 which means that St Nicholas will be serviced by a stipendiary Priest on an ad hoc basis, if at all.
The visitors’ book is full of people from all over the world who appreciate the historic and sacred value of this very special little Church that could survive the upkeep costs and general running expenses without the heavy burden of Parish Share. After 700 years are we going to be the generation that sees this Parish decline? No, we are not!