About Us

Letter from the Vicar

A Word for the Benefice (from St Anne's)

August is traditionally that lovely, lazy, month of high summer when we turn, somewhat, from everyday tasks and think of holidays, relaxing, walking, playing tennis, catching up with some reading, before getting back to the daily grind in September....and it even promises to be a “long hot summer” if early summer is anything to go by, which will reinforce this image of August.

But I want to ask you to use some of this leisure time to do a bit of reflection – some thinking a bit more deeply and more long-term – because I think we need to do so.

Have you listened to the short series of talks on Radio 4 by Giles Fraser (vicar and broadcaster) entitled “Churchgoing” (as in “going, going, gone....”)? It asks some sobering questions about the Church today, particularly about the Church of England, because he is a CofE vicar, but also about the Church in general, in this country.

One of the shocking statistics he began with is that some 5,000 (Five thousand!) parish churches in England are on the verge of closure; that is they are no longer viable and it would make sense, from most points of view, to close them and concentrate on the churches that remain viable. They include both urban churches that have been built during the past 200 years and a great many small rural parish churches that have survived for hundreds of years, and include many architectural Medieval gems, that have served countless generations of communities. But it appears that their communities, both urban and rural, no longer want them, or need them, because attendance at services has fallen below the number that justifies keeping them open.

Now of course, when we look more closely at the situation which most of these churches find themselves in, the question is often more nuanced. Whilst attendances on “normal” Sundays may be embarrassingly low, numbers attending “special” services – the main Festivals, weddings, baptisms and funerals – are often much healthier, and suggest that many people in local communities do want the churches to be there for those occasions. And when communities are asked, either through surveys or at public meetings, support for keeping “their” church open is often surprisingly effusive! But the fact remains that a great many churches – especially smaller ones – are empty for most of the time and, apart from the “special” occasions – are under a quarter, often a tenth, full even when they are in use, as churches.

As a churchwarden of one of the small churches in our benefice I am acutely aware of this situation, and I really don't know what to do about it. Over the last few years we have experienced the loss of a large proportion of our, mainly elderly, congregation, through death or disability, and they have only been partially replaced by younger members. So we are now definitely in the sphere of “non-viability.” At the same time, through a policy of keeping the church open 24/7 we attract large and increasing numbers of visitors who clearly appreciate being able to come in and enjoy the ambience of a beautiful, peaceful church building, and at a public meeting a couple of years ago there was strong support for keeping the church open from about a third of the population of the village!

We have a project, approved by the PCC, the diocese and our former vicar, which is struggling to get started but is, I am convinced, the right way to go. It involves measures to make the building more sustainable (improvements to heating, decoration, etc.) and internal changes that will extend its appeal to a wider “congregation,” by providing a hospitality area, removing some pews, and installing some information panels. But, even by doing it in stages, it is by no means certain that we can afford it, or that there will be enough people to push it forward.....but we will go ahead in faith!

What is clear (to me at least!) is that we need to adapt, as creatively as possibly, our under-used church buildings to the changing needs – spiritual and otherwise – of the twenty-first century. Otherwise, we really will experience a massive cull of that most iconic building in the English landscape – the parish church.

Roger Truscott