There is no ”˜one size fits all’ solution and, as Ysenda Maxtone Graham made clear, there needs to be a range of solutions, including greater involvement of the laity, the possibility of giving responsibility for more churches to local charities or trusts, and the setting up of ”˜festival churches’, which have services only for the major festivals of the Church. We also need to see how we can make church buildings more serviceable to the wider community, so that they can be used as much as possible and not simply for Sunday worship.
For many people the presence of a church in rural England is symbolic of the nation and the rural way of life, and a source of support and comfort even for those who are not regular churchgoers. We should start with the very clear premise that the Church of England is a national church and should therefore ensure a Christian presence in every community.
–(The) Rt Hon. Canon Sir Tony Baldry, MP
[blockquote] “We should start with the very clear premise that the Church of England is a national church and should therefore ensure a Christian presence in every community.” [/blockquote]
And who is going to pay for that, Mr Baldry? You and the bishops of the CofE have alienated the very Anglicans most able to establish thriving parishes – the conservative evangelicals. So you have no-one to blame but yourselves for the current predicament.
[blockquote] “The Church of England has approximately 16,000 churches, three-quarters of which are listed by English Heritage. Most of these church buildings are in rural areas. There are around 2,000 rural churches with weekly attendance lower than ten.”
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In reality, that is the major motivation behind CofE’s concern about rural areas, is it not? The CofE is legally responsible for the upkeep of 10,000+ buildings, which it cannot let go because the government has heritage-listed them, and the government won’t change that for a number of reasons, not least that the lucrative British tourism industry needs such buildings. Yet without thriving congregations in those churches, they become a serious financial burden on the CofE.
A congregation not only maintains buildings through their tithes, but also through a great deal of voluntary labour. Small, usually elderly, congregations have little capacity to provide this.
So it comes back to establishing and maintaining congregations. Why alienate conservative evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics when these are the very people who have proven ability to establish and maintain viable congregations? Oh well, its the CofE’s choice, but they have no right to complain when they are forced to face the consequences of their own actions.