The high price of furnace oil is a burden for some church congregations which have had to find more cost-effective places to worship.
Geoff Tothill, treasurer of the Northumberland Parish, said the congregation at St. John the Baptist Anglican Church in River John is contemplating moving winter services from the 130-year-old building to the church hall following the Christmas service.
“Our church is not insulated at all, it’s the old style ”“ open to the rafters ”“ and that’s a big cost for us,” said Tothill, adding heat there usually costs about $2,500 annually.
He said in the last two years heating costs have increased about 30 per cent.
by comparison our church electric bill is $3500 a year and we are only open on Sunday for a few hours.
You complain? Our high-roofed gothic-style RC church has two Masses each weekday and five on Sunday. Heating costs are £8000 annually or around $12,000. Normally in London our winters are mild. We are now in an unprecedented long freeze and I am wondering whether to move the weekday Masses to the rectory dining room. It’s not just a question of cost – even with the heating on for an hour, given the size of the church and the outdoor temperature, the heating system does little more than take the edge off the chill.
Maybe people need to dress a little more warmly…take a blanket or quilt to church with them. It has been done before, and with some success. I doubt that the catacombs were all that warm. What did people do before forced air furnaces? What did they do when the old churches were first built? Somewhere in Scripture it reads, “Look to the ancient ways.” Maybe we should.
Frances Scott