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| Churches that remain open in times of sorrow and of joy | Churches that remain open in times of sorrow and of joy |
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| As a volunteer for a trust of the type advocated by Simon Jenkins (One sure way to save our churches – give them away, 10 October) I read his article with interest but feel that his analysis is mistaken. The cathedrals whose recent success he extols are located in the centres of large populations. In contrast, the disused rural churches that I help to look after are remote, often not part of any settlement that could be described as even a small village. In these cases there is no community for which to provide the type of facilities that Jenkins envisages; the former inhabitants have moved away. | |
| The church buildings that remain cannot be adapted except at great expense, and probably major changes in listed building law. They generally lack sanitation and a water supply; heating systems are either non-existent or antiquated and they are freezing in winter. Their fabric is crumbling and they are surrounded by churchyards that are protected from development by law and reverence for, or superstitious fear of, the dead. They are practically inaccessible by public transport but lack parking provision. | |
| There is no easy answer but I think the Church of England is right to hold on to as many of its buildings as possible; even tiny congregations constitute some kind of community and have the potential to expand. Once abandoned, most of our churches will, and do, become empty museum pieces of value and interest to no one except a very few passing visitors. Roger BarhamYork | There is no easy answer but I think the Church of England is right to hold on to as many of its buildings as possible; even tiny congregations constitute some kind of community and have the potential to expand. Once abandoned, most of our churches will, and do, become empty museum pieces of value and interest to no one except a very few passing visitors. Roger BarhamYork |
| • Simon Jenkins misses the point if he sees churches as square footage and history. Every day, they are open for all as a place of prayer. This is our USP. It is what people crave in their darkest hours and in their times of joy. We provide a place for people to refresh their soul. People value churches as churches. We care for 45% of the Grade I listed buildings in England and our churches are in a better state of repair now than ever. Churches are for the community, from play groups to lunch clubs for the elderly. Church floors and halls are key to the cohesion of communities. There are many examples of wider shared use of our buildings and creative ways to keep them open, with more in the pipeline. Cathedrals, which Jenkins rightly praises, were at risk a generation ago. Thank goodness they were not dealt with then in the manner he is now suggesting for the churches of our land.Rt Rev Dr John IngeBishop of Worcester and lead bishop on church buildings for the Church of England | • Simon Jenkins misses the point if he sees churches as square footage and history. Every day, they are open for all as a place of prayer. This is our USP. It is what people crave in their darkest hours and in their times of joy. We provide a place for people to refresh their soul. People value churches as churches. We care for 45% of the Grade I listed buildings in England and our churches are in a better state of repair now than ever. Churches are for the community, from play groups to lunch clubs for the elderly. Church floors and halls are key to the cohesion of communities. There are many examples of wider shared use of our buildings and creative ways to keep them open, with more in the pipeline. Cathedrals, which Jenkins rightly praises, were at risk a generation ago. Thank goodness they were not dealt with then in the manner he is now suggesting for the churches of our land.Rt Rev Dr John IngeBishop of Worcester and lead bishop on church buildings for the Church of England |
| • Simon Jenkins is both right and wrong about church buildings. Our 13th-century village church last week held a communion service, a monthly family service, and a baptism. Overall attendance was 250. There was music, prayer, thanksgiving, storytelling for more than 50 children, and celebration aplenty. Our community come to their village church because they feel welcome. Many will subsequently come to be married, or to have children baptised, or to mark a loss. Of course, more occasional worshippers contribute only fractionally to average attendance, which was always an unsatisfactory measure of the deep and persistent thirst for spiritual nurture met by the rich diversity of churches up and down the land. | • Simon Jenkins is both right and wrong about church buildings. Our 13th-century village church last week held a communion service, a monthly family service, and a baptism. Overall attendance was 250. There was music, prayer, thanksgiving, storytelling for more than 50 children, and celebration aplenty. Our community come to their village church because they feel welcome. Many will subsequently come to be married, or to have children baptised, or to mark a loss. Of course, more occasional worshippers contribute only fractionally to average attendance, which was always an unsatisfactory measure of the deep and persistent thirst for spiritual nurture met by the rich diversity of churches up and down the land. |
| The overstatement of the Church of England’s demise is clear from recent rising cathedral statistics which measure the broader, deeper feelings that people have for church, the space for Christian faith in their lives as well as the building’s role as a place of history, beauty and architectural heritage. | The overstatement of the Church of England’s demise is clear from recent rising cathedral statistics which measure the broader, deeper feelings that people have for church, the space for Christian faith in their lives as well as the building’s role as a place of history, beauty and architectural heritage. |
| Parish churches are not so different from cathedrals. They too can be both used and loved and we can avoid the errors of the “Beeching solution”. Local communities, worshipping and visiting contribute £795m a year for churches and clergy, and this shows their love for the church. Churches have a purpose so let us not give them away. It is better to have a railway line that goes somewhere, that connects with the trunk routes and is there when we need to travel with it.Rev Steve WoodSt Margaret’s Streatley, Bedfordshire | Parish churches are not so different from cathedrals. They too can be both used and loved and we can avoid the errors of the “Beeching solution”. Local communities, worshipping and visiting contribute £795m a year for churches and clergy, and this shows their love for the church. Churches have a purpose so let us not give them away. It is better to have a railway line that goes somewhere, that connects with the trunk routes and is there when we need to travel with it.Rev Steve WoodSt Margaret’s Streatley, Bedfordshire |
| • It is disturbing that someone in such an influential position (ex-chair of the National Trust and trustee of the Churches Conservation Trust) should offer such simplistic views on the predicament of our churches. Central to Simon Jenkins’ thinking is the misuse of statistics: he conflates the decline of Anglicanism with the demise of the buildings of our Christian past. From this confusion he builds a portrait of gloom, seeing the plight of our churches through a cliched business model – a re-run of Dr Beeching’s verdict with churches as unremunerative branch lines. | |
| I challenge this gloom-laden vision. Churches have touched me all my life (a clergy child, 20 years a field officer with the Churches Conservation Trust and a member of the Norwich DAC). This long connection is witness to a more complex picture. In Norfolk, privileged to enjoy the greatest concentration of medieval religious buildings in Europe, our cathedral is not the only building to be visited. Our rural churches, on the whole wonderfully cared for, are not locked and forlorn. Visitors’ books prove they are regularly attended, but their “congregations” (fed ironically on Jenkins’ England’s Thousand Best Churches) are a motley crew of Christians, agnostics and unbelievers. All, however, confirm Philip Larkin’s view that there remains a hunger for “serious places” that “never can be obsolete”. | I challenge this gloom-laden vision. Churches have touched me all my life (a clergy child, 20 years a field officer with the Churches Conservation Trust and a member of the Norwich DAC). This long connection is witness to a more complex picture. In Norfolk, privileged to enjoy the greatest concentration of medieval religious buildings in Europe, our cathedral is not the only building to be visited. Our rural churches, on the whole wonderfully cared for, are not locked and forlorn. Visitors’ books prove they are regularly attended, but their “congregations” (fed ironically on Jenkins’ England’s Thousand Best Churches) are a motley crew of Christians, agnostics and unbelievers. All, however, confirm Philip Larkin’s view that there remains a hunger for “serious places” that “never can be obsolete”. |
| Jenkins’ definition of the church’s problem is inaccurate and his solution facile. His suggestion that church buildings should be “given away” and vested in local trusts or parish councils naively ignores the central question of resources (both financial and expertise), which just don’t exist in these localities. | Jenkins’ definition of the church’s problem is inaccurate and his solution facile. His suggestion that church buildings should be “given away” and vested in local trusts or parish councils naively ignores the central question of resources (both financial and expertise), which just don’t exist in these localities. |
| He needs to change tack and use his undoubted talents as a journalist to raise awareness and ask questions. Conservation of our Christian heritage is ultimately a national and not a local responsibility – a responsibility that can only be adequately resourced through taxation. | He needs to change tack and use his undoubted talents as a journalist to raise awareness and ask questions. Conservation of our Christian heritage is ultimately a national and not a local responsibility – a responsibility that can only be adequately resourced through taxation. |
| Our churches matter; they do involve cost – but what (a question Dr Beeching didn’t ask) is the cost of losing them?Kate WeaverNorwich | Our churches matter; they do involve cost – but what (a question Dr Beeching didn’t ask) is the cost of losing them?Kate WeaverNorwich |
| • Simon Jenkins doesn’t seem to realise (perhaps because he apparently stays well away) that there are countless growing congregations in historic churches who would like nothing better than to give their building away. The living church is constantly frustrated by the severe restrictions to worship and welcome imposed by church buildings conceived in a bygone age, and by a heritage lobby with little understanding of what a church is actually for. By all means let the state, or a local trust, pay the maintenance bills so that the church can get on with the work of the kingdom of God.Very Rev Richard GilesTynemouth, Tyne & Wear | • Simon Jenkins doesn’t seem to realise (perhaps because he apparently stays well away) that there are countless growing congregations in historic churches who would like nothing better than to give their building away. The living church is constantly frustrated by the severe restrictions to worship and welcome imposed by church buildings conceived in a bygone age, and by a heritage lobby with little understanding of what a church is actually for. By all means let the state, or a local trust, pay the maintenance bills so that the church can get on with the work of the kingdom of God.Very Rev Richard GilesTynemouth, Tyne & Wear |
| • Given the title of Simon Jenkins’ article I was surprised he didn’t mention the French solution, whereby church buildings belong to local or national government and are only allowed to be used for religious services on condition that they are available for secular use, eg for exhibitions and concerts, the rest of the time.Harry WatsonEdinburgh | • Given the title of Simon Jenkins’ article I was surprised he didn’t mention the French solution, whereby church buildings belong to local or national government and are only allowed to be used for religious services on condition that they are available for secular use, eg for exhibitions and concerts, the rest of the time.Harry WatsonEdinburgh |
| • Bishop Richard Harries (Letters, 11 October) cannot be allowed to get away with his reference to a “dramatic decline in membership of political parties” in an attempt to understand the numerical decline of the Church of England. | |
| Our local North Devon Labour party has doubled in size in the last year. Nationally the party has gained 100,000 new members since the EU referendum and now has over half a million members. Think again, Bishop Harries.Marion MasonStoke Rivers, Devon | |
| • The final letter was amended on 17October 2016 to correct the name of Richard Harries. | |
| • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |
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