Thread by @friendschurches

This is the most important #thread we’ve ever written.

The Church Commissioners are running a consultation that makes deeply worrying proposals that we believe would diminish the democracy of the church closure process, and reduce transparency and accountability of the Church.

In summary, the consultation seeks to make it faster and easier to close churches. They propose dispensing with expert advice from bodies such as Church Buildings Council and the Statutory Advisory Committee, and limiting rights to object to closure or reuse schemes.

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Trying to squeeze this into a tweet is going to be hard, but I will do my best.

There’s a piece of legislation called the Mission & Pastoral Measure (MPM) which, among other things, governs the disposal of churches no longer needed for regular public worship.

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The consultation says, “12 dioceses were planning a light number of closures (fewer than 5), 9 were planning a medium level (6-12), but 5 dioceses were planning a much larger number of closures (up to 40) within the next 2-5 years”.

That’s anything between 131 and 368.

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So more churches will need careful appraisal, but the proposals seek to remove or diminish the expert advice that informs decision-making. The Commissioners seek to cut reports from the Church Buildings Council and instead buy in the expertise. A “development style” approach. 5/

They want to diminish the role of the Statutory Advisory Committee, the expert body, which has 4 State nominees protecting the State’s interests in these nationally important, public buildings.

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The Church of England benefits from Ecclesiastical Exemption. Local authorities do not have the level of expertise necessary to deal with places of worship. They are also poorly funded, under-resourced, and at least one third do not have a Conservation Officer.

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Furthermore, listed building consent covers the building only and cannot control the fate of contents which are not fixtures. When it comes to valuable, moveable heritage, this is vitally important.

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Parish churches are public buildings, originally built and endowed locally and all members of the parish, whether practising Anglicans or not, are entitled to be heard and considered properly.
But the Commissioners propose to reduce the rights of the public in this instance.

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Historic churches are the essence of placemaking. It should not be fast or easy to close a place of worship. Their futures should be assessed by people with appropriate expertise and there should be a reasonable opportunity for the whole community to contribute its views.

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There also seems to be a failure to appreciate the relationship the Church has with the State, esp. in terms of public money it has received to repair its buildings; and the 70% State funding of the CCT to protect historic churches for the benefit of the nation.

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You can read the consultation here: churchofengland.org/sites/default/…
 
We have submitted our response and urge you to read and respond too, if you can. We would be happy to chat through any aspect of this, or share our response with you if you DM your email address.

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This is a very condensed version focusing on the heritage/church buildings proposals only.

Do read the paper for yourself.

Thank you for sticking with us till the end!

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