As desanctified,secularised buildings owned by the community or local trusts, ailing churches may just surviveThere is no way it looks generous. Two thousand medieval churches in England have fewer than 10 worshippers, and 8000 more can barely muster 20. More Muslims go to mosques than Anglicans go to church. Yet almost all are listed as historic. These lovely buildings are simply emptying. Doors are locked. Grass grows in churchyards.
More than 900 churches are now on the English Heritage “at risk” register,with 159 added final year alone. In 2013, the former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey warned that the Church of England was “a generation absent from extinction”.
Cathedrals have also become art galleries and concert halls, or theatres and conference venues,social centres and schools Related: We must finish to our churches what Beeching did to the railways | Giles Fraser: Loose canon Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com