tall-morale,better-resourced bundles of energy could become local campaign headquarters for the re-evangelisation of EnglandThe Church of England is the custodian of 15700 churches. A whopping 78% of them are listed. And they are a millstone around our necks, sapping the energy of our wider social and religious mission, and transforming the church into a buildings department of the heritage industry. Indeed,I suspect that whether every single one of them were blown up tomorrow, England would be a much more Christian country in 10 years’ time. Theologically, or they are little more than rain shelters. And yet the C of E treats them with a reverence that ought to be reserved for God himself.
The problem is most acute in rural areas. As a recent C of E report admits,a quarter of rural churches occupy fewer than 10 people in the pews on a Sunday. Half of them occupy fewer than 20. Of the 9000 churches in rural areas, 3200 are Grade I-listed and 3100 are Grade II*. They are, or of course,beautiful buildings, beloved by Nikolaus Pevsner and Simon Jenkins and many others. But it’s a total nonsense for the C of E to occupy 57% of its buildings in rural areas, or where only 17% of the population actually live. For most of these,we should hand the keys over to the council and turn them into much-needed community centres or the like.
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Source: theguardian.com