Church building updates

The Church of England has a massive stock of property in the form of historical buildings - churches! These vary in age from the ancient to the modern. Over the last 50 years or so (perhaps less) some churches have installed toilet facilities and some have gone further and built kitchens where coffee and even simple meals can be prepared.

Clearly, building a toilet into a 'medieval' church or even a church built at any point up to 1900 (and beyond) could be a contentious issue. {Hmm, topic for research - how old are England's churches?} as is any form of renovation. This particularly applies to bells and organs: I will dwell on the latter today.

I know of a place where, on the one hand, the organ is historically linked to the church because the builder was the son of the then vicar, Holdich. I see the historical importance. However, that organ is so in need of repair that it cannot really cope with decent church music although it gets through hymns OK and will probably keep going. This does limit the kind of accompanied music the choir can attempt although a good organist can adapt.

What holds churches back (other than lack of funds) is the woeful holding on to relics from the past which are no longer fit for purpose in the 21st century. An application for lottery funding to repair the organ mentioned above resulted in the instruction that it had to be returned to the specification it had when it was built: i.e. it had to have the full pedal board removed (added in the 1970s) and revert to a 15-note pedal board using only the 15 pedal pipes Holdich had provided. The application was halted by the parish.

I agree that there must be a faculty system to stop building and structural disasters, but I have always felt that refusals to update a church (without just pandering to a passing fashion, which is the danger) hold the church back from serving the people who use it.

This is a huge debate and removing all the pews from a church to be replaced with modern seating is one example of a divisive issue. However, with falling numbers in congregations the church needs to take a close look at itself and enter the 20th (even the 21st!) century.

More tomorrow.