Following this afternoon's Eucharist at Tredegarville school, I popped into St. James' church - just sold to a property developer that's developing a speciality in turning large old buildings into residential accommodation - to take photos of remaining church furnishings, to send to a company which specialises in the clearance of redundant churches, and re-selling articles to other churches looking for lecterns, pews etc, to see if they're interested in what's there. I keep on being asked by the powers that be if we've cleared everything out that the parish needs. We have, but there's still a lot that we cannot use that we might be able to dispose of to a good home and maybe earn some cash for a future project. So, one last effort.
The Church in Wales seems not to have a system for dealing with practicalities of redundancy, apart from bare advice about what should and shouldn't be done to comply with laid-down rules. With church redundancies starting to be more common-place, there really should be some support service to hand-hold the parish officers and clergy through the process of letting go of a much loved building - not an advice manual or a smart website, nor a clever flow chart, but a real human being whose job it is to enable people to make the best they can of what is going to be a painful bereavement process, to help them practically through the task, as a funeral director or a solicitor appointed as executor might. Given the potential cash tied up in physical assets, there's no reason why this shouldn't be self-funding. Regrettably our once established church doesn't do downsizing all that well at the moment however.
Where disposing of St James' is concerned, this task has fallen on the Parish Wardens of the old benefice, and myself. It's been a strain on all of us. It is every bit as demoralising and destructive a process as the fight I waged for three years without being able to save the place. I wish I had the option of honourable retirement soon. I could do with turning my back on all this for the sake of my emotional if not my physical health. Going in to take photographs this evening, after several months away stirred up memories from which I have walked away, hidden from, in the effort to maintain morale and lead onwards in a positive direction. If only ....
It's such a beautiful, building so much more beautiful potentially de-cluttered of all its furnishings, to reveal fully the lines of a finely crafted building in the 12th century French style. Let's hope the development architects will be inspired creatively by its form to make something worthy for its future. A 'former' place of worship. What a statement about modern society! If only .....
The Church in Wales seems not to have a system for dealing with practicalities of redundancy, apart from bare advice about what should and shouldn't be done to comply with laid-down rules. With church redundancies starting to be more common-place, there really should be some support service to hand-hold the parish officers and clergy through the process of letting go of a much loved building - not an advice manual or a smart website, nor a clever flow chart, but a real human being whose job it is to enable people to make the best they can of what is going to be a painful bereavement process, to help them practically through the task, as a funeral director or a solicitor appointed as executor might. Given the potential cash tied up in physical assets, there's no reason why this shouldn't be self-funding. Regrettably our once established church doesn't do downsizing all that well at the moment however.
Where disposing of St James' is concerned, this task has fallen on the Parish Wardens of the old benefice, and myself. It's been a strain on all of us. It is every bit as demoralising and destructive a process as the fight I waged for three years without being able to save the place. I wish I had the option of honourable retirement soon. I could do with turning my back on all this for the sake of my emotional if not my physical health. Going in to take photographs this evening, after several months away stirred up memories from which I have walked away, hidden from, in the effort to maintain morale and lead onwards in a positive direction. If only ....
It's such a beautiful, building so much more beautiful potentially de-cluttered of all its furnishings, to reveal fully the lines of a finely crafted building in the 12th century French style. Let's hope the development architects will be inspired creatively by its form to make something worthy for its future. A 'former' place of worship. What a statement about modern society! If only .....
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