Happy Easter to you. Now let’s nationalise our churches
Personally I don't like the idea of a church tax, but I like the idea of the government renationalising churches and putting them to a different use and making them community centres. Although that happens already. I live opposite a community centre which used to be a church. It's a process that is naturally happening anyway but of course this does mean that there is a risk that a lot of historic buildings will not get sold off and fall into disrepair.
Quote:There are 16,000 Church of England churches in England alone. A quarter of them have fewer than 16 worshippers at even intermittent services. For all the efforts of dedicated wardens, most are locked and inaccessible. What is to be done with them?
Quote:Church buildings should be “renationalised”, taken into state ownership, and then transferred to local parish or town councils. They might in turn set up local trusts. These secular bodies would be responsible for subletting churches for community use, which would of course include for Christian worship in whole or part. All denominations would be encouraged to cohabit.
Quote:About 90% of England’s listed parish churches are in villages and small towns. These are places from which pubs, shops, police stations and GP surgeries are now fleeing. Their buildings can at least make way for houses. No one can dispose of a historic church – and rightly so. The sensible answer must be for churches to try to offer some of the community purposes that high streets have abandoned.
Church buildings should revert to what they were when built – places of congregation, comfort and local enterprise. Even if chancels remain in religious use, naves, aisles, towers and churchyards should be adapted for other purposes, with some regulatory latitude. This might embrace not just local shops, but creches, libraries, day centres for the elderly, places to collect a pension, pick up a parcel, connect to wifi, meet a friend or have a drink. We are saddled with these fine buildings. At least we should try to use them.
Personally I don't like the idea of a church tax, but I like the idea of the government renationalising churches and putting them to a different use and making them community centres. Although that happens already. I live opposite a community centre which used to be a church. It's a process that is naturally happening anyway but of course this does mean that there is a risk that a lot of historic buildings will not get sold off and fall into disrepair.
