|TOP|Last week saw the launching of a new campaign aimed at galvanising Church members into lobbying the Government for improved financial support for the upkeep of Church buildings.

The Right Reverend Richard Chartres, Bishop of London has condemned the Government’s willingness to contribute large sums to public buildings: but not to the Church; as scandalous.

Bishop Chartres called upon Synod members: in a motion on the Church’s Built Heritage; to put pressure on the Government to divide the cost of repairs. The annual repair cost for church buildings is £120m according to the Church of England Newspaper.

Chartres said: “This is going to be a long campaign to surmount prejudice and ignorance and we shall fail unless we develop a united voice, unless we re-iterate our case with proper pride and confidence in what we have achieved.”

The Opinion Research Bureau found that on average 9 in10 people have visited a church in the last year for a number of different reasons. Chartres commented on these findings saying the Churches Built Heritage “touches every community in our country”.

|AD|The motion calling for an increase in funds from the Government and recognising the work of volunteers who maintain the Churches was past overwhelmingly. Several Synod members reiterated Bishop Chartres fears of an impending “apocalypse”.

The Archdeacon of Suffolk, the Venerable Geoffrey Arrand claimed that current levels of Government funding were “totally inadequate”. He added: “There is a great need for more financial assistance.”

In 2002 English Heritage conducted a survey which revealed that £39m worth of crucial and high-level was yet to be carried out. However, the Reverend Jonathan Alderton-Ford, of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich diocese, expressed his view that many buildings were in need of total re-building rather than repairing.

A significant amount of the debate centred upon the problems faced by rural parishes, where the Church is the centre of the local community, yet lacks money.

The Rector of Stock Newington, the Reverend Jonathan Clark also raised the problems faced by inner city churches: “They are centres for development and cohesion between different and diverse communities. These communities are always poor. The churches can’t develop the life of their community if they are spending all their energy on raising money.”

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