Churches and farming

[delilah]

When on holiday the OH likes to visit churches, not so much a religious thing more to soak up the architecture and local history. Called at Mildenhall on the way home yesterday to tick another one off the list. Stood in the beautifully cool nave, staring up at the carved wooden angels, I found myself meditating thus:
1) Churches are uniquely placed in their community to withstand a more extreme climate, notably heat and wind.
2) Many of our churches were built on the back of the toil of farmers.
3) Churches have a pressing need to find ways to be more relevant to an increasingly secular world.
4) The high street shop is knackered. Landlords will use corona as the final straw to turn shops in to houses (which many were originally anyway).
5) Millions of commuters are now ex commuters. Working from home will be the new normal for many, bringing a reversal in the long term trend of villages being dead in the daytime.

Is the time right for churches to host regular food markets ? Does anyone on here live where this happens ? Could anyone who has an involvement in The Church and thinks this has mileage, have a word upstairs, as it were.

 

[som farmer]

i have always said, churches should also be the village hall, as they originally acted, they would then be used, more often. They are amazing buildings, and really should be used more.

 

[tr250]

Our church has been used as a swap shop for food children’s toys books dvds etc whilst people have been in lockdown. We regularly walk through the churchyard on the way to school anyway and the kids love it they are intrigued by the graves and talking about the people who are buried there and where they lived what they did etc. But the school is a church of england so have quite an involvement with the children. All that said I’m not particularly religious but I was christened there done plenty of school nativitys there as child and parent got married there and been to plenty of harvest festivals and funerals so it’s played a part in my life

 

[Bury the Trash]

Yes good idea and a good op
but surely the village hall is the place for it ?,trouble is the church is usually of such an antiquity and so vulnerable to damage or wear and tear in that respect that its not quite so practical as a more modern 'disposable ' type building.

 

[teslacoils]

Our village church has finally realised that a congregation of two is not adequate. There are eight churches in the local rural group. One would be adequate. All are listed. None can be reused. My suggestion of taking them all down was laughed at. At a result those that don't get support from the "rare church trust" will fall down. Not fit for purpose. This in the background of flourishing and growing congregations at the "happy clappies" in town. CofE are just lost.

 

[Hindsight]

Our village church has finally realised that a congregation of two is not adequate. There are eight churches in the local rural group. One would be adequate. All are listed. None can be reused. My suggestion of taking them all down was laughed at. At a result those that don't get support from the "rare church trust" will fall down. Not fit for purpose. This in the background of flourishing and growing congregations at the "happy clappies" in town. CofE are just lost.

Happy clappies - suppose it is a re-run of the rise of the non conformists in the 18&19C and all those little chapels scattered around the rural Lincolnshire countryside now converted too dwellings. Baptists Methodists et.

 

[Flat 10]

Fen men aren’t conformists..,

 

[jendan]

Happy clappies - suppose it is a re-run of the rise of the non conformists in the 18&19C and all those little chapels scattered around the rural Lincolnshire countryside now converted too dwellings. Baptists Methodists et.

Wonder what the Wesleys would think of the job now? Lincolnshire born.

 

[Daniel]

Our village church has finally realised that a congregation of two is not adequate. There are eight churches in the local rural group. One would be adequate. All are listed. None can be reused. My suggestion of taking them all down was laughed at. At a result those that don't get support from the "rare church trust" will fall down. Not fit for purpose. This in the background of flourishing and growing congregations at the "happy clappies" in town. CofE are just lost.

If the Bishops of the C of E had been in charge of food supply during Covid, we'd all have starved. Their handling of an existential crisis (or what looked like one in the early stages) has been abysmal.

 

[Daddy Pig]

I suggested that our local church be converted into accommodation for the homeless and refugees, thought it would be a very Christian thing to do, don't think many so called Christians agreed though.

 

[Daddy Pig]

If the Bishops of the C of E had been in charge of food supply during Covid, we'd all have starved. Their handling of an existential crisis (or what looked like one in the early stages) has been abysmal.

you can bet there was never much danger of the Bishops going Hungry.

 

[Daniel]

I suggested that our local church be converted into accommodation for the homeless and refugees, thought it would be a very Christian thing to do, don't think many so called Christians agreed though.

A pragmatic view on their part, I think it unlikely that Muslim migrants would feel obliged to treat a Christian church with the respect it deserves.

 

[delilah]

Yes good idea and a good op
but surely the village hall is the place for it ?,trouble is the church is usually of such an antiquity and so vulnerable to damage or wear and tear in that respect that its not quite so practical as a more modern 'disposable ' type building.

It was the temperature in the church that set me thinking. When we parked up at Mildenhall it was 35, when you walked into the church it was like opening the freezer door, you don't get that in a village hall. Over the road there was a busy little street market, sweating in the sun, fish and meat man burning juice to keep their stalls cool, all whilst a building with the perfect temperature for selling food in stood empty.

 

[Daniel]

It was the temperature in the church that set me thinking. When we parked up at Mildenhall it was 35, when you walked into the church it was like opening the freezer door, you don't get that in a village hall. Over the road there was a busy little street market, sweating in the sun, fish and meat man burning juice to keep their stalls cool, all whilst a building with the perfect temperature for selling food in stood empty.

A lovely old church, we used to have school carol services in there.

But isn't the point of these old buildings that they are sacred spaces where commercial activity doesn't happen?

 

[delilah]

A lovely old church, we used to have school carol services in there.

But isn't the point of these old buildings that they are sacred spaces where commercial activity doesn't happen?

Which, I guess, is the crux of it.
I don't know how true this is, but someone told me that in many churches the pews weren't there originally but were put in later. Sell the pews off, return a church to its original layout, and you have a fantastic space to utilize.

 

[egbert]

Good post.

Mrs E and myself oft look into churches on our travels for just the same reasons!
(sometimes we take a friend on our outings , who happens to be a conservation architect...makes for very informative jaunts)
And I've thought about their future a lot.

500 years of my forebears are buried in the local churchyard, beside an outstandingly beautiful church.
It would've been built with the effort of the locals, and we're culturally influenced to use it for matches and despatchs - hardly any 'hatches' use it now I believe- my little cherubs will surely be going to hell, cos we never had em sprinkled.
I now have a niggling resentment toward the blow-in clergy who dictate what happens to the building and churchyard.
Some are fine, and make it their business to try and find the right way forward, while occasionally an evangelical type will start laying down the law.

There is clearly a crash coming one way or the other.
Another large church locally is now closed due to colossal repair work currently unfunded. It would already be fallen down/sold if it weren't for a particular historical quirk.

I don't know that frivolous usage works for me...the whole idea of a quiet reflective place is very much part of their beauty.

 

[Yale]

This is a church converted to a community centre near us,think they struggle with funding however it is a beautiful building.

Llanarmon-yn-Iâl, Eryrys & Graianrhyd – Three Villages, One Community

www.llanarmon.com

 

[britt]

Our church is used as a village hall, as well as the usual church services.
About 10 years ago a kitchen and toilet was added to the back. We don't have a hall or a pub in the village, (the only pub is half a mile down a main road with no footpath). The pews are removeable so that the floor can be cleared and chairs replaced some of the pews.
Every first Friday of the month, before covid, was "Friday with friends", you take your own drink and nibbles and socialise with whoever is there. Some months there are themes, others are "bring and share" food nights, pie nights etc.
Sometimes there are local tribute bands on, it's used by local groups for meeting and the Parish Council sometimes meet there (there are 4 villages in the Parish).
The PCC put a lot of time and effort into making the church work for the community, which is what it was built for, not for some distant Bishop to draw an annual levy from.
It's been there for nearly a thousand years and seen many changes, and will have to keep evolving to survive.
It all comes down to members of the community to make it what it needs to be.
If anyone thinks that this is what their church need PM for details and come and have a look.

 

[Yale]

Grants for churches needing structural repairs.

Grants for Urgent Structural Repairs to Churches (UK) - News - Grants Online

Listed and unlisted Christian places of worship, of any denomination, across the UK can apply for a grant to towards the cost of urgent structural repairs. G...

www.grantsonline.org.uk

 

[glasshouse]

Let them fall down, we have the bbc to control the masses now