C O N T E X T 1 4 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 5 21 The consequences of going ahead with a bright idea without preliminary consultation, without observance of the Faculty Jurisdiction and without permission building in which many people have an interest. The involvement of the wider community in looking after and using the parish churches for much more than just worship fits in well with the objectives of the Heritage Lottery Fund, which has become the major provider of grants for repairs to listed places of worship. All HLF funds have the same target: making a difference to heritage, people and communities11. It can be a challenge for churches to score sufficient points in the latter two targets unless they develop a programme to involve the local community. Many people may be indifferent to the services of worship and the activities of the church community, but they can have deep loyalties to a building because of its significance at some point in their life. Experience demonstrates that where the residents of the parish and the wider community are involved in any proposals to make change to the church building, the process is less confrontational and traumatic than the shock-horror headlines in the local paper or the rumour-mill monster that the vicar is going to do something to the church that will destroy what makes it so special. Increasingly PCCs are beginning to appreciate the significance of the sacred space which the parish church represents to people far beyond the congregation. Enabling people to appreciate that conservation is the management of change rather than preservation at a particular point in time will always be a challenge. But anyone who is serious about the parish churches of England will quickly realise they have been subject to continuous and development since they were built. Taking seriously both the building and the significance of the holy place it marks is the essential starting point. John Inge, Bishop ofWorcester, quotes the geographer Michael Godkin: ‘the places in a person’s world are more than entities which provide the physical stage for life’s drama. Some are profound centres of meanings and symbols of experience. As such, they lie at the core of human existence’. Inge goes on to advise: ‘the places, city and country with which we develop a very complex and deep relationship are our very lifeblood in a very physical as well as psychological sense, and a recovery of the importance of place would do much to encourage a more responsible attitude to the environment…attention to place by the Christian community will afford great nourishment and sustenance to it’.12 Looking after England’s church buildings requires the volunteers to walk a tightrope of different people’s different expectations. Objectivity and balance are essential requisites if the volunteers are to survive being pulled and pushed by the varying opinions. Putting the mission and ministry of the church first, while conserving an inheritance from a different period and style of Christian discipleship and different ways of worship, is the challenge that faces these volunteers. Few of them are experts in historic building conservation or in negotiating the difficulties of the management of change. Many of them are under-resourced in terms of training and experience, and most feel fairly uncertain about the job with which they have been entrusted. Heavy handed criticism or non-negotiable opposition to any proposals for change achieves little but their resignation. Understanding the complexities facing the volunteers is essential to supporting them in their task: without these unsung heroes, a significant proportion of England’s heritage would be in a precarious position. Ordained priest in 1979, Andrew Mottram was responsible for All Saints Hereford when the church building was re-ordered and opened up for wider community use in 1997. In response to numerous requests for help from churches across the UK, he co-founded the specialist property consultancy Ecclesiastical Property Solutions (EPS). From 2004 to 2009 EPS provided training and support to clergy and laity of 500 churches, 28 dioceses and national bodies of the Anglican Church in England andWales. Mottram was appointed as a place of worship support officer in the Diocese ofWorcester in 2009. References 11 www.hlf.org.uk/ about-us/our-strategy 12 John Inge (2003) A Christian Theology of Place, Ashgate, Aldershot
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