Life in the aisles

Violins and wi-fi in the vestry, a post office by the West Door, installing a public library in the nave alongside community shops, cafés, drop-in and advice centres, children and youth groups. With a Christian presence in every community the Church of England is already deeply rooted in local life. The publication of new advice on how to access funding now makes this even easier.  

Churches and Faith Buildings: Realising the Potential jointly drawn up by the CofE and the Government identifies funding and support from existing grant programmes for faith groups. It is aimed at enabling them to adapt their buildings for community use and build on their capacity to engage at local and regional level. The guidelines also help all religious groups overcome the “squeamishness” they can encounter from funding providers.

The new document gives PCCs (Parochial Church Councils) a better understanding of how to access resources to enable them to engage directly at a strategic level with the local and regional structures where funding priorities and decisions are made. In turn, funders will be better equipped to understand the important role of the C of E and faith groups in delivering public services.

The Cathedral and Church Buildings Division of the Archbishops’ Council is now helping move the agenda forward.

In Birmingham, St Margaret’s Church, Ward End has set up a community trust and is currently securing funding for a £1m project to turn the church located on a multi-cultural council estate into a centre for all the community. Funding is being split into four different areas for the adaptation of the Georgian Grade II listed building. Curate the Revd Simon Cartwright said the key to the project had been working with local groups and consulting all the way along.

Fred Rattley Birmingham’s Director of Community Regeneration said: “This exciting project fuses the imagination and knowledge of local people with the regeneration skills of Simon Cartwright and other professionals to bring a much loved church building and local landmark back to life for wider community use. In doing so it maintains a place where worship can take place at the heart of the neighbourhood when it looked like the church might close.”

St Peter’s, Peterchurch in Hereford Diocese is developing the nave for a government children’s service centre with a new floor being placed above to house a new branch library. Wendy Coombey the diocesan community partnership and funding officer said: What’s been great about this project is the church and community have taken a whole village approach to developing the church building, giving a credibility that has helped them to engage with a whole range of the organizations that can make a difference to their lives on a daily basis. This is exactly what Realising the Potential recommends. We are proof that this approach works, it’s good for the church and it’s good for the communities in which we are placed.”

The paper has been produced by a working group of various government departments with representatives of the Church of England including the Bishop of London the Rt Revd Richard Chartres who commended the new initiative saying that the CofE’s network of 16,000 churches is a ready made social infrastructure that would take billions to replicate.

Download a full copy of the funding report.

www.stmargaretscommunitytrust.co.uk

www.hereford.anglican.org

Listen to a podcast on the report from Anne Sloman Archbishops’ Council member