Historic Churches 2018

4 BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 25 TH ANNUAL EDITION The Taylor Review of English Cathedral and Church Buildings Sustainability was commissioned in April 2016, reporting to the Chancellor and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its aim was ‘to examine the funding and sustainability of listed Church of England buildings, and consider how to ensure that the thousands of listed church buildings, many of which define our towns, cities and villages, are conserved for future generations.’1 This was the government asking for ideas about a long-term solution, one which didn’t limit the definition of churches to either their religious, community or potential commercial use, but accepted a multivalent position, where overlapping uses and groups of people worked together for a sustainable future. It was a hugely exciting opportunity. The entire report is available online and is worth a read for anyone who either cares about the future of churches, or who questions why so much time and money has been put into them over the years. It seeks to answer the obvious yet provocative question: ‘Why doesn’t the Church of England look after them itself?’ It draws out examples where extended use of church buildings, alongside their purpose as places of worship, has brought in new communities to help with the collective task of caring for the place. The Taylor Review makes several recommendations. Key among these is the importance of strengthening the resource which supports the development of sustainable churches. In this instance, resource means people. Historic England and the Church of England have known for years that support officers working at diocesan level can help projects succeed, ideas flower, and finances appear. Taylor picks this up and re-imagines it as two roles in each diocese: one looking at community development and action, the other focusing on building maintenance. These two are to work together in a dance devised to fit their local surroundings, balancing the necessary work between them, managing a small pot of grant cash for repairs and acting as gatekeepers to a larger national pot for major works, as well as advising on where else might the funding come for the really large or ambitious ideas. At the heart of this proposal is a return to the point about local ownership and care. Taylor accepts the crucial nature of the parish relationship. This is about supporting that relationship and helping it to work, not taking powers away. The upshot of the review is the government’s investment in a £1.8 million, two-year pilot of these recommendations. Greater Manchester and Suffolk (the local authority areas, rather than the dioceses, as this will be an all faiths pilot) will each appoint two officers who will work with a project manager based at Historic England. They will work with faith groups within their area, predominantly but not limited to the Church of England dioceses, to identify key areas for them to focus their efforts on during an 18-month trial period. The pilot areas were carefully chosen: one north, one south; one mainly urban, one largely rural; both with existing strategic approaches to church buildings into which the pilots can fit. We will have to wait until 2020 to see exactly what the pilot schemes achieve. Training and evaluation are built into the scheme, so we will have a very good record of what this is. There are, of course, other models that could have been attempted but the CofE, working with Historic England and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, is trying this one. We already know that having good people on the ground doesn’t just give better access to key resources through expertise and availability, but also helps to boost the confidence of parochial church councils, church friends groups, local history societies and others to try out new ideas. Churches can be post offices and cafés. Churches can be a social care centre one day and the village shop the next. Churches can be doctor’s surgeries, refuge centres, night shelters and food banks and they can do all this while still remaining churches. Churches are places of care and sanctuary, worship and joy. They should be open, they should be welcoming and they should be the opposite of a private members club with unspoken rules on who can join. The Taylor pilots will not please everyone, but they acknowledge the unique place of religious heritage and in particular the parish church in English life. They accept a shared responsibility for supporting their local care and development and with the right assistance, churches can secure and continue to grow their offering to the people of England. A sturdy roof and a warm building is just the start. BECKY CLARK is Director of Churches and Cathedrals at the Church of England and Secretary of the Church Buildings Council and Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England. She trained as an archaeologist and has an MA in Heritage Management from the Ironbridge Institute and an MBA fromWarwick Business School. Becky previously worked for English Heritage in the planning policy team and Chief Executive’s Office. She is Treasurer of the Society for Church Archaeology. A library in the bell tower of St Peter’s, Peterchurch, Herefordshire (Photo: Church of England) ¹ http://bc-url.com/taylor-review pg.10 St James’, West Hampstead, London welcomes the wider community through its doors with its new Sherriff Centre, which includes a post office, café and play area. (Photo: Katie Garner)