Festival Church or Pilgrim Place ?


In a Post-Covid world, the C of E can can no longer ignore the writing on the wall for many country churches.  Locally, the direction of travel is set out in a Diocese of Norwich Deployment Review
A process will be agreed to enable some churches to be designated as Festival Churches, no longer required for regular public worship, but remaining the responsibility of the PCC. A proposal will be formulated and costed for a significant expansion of the Diocesan Churches Trust, with a view to Synodical approval for this to be fully funded. Longer term strategies will also be needed.

The old culture where the village church, pub, post office/village stores and school were the hubs of rural communities has passed away.  The post-war drift from the land and 20th/21st Century mobility  eroded it bit by bit; and, although one may wonder if working from home might reverse the trend, falling church statistics from the halcyon days of the 1950's to the present can no longer be ignored.

Declaring the least viable rural churches Festival Churches has much to commend it. It would allow their status as fully functioning churches to be restored at some point in the future if the situation were to change. But the label Festival is limiting.   Yes, we can hope that these churches will be used at festivals and for festivals,  but let be houses of prayer for all  Mark 11.17), open at all times,  providing opportunities to "kneel where prayer has been valid."  

Might Jim Cotter's idea of Small Pilgrim Places provide a useful template for us ? I think so!

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