Friends group to ensure survival of ancient church
A SOUTH Derbyshire church is setting up a friends group to provide practical help and fundraising support for what is one of the oldest Christian sites in the Midlands.
St Wystan’s Church in Repton dates from around 675 when the village was the main centre of the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Mercia.
Wystan was a royal prince martyred and interred in the crypt in 849. Thought to date from the 8th century and surviving in its original form, it is one of the oldest and most important examples of Anglo-saxon architecture to survive intact. The poet Sir John Betjeman described it as “holy air encased in stone”
Now, Friends of Repton Parish Church has been set up as a registered charity to help the congregation with the maintenance and improvement of its ancient parish church to secure it for future generations.
Archaeologist Professor Mark Horton, president of the friends group, described St Wystan’s as “a unique witness to the Christian conversion of Mercia, and its crypt is one of the most complete and atmospheric spaces to have survived from Anglo-saxon England.”
St Wystan’s vicar, the Rev Martin Flowerdew, said: “I am really excited that a friends group is being launched. friends groups give local people who might not otherwise be involved in their local church the chance to share in the care of a building they often greatly love. I and the Parochial Church Council are looking forward to working in partnership with the Friends.”
The Friends group is to be launched at an event live streamed from the church on Thursday, November 12, at 7.30pm.
For detailed arrangements for the event and how to become a friend of Repton Parish Church see https://www.friendsofreptonparishchurch.co.uk