Parish independence

SIR – The GS 2222 green paper produced by the Church of England, which threatens the closure of 350 churches, is indeed, as Charles Puxley writes (Letters, October 2), terrifying.

I am the treasurer of a very small Grade I listed church that you have to cross a field to get to. It has no electricity or water, is lit by gas lamps and heated by a gas stove.

We have very little contact with the diocese, though we did have an email from our very good synod chairman, in which he warned, among other things, that any church that has what is called a “restricted fund” – which is money reserved for the upkeep of the church and untouchable by the diocese – should get such a fund legally tied up, otherwise the diocese could use it for other means.

A few years ago our parish had to raise £80,000 for the upkeep of the tower. We did that without any help from the diocese, and I wonder to this day if it knew anything about it.

On the question of our parish share, which at the moment stands at £5,300 a year, the diocese told us that as we had plenty of money in our “restricted fund”, we could afford it.

The fact is that we could quite easily stand on our own if pressed, as Charles Puxley suggests. We are lucky to have two services a month, one Communion and one Evensong or Matins, which adds up to three hours, including an incumbent’s travelling time. If that time was costed at £120 per service, we could cut our parish share by more than half. If we were allowed to take the Matins or Evensong ourselves, we would only need an incumbent for one service.

We recognise that we are a very small community, but GS 2222, through lack of local consultation, doesn’t even consider us. The bottom line is that the Church really has no idea of the strength of feeling of determined parishioners at a local level – people who have to stride both the spiritual and the secular world in which we live in order to keep their parishes alive.

Colin Snow

Huish Champflower, Somerset