‘WHEN IT IS ABOUT JESUS IT BECOMES A BIT MORE PERSONAL’
Vandals spray-paint graffiti on church
YOBS have daubed graffiti on a church.
Nasty messages including ‘kill yourself’ and ‘Jesus is fake’ have been spray-painted on the outside walls of St Paul’s Church, in Middleport, in recent weeks.
But young church-goers have now hit back by chalking ‘God is real’ and ‘Jesus is real’ onto the walls. The offensive graffiti has been removed this week.
The Reverend Shell Penduck said: “It’s not really what you want – and we’ve spent the last 12 months trying to do up the outside of the church.
“When it’s about Jesus, in particular, it becomes a bit more personal then, and I think some members of the congregation became quite upset about it.
“I’ve done a lot of research into different solutions to get rid of graffiti and stuff like that – which is something I didn’t think I’d be doing as a vicar!”
It is felt that a lack of youth services in the area is contributing to boredom and frustration among young people. The church was also once used as a police post before funding cuts hit Staffordshire Police.
Ms Penduck added: “People see our churchyard as more of a park, and when you’ve got lots of kids who live around it, that is the main open green space. So I’m more than happy for them to use that space.
“The city youth services used to run youth clubs at the church and things like that. But resourcing and funding for that has gone now.
“We are quite a small congregation so if I want to do anything I just haven’t got many volunteers to help me. It just limits what you can do.
“On the front of the building we had the word ‘police’ and it was a big deterrent to people. The graffiti has only started since we got rid of the word ‘police’. It wasn’t a problem before then.”
Anyone with any information about the vandal attack should call the police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.