4 BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 31st ANNUAL EDITION £100 MILLION FUNDING FOR UK PLACES OF WORSHIP It has been announced that over the next three years the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) expects to invest £100 million in places of worship in the UK. First, £15 million has been set aside to support strategic projects that make an impact at a regional or national level (see http://bc-url.com/hc24-hf1). The NLHF is now inviting organisations to devise and deliver such projects. As well as being of interest to national and regional church bodies, there may also be opportunities for county and regional preservation trusts to take part in developing and delivering schemes. Second, the Heritage Fund has announced anticipated funding of £85m for individual places of worship across the UK over the next three years. To achieve this, the NLHF wants to encourage individual places of worship to apply for grants – see http://bc-url.com/hc24-hf2. In response to the consultation it undertook last year, NLHF says that the grant requirements have been simplified. Applications will be looked at on the basis of four investment principles: • saving heritage • protecting the environment • inclusion, access and interpretation and participation • organisational sustainability. Applicants can lean towards one of these if they want, but they will need to respond to all four on some level. For a small congregation looking for Heritage Fund funding, one of the biggest problem is time and expertise, as demand for grant aid inevitably outstrips the supply. Often it is the best-presented case that wins, and a small congregation may struggle to compete with larger and better-funded heritage bodies. Rather than reintroducing a dedicated grant scheme specifically designed to support this acutely underresourced corner of the heritage sector, NLHF requires churches to apply through the existing grant programmes, open to any type of heritage. However, it has indicated that it wants to provide more support for applicants. As funding decisions are being devolved more to regional teams it is important to make contact with the Fund in advance of applying in order to receive feedback on early proposals. AVERTING CLOSURES IN THE DIOCESE OF LINCOLN Faced with an annual financial deficit of £3 million, the Diocese of Lincoln has consulted all its benefices on the future of their churches and the findings have been published in Resourcing Sustainable Church: A Time to Change – Together (see http://bc-url.com/hc24-n1). While some churches are thriving and able to fully meet their local community’s financial and spiritual needs, many report difficulties in raising the necessary funds needed for the spiralling costs of building maintenance and insurance, as well as recruiting lay officers and PCC members. As not all churches can deliver the same range of ministries or be equally resourced, all 622 churches in the diocese have been categorised into one of the following: Key Mission Churches (20), Local Mission Churches (110), Community Churches (272), Festival Churches (190), and Closed or Closing Churches (23). Community churches are those ‘whose community or active worshippers cannot support the full parish church role of the key mission and local mission churches but is keen to keep open with some regular prayer and worship, with a good lay team to help deliver this, and to serve as a focus for the community, and for baptisms, weddings and funerals, and celebrations at key points of the liturgical year where possible.’ Festival churches as described by the diocese ‘may be open for private prayer, used for a variety of community purposes, offer baptisms, weddings and funerals as part of their LMP, and may be a location for special “festival” events – harvest, carols, songs of praise, mission activities.’ In other words, only one in four of the Church of England’s places of worship in this geographical area are Churches in the Diocese of Lincoln by category able to support the full traditional parish church role, and most will be relying on broad community involvement in the future, whether as community or festival churches. While the proportion facing closure is low (4%), the picture is likely to be replicated across many other dioceses, and it will inevitably include some historic buildings, churchyards and monuments of great cultural value. CLOSED OR CLOSING CHURCHES (23) KEY MISSION CHURCHES (20) FESTIVAL CHURCHES (190) COMMUNITY CHURCHES (272) LOCAL MISSION CHURCHES (110)
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