Church reordering - minutes of the consultation
Minutes of the second consultation
20th October 2021
St Peter & St Paul, Blockley
The second church ordering consultation took place on October 20th, 2021. 25 members of the public attended and were introduced to the history and theological basis for the project by Revd Canon Dana Delap.
Theological background: Who are we – What is the church?
The church is a building. But it is way more than that. Some people come here silently. They come for a moment of piece, to light a candle, to say a prayer. Maybe they don’t have a Christian faith, and are looking for a moment of stillness. We are more than just a building. We are called to love one another here. If I wash your feet, you need to wash one another’s.
We’re not simply individuals with a common belief. We are family. We are citizens of heaven. Members of the household of God.
We’ve missed our families during Covid. But we met through here, our church family.
We want to offer hospitality. We want to make sure that this place is radical in its welcome to people, whether it’s members of own community, the BBC team filming Father Brown, or people wandering…
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
- Hebrews 13:2 (NIV)
We wanted the building to offer that welcome, that space where we could be family together. Flexibility for occasional services. Flexibility for schools (e.g. for Soulspace that took place at the Jubilee Hall last week). Access to toilets. More appropriate servery. Easy catering. Lunches. Warm soups. Be able to welcome Cakes & Co, Blockley Bookworms. Blockley Forum. Organ recitals with the public facing the right direction. And doing what we already do, but better.
We need to be inclusive. Some of our Sunday communities are not well served. We need proper screens, and space to move around at our Open Door services with 30-50 people attending (families who aren’t used to churches and sitting in rows, and from whom come many baptisms and weddings).
The project so far
Revd Dana Delap introduced David Spragg, Associate at Acanthus Clews Architects, a medium-sized practice based in Banbury particularly experienced in building conservation.
The practice has expertise in not just preventing buildings falling down, but also in managing change in historic buildings, finding a new purpose for them. Their portfolio covers mostly ecclesiastical buildings across several counties: Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, etc.
Speaking from experience, Mr Spragg explained that projects such as Blockley’s take a while before they take fruition: lots of stakeholders, lots of voices. The conversation between the church and the practice begun 7 years ago and Mr Spragg more specifically 3 years ago.
‘The aim of this public consultation is to explore the plans. These plans are not fixed,’ explained Mr Spragg. ‘There is still room for discussion, disagreements and improvements. We are expecting to see refinements and hear better ideas from people here,’ added the Revd Dana Delap.
The needs expressed for this project are common to a lot of churches. The Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC), which is the Church of England’s equivalent to the planning authority under what is called ‘Ecclesiastical Exemption’.
The DAC looks at the following documents produced as part of a Faculty application:
Statement of Needs (What we want to do and why)
Statement of Significance (The heritage and significance of the building)
The DAC’s job is to balance the changes with the protection of the architecture and history.
There is also a statutory obligation to consult amenity societies such as the Victorian Society, Georgian Society, Historic England etc.
The conversation starts with a Feasibility Study, by looking at the needs and how the space can be used. It’s important to show the workings, and how the plan was designed.
The preferred option has already gone through a number of consultations. Understanding a little bit about the history of the building and the changes made to it over the centuries also informs the design and decision process. For instance, the history of the North tower, the doorway to the belfry and the gallery it led to.
Details about the history of the building can be found here: https://blockleychurch.org.uk/history
Overview of the preferred layout
Starting from the West end, opening the West door, the intention is to use it as a multifunction space: a choir vestry, while also remaining flexible (a meeting room). There is an opportunity of introducing a door to the tower stairs to preserve some of the heat.
Moving to the West end of the North aisle, we are looking at installing an accessible toilet, and in front of that a servery. This could be an open servery counter, or an enclosed one (to be decided, both are possible)
Then further down the aisle, the overall approach is to work towards obtaining more flexible space for worshippers or members of the public by removing the remaining the box pews. We would keep the long one at the back against the wall, as a historical record. The Rushout Vault will have new steps with a handrail and a structural glass balustrade for safety.
The North porch floor will be lowered slightly to provide level access into the church. We will reuse the undamaged Victorian quarry tiles around a sunken doormat.
In the West-end of the nave: the existing choir vestry/kitchen and most of the timber platform will be removed. This provides level access to the new doorway into the tower. The font will be taken off its plinth (a trip hazard) and moved slightly. The area freed up by removing the choir vestry/kitchen is an ideal location for additional seating in large services as it has clear line of sight to the front.
The flag and war memorial will move to the buttress (in existing choir vestry), where it would be more prominent. The organ will remain on a platform, albeit smaller.
Main part of the nave. We have temporarily removed the two low-level screens in the chancel arch as an experiment. This enables the nave altar to move slightly further East and provides a clear view of the chancel from the nave. It is probable that we will seek permission to make this permanent. There are plans for a new locally-made nave altar with a removable communition rail. We are looking at removing the oak pews and using chairs instead to provide much more flexibility in layouts for worship and other events. Some sample chairs are on display. Mr Spragg advised against choosing upholstered seating.
South porch: to be restored as an area for quiet prayer (currently used as a storage).
New internal glazed timber doors would be fitted to match new doors on the North porch and tower arch. The Roof would be insulated and possibility add some roof lights to bring some light into the porch.
Along with all the works, improving the heating, lighting and and audio/visual facilities will also be key.
Mr Spragg shared examples of other projects, before taking questions.
Q & A
Q: What about storage for flower arrangements and stands?
A – David Spragg. This will be decided during the next stage of design: understanding what is the vital stuff that needs to be kept in the church. The next piece of work is to go back to the feasibility study made before lockdown where different groups talked to us. Choirs, groups that meet in church, flower arrangers… We will start drilling down in the details. It is an ongoing process. We don’t want to refine everything and have setbacks. It’s an incremental process. We also need positive responses from amenity groups, etc.
Q: Box pews: if we do take the joinery away, can we find a good way to reuse it?
A – David Spragg. The pews are part of the story of church. Joinery has normally been reused throughout the various reorderings and we will try to do the same. The choir cupboards are expected to be re-used in the tower for example.
Q: I am concerned that will church will close. Once a church has closed, it is often very reluctant to reopen. Will it be done in one big project or can it be by phase? Also, do you have a budget re-estimate for all this?
A – Dana Delap. The church will need to close, dig trenches to put heating fans in. We need structural work. We will rent one of the halls and meet for the expected two months to do that work. The PCC decided we don’t want to do multiple projects where we suffer ongoing upheaval. I’d rather close for a short time and do as much as possible. We met online during lockdown, we won’t lose people over two months.
A – David Spragg. There is an economy in doing all the work in one go. Breaking it down in phases is a more complicated and more expensive process.
A – Dana Delap. We do not yet have an estimate of the total cost. Now we have some traction, quantity surveyors are going to be able to give us a budget quite quickly. So that will be coming. In terms of fundraising, we may well ask the community whether they’d like to support. But most of the funds are expected to come from selling the bier house and Paxford mission church, and approaching some bigger trusts. For projects such as the tower roof or the bells mobilising the community is fine, but here we need help from outsiders.
Q: Will the font be moved?
A – David Spragg. The font would be lowered to the ground and lined up with the centre line of the tower arch and the rearmost column between the nave and the North aisle. The plan is to use a stone pattern in the floor to give it emphasis.
Q: What about the building efficiency? Eco-church?
A – Dana Delap. There is a commitment. Blockley church holds an A Rocha silver award. We will always be checking what we are doing. Sensible lightbulbs, energy suppliers, new technology for heating when available, etc. Seating is still being tried out, but it will be sourced from sustainable forestry. Things that are needed for the works will be sourced locally where possible.
Q: When the pews go, where do we put our glass of wine? And books?
A – Dana Delap. The seats we are looking at have book rests. However, for a meeting like this, we would probably all sit around small tables. The likelihood is that we will use technology more reducing the need for lots of books and papers.
Q: What is the timeline?
A – Dana Delap. We plan to meet again with the DAC before this Christmas, and moving into May-June 2022 to a final consultation and a vote by the PCC. This would be after the APCM (annual church meeting). If you feel strongly, about chairs for example, get on the PCC and have your say. We need to talk about storage more, how we’re going to equip the choir with proper stands for music and storage. So the works would probably start after Christmas 2022. We need to keep Father Brown in mind. The pews will not be sold or given away. We will store them for the BBC. And, later, we will find a home somewhere. Like we did with the bell frames. They won’t go in a skip - apart from, perhaps, the tea trolley…
The meeting ended with Gloucester Diocese prayer.
God of hope and transformation,
who in our Lord Jesus Christ offers the gift of life in all its fullness,
send your Holy Spirit and grant us
joy in our following and vision in our leadership.
May we be rich in imagination,
confident in faith,
and courageous in our engagement
with the people and places of this diocese.
As we share your life with the world,
keep us rooted and grounded in love
as we bear witness to your glory
and pray for your Kingdom to come.Amen.
Have any questions or concerns with regards to the reordering project? Please contact us via our website https://blockleychurch.org.uk/contact-us or send us an email at blockleychurch.office@gmail.com.