Stephen Evans, the CEO of the National Secular Society, seems not to understand who is responsible for the upkeep of English parish churches (Letters, 9 February). At national or even diocesan level, the Church of England has very little power in regard to them.
These buildings are vested locally and are the responsibility of locally elected church wardens and parochial church councils. Adapting them for local needs can be done very effectively, as John Symes’ experience in Droxford, described in his letter, makes clear. But every situation is different and needs different solutions. Many village communities do not welcome their parish church hosting other events, as the village hall and other local venues are already struggling for bookings.
If Evans wants a more secular model regarding historical church buildings, perhaps he should consider the French, who pride themselves on secularity as a national value. In France, the state owns parish churches and pays for their upkeep as cultural heritage.
As for central C of E funds, they support the maintenance of Christian ministry and mission, and it would be perverse if these funds were diverted to adapting church buildings for more secular use.
Rev David Muir
Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
• Peter Gray’s letter is a little historically challenged. The churches that are in use today were not “privatised by the government in the 1530s”, nor were they “handed out to the friends and families of the establishment”. Many monastic premises in England and Wales were expropriated from their previous owners (usually monastic orders of the Catholic church), and were then usually sold to the highest bidder by a cash-strapped king keen to pursue a rather decadent lifestyle and a war. These premises included churches, but those buildings were more often private and for the use only of the monks or nuns of the order concerned. Some monastic churches survived, usually as one of the “new” cathedrals.
Parish churches were not expropriated, nor given to anyone, nor in any sense nationalised before the Reformation. Before Henry VIII’s break with Rome, they belonged to the Catholic church, an independent and international organisation then, as now. Afterwards, they belonged to what would become the Church of England. There was no change in immediate ownership – just that the organisational superstructure changed. These days they belong not to the C of E but to the parish that they serve.
Simon Hunter
East Challow, Oxfordshire
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