It’s really strange, the way things happen.
On the front page of this week’s Westmorland Gazette is an article about the Parish Church in Kendal. Apparently the running costs of Holy Trinity Church far outweigh its income, and they are only making ends meet by dipping into their reserves. This situation obviously cannot continue forever, and they will eventually run out of money.
As Kendal URC’s newly appointed assistant Treasurer, it is quite obvious to me that Kendal URC is in an identical situation, with bills exceeding income, and reserves being slowly drained. As with the Parish Church, our building is far too big for the number of people worshipping in it. The days when the large hall behind the church was built to accomodate the burgeoning Sunday School seem to have long gone. We should be looking for solutions to this situation now.
The third co-incidence in this story came in the post at home today. We still receive copies of the church magazine from Trinity URC, Upminster, Essex, where we worshipped for a long time before moving away to Bedfordshire. Trinity URC have opened formal discussions with their nearby Methodist congregation with a view to seeing if they can unite and establish a United Free Church under one roof. Both congregations have large buildings which are expensive to run, and are too big for the individual churches, etc, etc, etc …..
Doesn’t this all sound familiar? I really think we should be doing something about this as well. Now. In a way, having some money in the bank is a problem, since it removes the need to take action promptly. If the church had no reserves, something would have to be done.
So come on, Elders and Church Officers, let’s hear from you about what you’re going to do to start this process off.
Nick Andrews