Re-ordering the Church : 1992-3

In 1992-3 we undertook a major re-ordering of the Church

The 1950's establishment was very large - substantial grounds, a large church seating c400+, a double church hall, office, kitchens etc. and a tennis courts/five-a-side football area.... In its heyday at the time of John Nicholls, besides the Vicar himself the parish employed assistant curates, a parish worker, and a full time youth worker. But in population and area it is a small parish. During the time of new building in the 1950's, the church here drew heavily on support across a wide area of Nottingham, rather to the detrimant of neighbouring parishes, and perhaps it was not altogether surprising that very soon after the Revd. John Nichols' departure the large congregations began to dwindle, as a local church obliged to depend on the resources of its own immediate area. Meanwhile the world changed: through the sixties it ceased to be a natural thing to 'go to church', and in common with many other 'institutions', the Church began to feel a chill draught, as folk questioned - or perhaps more often simply ignored, old accepted ways. And costs rose; the sort of set-up which had seemed manageable in the 1950's became to seem like a millstone - the familiar trap which brings churches to expend all their energy on maintenance instead of ministry. You will find here patterns common across the whole Church of England By the 1980's it was clear that the parish could not go on as it was. Our own particular demographical time-bomb threatened: in this newly developed area the families were all much of an age, so the community was lop-sided - all young parents together, saw their children grow up in their new church and then leave... and there was no one to replace them. The congregation grew old and dwindled. They could not for long afford a full time youth worker. The (woman) Parish Worker was not replaced. The 'new' parish newspaper ceased. Curates became a rarer breed, found only in large parishes; a downward spiral set in. Meanwhile, the play areas fell into disuse; the tennis courts became derelict - partly as a result of a court order gained by neighbouring residents forbidding their use! - and in proportion as resouces failed, the old Hall church, always a problem as a post-war utility building - grew even costlier to repair and maintain. The (then) Incumbent, the Revd. Terry Short, saw clearly how the wind blew, and proposed changes - the sale of the old Hall and land, for sheltered housing, and the conversion of the large new church for multi-purpose use - to cut costs. It was of course with hindsight a sensible scheme, on a pattern common in the church, but it met with great and often bitter opposition from both inside the church community and members of the community at large. After a long period of stormy meetings and petitions, it was dropped, and in 1985 Terry Short left, deeply disillusioned.

Since then the parish war has abated, and the hall has been sold - and a scheme on very similar lines was finally completed in 1993. We now have an extremely flexible and practical building. The long Nave was partitioned half-way, with a glazed wooden screen based on what had once been the organ screen in the rear wall. The rear half of the nave is now an open Narthex, used as a large meeting space for all our group activities from Keep-Fit and Beavers and Cubs to Sunday school. The main aisle in the Narthex has been enclosed to form an office, kitchen, cleaning sluice, and new exit, and adjoining them a new store was built for Playgroup materials - often heavy, so easy access is vital. The area above these rooms became a large new store room. Meanwhile, the Organ was removed from its site obscuring the Font at the front of the Nave (it had already been moved once, from the rear of the Church) and rebuilt with a detached console, and its orginal pipework cased in the rear corner of the foreshortened Nave. The Chancel steps were extended, and one of the two original pulpits removed. The altar rails were also moved up a step, to make room for the choir stalls in a conventional chancel position in front of the Sanctuary - though the arrangement is flexible: the high altar and rails can also be site on the Chancel steps, leaving the choir stalls behind the altar, in a sanctuary chapel. Other changes included the levelling of the Lady Chapel Floor, to facilitate its use as a general meeting room; additional new toilets (including one for the disabled); improved disabled access across the whole building; elelctrical rewiring; and the division of the heating system to permit the two halves of the church to be heated independently. An important incidental benefit has been the opening out again of the Baptistery, which had for some years been obscured by the Organ case. The font has become usable again (as it was originally intended) for baptism during the main services of the Church - and the light of its large clear window once again enhances the appearance of the whole Nave.

We have just completed a review after five years of using the Church in this shape, and concluded that though there are some things we wish to modify (e.g. the site of the parish office ) and others we would add (most of all, a balcony in the Natthex to increase space and make room for studio theatre facilities) - yet overall it works, and has also proved much less costly to maintain. After all the disruptions, moreover, the congregation dwindled; but now it is once more growing - the slow enduring fruit, we think, of a parish being set free to spend more time and energy just being Christian people in God's world, and less time frantically raising cash to prop up bricks and mortar. And it is still all a Church, much on a medieval pattern, where distinctions between so-called 'secular' life and 'religious' life grow harder to draw - and the Cubs and Beavers play football with God !!