Sisters and brothers, what a joy to be with you this afternoon. It's very hard for me to speak to you without beginning in prayer or ending by saying Amen, but I’ll do my best to adhere to the conventions of this sort of a gathering, but a before dinner speaker, not an after dinner speaker, and certainly, I was inspired and woken up after an excellent lunch by Dame Fiona's really, really helpful and helpfully provocative talk. Thank you so much. And I'm very, very grateful, I guess, on behalf of the Church of England, to have this invitation to say a few things to you at this remarkable gathering this afternoon. And it's really heartening to see such a partnership and collaboration already growing in this room and online as we come together around something so very, very precious, our church buildings. And as Fiona has already said, this conference marks a return to the galvanizing V&A exhibition Change in Decay nearly 50 years ago. And yet, as she said, here we are again seeking to recommit ourselves to the future of our church buildings.
And in the Church of England alone, what we're talking about here are 16,000 parish churches, 42 cathedrals. And of course, these are not just precious bricks and mortar and stone. They are places of prayer and peace, of celebration and mourning, of gathering and serving, and they are at the very heart of our community. When Socrates was asked, Why do you keep repeating yourself? He replied, If you ask me, what is two plus two? How can I say anything else but four? So this afternoon, I'm only saying again what I think all of us know, but I hope that by hearing me saying it, you will be in no doubt that the Church of England wants to take up the challenge that Fiona has just set down, which is to provide the leadership that is needed to ensure - I don't want to talk about the survival, I'm not interested in the survival of our church buildings, - I'm interested in their flourishing, in their revitalization, so that they can continue to serve our nation. Because amazingly, miraculously, week by week, Sunday by Sunday, day by day, the good news of God's love in Jesus Christ is proclaimed joyfully within the walls of our buildings. It is what they are made for. And I want to go on to say that remembering this and putting it at the centre will be the key to their flourishing and revitalization, alongside a whole lot of other stuff as well, because what these buildings do, and the messages they cherish and proclaim, bring meaning and purpose to our very, very needy and confused world. And I don't know what you think at the moment, but I look at our world at the moment, and I see its sadness, its horror, its confusion, its divisions, and forgive me, this is just going to turn very briefly into a sermon - what our world needs is the goodness of the beauty, the gentleness, the kindness, the forgiveness, the second chance that God offers us in Jesus Christ. And our church buildings are a tangible sign in each community of God's love and God's purposes of goodwill for every person. And because God's purposes are for human flourishing and human community, therefore these hubs are also places of gathering and convening in our communities, building coalitions of goodwill with people of all faiths and no faith, hosting food banks, warm centres, drop ins, debt counseling, Alcoholics Anonymous and countless other social action projects - over 31,000 a year. That is a staggering number, and it speaks to the church's deep commitment to the welfare and well being of our neighbours, and I am proud to be part of the church which serves the poorest and most deprived communities of this land with the good news of God's love in Jesus Christ and with practical, help.
So George's Crypt in Leeds, founded in 1838 extraordinary work is done with the homeless and the vulnerable. I'll be there next Sunday, but there are so many others. Sunderland Minster, a handsome major church in the Durham diocese, offers worship and vital support to refugee communities and to the disabled and yes, even down south St John's in Waterloo, an inclusive eco church with solar panels, striving to be carbon neutral and serving Central London with outreach, art, music. For church buildings are places of worship, places of service, but also places of beauty and heritage, places of creativity and platforms for the arts, both sacred and contemporary, they support children and adults alike, enriching lives and lifting spirits. I think fondly of the local rock group, which rehearsed in our church building when I was a curate in South London. But as well as rock bands, the choral tradition, one of the most precious things in the English church is being revitalised in minsters like Hull and Doncaster and across many of our cathedrals. I was in Sheffield Cathedral only a few weeks ago, and the whole nave was filled with children from local schools, some from incredibly deprived areas and they sang This little light of mine and Panis Angelicum with equal gusto, all enabled by the music project headed up by their dynamic Director of Music. And as a result of this, people are coming to faith. Congregations are growing. The Church of England has grown each one of the past four years, modest growth, but after 70 years of the grass going this way, it's encouraging to see them beginning to go the other way. This doesn't tend to get reported. Local schools are having their own music traditions enhanced, helping young people of all backgrounds develop skills and passions that will serve them the whole of their lives.
And I think I was really interested and moved and challenged by the example of country houses. What I suppose I want to say that the crucial difference between a country house and a church is a church is our house. I can even dare to say, we talk about my church, it’s ours.
Churches are local as well as universal. They are woven into the fabric of our lives. They tell our stories, as well as the stories of faith, our family, our community, and literally, wherever I go Sunday by Sunday, visiting parishes across the north of England, I hear these stories, what the local church means to the people for whom this is their church. This is where my children were baptised. This was where my mum and dad were married, this is where we said our last farewell to the ones we loved the most and found comfort and meaning in the face of death itself. Sisters and brothers, what would we not do to keep this living tradition alive, and what would it mean for us as human beings and as a nation if it were lost? But as I think you've been hearing all day, caring for these buildings isn't easy or cheap, it requires resource, resource of time, of money, of expertise, but also, though I sense this is in the room in plenty, the resource of dedication and of love. And I want you to know that in our dioceses and in our national teams, we work tirelessly to support the volunteers who give so generously their resource. And I do want to take this opportunity of saying a heartfelt thank you to all of you who are here today and countless other church volunteers around the country who are part of this great effort. What you do really matters. Thank you.
And the Church of England also plays its part, for example, through the buildings for mission programme, where we are investing £11million over the current Triennium and again into the next to support church building support officers and provide grants for repairs and improvements of parish churches. So please note I know and recognise we in the Church of England also can and must do more financially, but what we are doing does provide specialist advice to churches in need, helping them to stay fit for mission and for the future. Through grants, in partnership with the Heritage Fund, we are funding parishes to conserve special things like glass, wall paintings, bells, so that they can continue to play heir missional role in our churches. And our net zero demonstrator grants are one of many ways we're helping people who look after our church and cathedral buildings to sustain our commitment to caring for God's creation.
But yes, more is needed, and we can all help. And for me, already, one of the big messages of today is to build effective partnership. But a small act can make a big difference. To keep a church open, warm, welcoming, to help sustain our mission, and we must therefore continue to make the case to government. We know that churches are incredibly anxious about the future of the listed places worship grant scheme. We urge the heritage minister, Baroness Twycross, to recognize that this vital scheme has been a lifeline for church and cathedral buildings for over 20 years, and we want to make it permanent. Churches are already doing all they can to fund urgent repairs, accessibility works and sustainability improvements to keep churches watertight and warm for the people they serve. And we welcome an ongoing partnership with the government, church and state, playing its part together for these places of community. And our church buildings, as well as telling the story of faith, down through the centuries, are themselves today, through all their activities, places of encounter, hospitality, refuge and delight, many of them open their doors daily to all people, if only to provide a space where communities are warm, where they can cohere and listen and encounter each other.
There are virtually no other places in our communities today that do this, especially not in rural areas,. To lose them, to hamper our ability to renew and restore them, to diminish them, will cause irreparable damage not just to brick and stone, but to hearts and minds, because our church buildings matter, because the church matters, because community matters, and ultimately, because people and human flourishing matters. This is a day for reflection, but I hope also will become a day of action, a day when we will look forward, a day to recommit ourselves to the partnerships necessary and the leadership necessary for the flourishing of our church buildings, not just as heritage assets, but as living, breathing centres of community and mission, as sacramental signs of God in the landscape of our towns, villages and cities.
And God loves community and God loves the communities these buildings both serve and create, and in order to ensure this, these buildings need our help, I therefore commit myself and those with whom I work and minister to continue to work together faithfully and imaginatively to ensure that our church buildings endure. And in a world where we too easily become too polarised, too separate from each other, and store up all these divisions, surely we should be strengthening those places which bring us together.
And it’s this that makes today so very, very important. Thank you.
