Diocesan Reorganisation

The discussion and debate about reorganising the diocese in the light of the predicted significant reduction in priests over the next ten years is not a comfortable one but it is necessary if we are not to face an even greater crisis than the one we currently foresee. On this page we publish the thinking to date. Click on the links below to be taken to the appropriate document.

Update - 07/09/08

Survey Results (18/05/08)

Western Gazette Article (Front Page 15/05/08)

Report to the Parish Finance Committee (14/05/08)

Summary Minutes of a Parish Meeting (10/04/08)

Notice of a Parish Meeting

 

 

Update: 07/09/08
As you are all aware, a joint working party has been examining the consequences for Shaftesbury and Marnhull/ Gillingham Parishes of both the shortage of priests in the Plymouth Diocese, and the forecast population increase in the area. 
By looking at diocesan facts and figures, initial conclusions are that within 10 years there may well only be a single priest to serve Shaftesbury, Marnhull/Gillingham and Sherborne. Therefore we need to plan for the possibility of there being only two weekend masses for Shaftesbury, Marnhull & Gillingham. As Mass attendances in the combined parishes of Shaftesbury and Marnhull/Gillingham is currently in the order of 400-500 and none of the churches can seat more than 150 at a squeeze, there will be a need for a single building capable of accommodating some 300 - 350 people. 

Coincidentally, the Plymouth Diocese, with the support of English Heritage have just commissioned a firm of consultants to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of all its churches (including Shaftesbury, Marnhull & Gillingham) to establish their architectural and historical significance in both a local and national context. The objectives of the review are threefold:

1. to provide an authoritative, comprehensive and up-to-date overview of diocesan churches and parish buildings.
2. to evaluate the potential impact of managed change to those buildings
3. to provide a planning tool suitable for the more strategic future management of diocesan building stock

This should be extremely helpful in guiding our own thoughts and reports are expected to be available in late autumn, which will allow further informed discussion of both the opportunities and possible constraints in terms of possible alterations and/or alternative uses for our buildings and sites. The Working Party of Ken, Mike, Dominic, James, and Robert will now await the publication of the report before progressing further and we thank them for their long hours of research and ongoing hard work.

We will keep you all informed on further progress.

Fr Martin Budge, Parish Priest, Marnhull/Gillingham & Fr Dylan James, Shaftesbury.

 

Survey Results 18/05/08

Results from Survey undertaken in April 2008
Unless otherwise stated, percentages are based upon a
total of 201 responses.
1	Where do you live?
		Shaftesbury Parish	57%
		Outside Shaftesbury - Regulars	18%
		Outside Shaftesbury - Occasionals	25%
2	Which age group do you fall into?
		12 - 18	7%
		19 - 25	2%
		26 - 35	4%
		36 - 45	13%
		46 - 55	14%
		56 - 65	15%
		66 - 75	20%
		75+	21%
		Not given	1%
		Children under 12 as a percentage of the total including adults	22%
3	Gender
		Male	32%
		Female	61%
		Not given	7%
4	How do you get to church?
		Walk	25%
		Car	68%
		Lift	3%
		Taxi	1%
		Cycle	1%
		Not given	1%
5	How long is your journey to church in miles?
		0 - 1	39%
		1 - 3	22%
		3 - 6	17%
		6 - 10	10%
		10 +	6%
		Not given	5%
6	Do you have a car?
		Yes	83%
		No	17%
7	Which Mass do you normally attend?
		Sat	42%
		Sun	56%
		Either or both	2%
8	Why do you normally attend this Mass ?
		Percentages rounded
		Service	13%
		Time	66%
		Transport	4%
		Other	12%
		Not given	5%
9	Do you prefer Sung or Low Mass?
		Sung	50%
		Low	23%
		No Pref	25%
		Not given	2%
10	Shaftesbury parishioners only:
		Do you attend Mass in adjacent parishes?
		Yes	10%
		No	83%
		Not given	7%
11	Non Shaftesbury parishioners
	a	How often do you attend St Edward's?
		Weekly	38%
		Fortnightly	13%
		Monthly	12%
		Other	22%
		Not given	15%
	b	Why do you attend St Edwards?
		Location	24%
		Mass Time	20%
		Sense of Community	22%
		Family Friendly	18%
		Quality	14%
		Other	2%
15	Other Services requested
		Percentages based on ~40% of respondents
		who answered this question.
		Confession	31%
		Benediction	13%
		Stations	10%
		Exposition	11%
		Weekday Mass	19%
		Catechism	8%
		Others	8%
Note
Responses to the questions not listed are still being evaluated.
The Parish Advisory Council is to be asked to consider the
responses to the question 16 which, in this context,
seeks thoughts and ideas for the Bishop.
Fr Dylan would like to express his thanks to Mike Canty
for the efficiency and quality of the processing of these results.

 

Western Gazette Article (15/05/08)

Church in talks over expansion
by Sarah Nicholls
Staff Reporter
e-mail shaft-gill@westgaz.co.uk
[from the Western Gazette, 15th May 2008]

A NEW Roman Catholic church costing up to £4M to serve Shaftesbury and Gillingham may be built to cope with the increasing flock of worshippers.

The leaders of St Edward's Church, Salisbury Street, Shaftesbury, and St Benedict's Church, Rolls Bridge, Gillingham, are looking at ways of solving overcrowding problems caused by growing numbers of worshippers.

The 100-capacity St Benedict's is seeing every seat filled each week, partly due to an influx of Polish people to the town, and St Edward's has also seen its numbers increase.

Population growth has seen the congregation at St Edward's grow from 170 at two services each Sunday ten years ago to 250 now. Father Dylan James, priest at St Edward's, said: "They're either very tightly squeezed in or standing."

And with 670 new homes due to be built in Shaftesbury soon, and Gillingham being the fastest-growing town in the county, the problem is likely to be compounded.

Since taking over the Shaftesbury church last July, Fr Dylan has been looking at ways to ease the squeeze. A buildings committee has been set up to investigate options and Fr Dylan is liaising closely with his Gillingham counterpart, Fr Martin Budge, to explore the options.

Fr Dylan said it was unlikely funds could be raised to enable both churches to expand so an option would be to unite the congregations at one larger church.

Expansion of St Edward's was possible, but St Benedict's had very little land to expand on to. An alternative would be to build a new joint church.

Talks are being held with two firms of architects over draft proposals for both expansion and new-build opportunities. Fr Dylan is keen to stress that the plans are still very fluid and they are only in the early discussion stage.

So far general figures of between £1M and £4M have been roughly quoted for potential works and if the ideas are to be moved on, the churches will be looking to organise a range of fund-raising events to help reach the target.

If plans for a joint church go ahead, Fr Dylan hopes the building will be able to provide facilities for the whole community, not just Roman Catholic worshippers. He hoped it might strengthen the relationship between the two towns. He said: "I would be looking for a more integrated parish life between Shaftesbury and Gillingham. There are a lot of things you can't do in a small congregation that we could do if we were joined with Gillingham. It's a nice problem in a sense.

"The towns are very close and presumably with all the new housing in the area that they're proposing, they are going to end up feeling a lot closer."

Fr Martin said: "I can see that having the two churches together would provide many benefits to the two communities."

ANYONE who would like to pledge funding or support for the project can call Father Dylan James on 01747 852125.

 

 

Report to the Parish Finance Committee (14/05/08)

Report on the work of the New Church Facilities Working Party
to the Parish Finance Committee
At the February meeting of the PFC, Fr Dylan reported that as a consequence of the forecast reduction in clergy to a single priest serving North Dorset within 10 years, there would only be 2 masses available at weekends for Shaftesbury and Marnhull & Gillingham, with a further mass for Sherborne. This, coupled with the forecast increase in the populations of Gillingham and Shaftesbury meant that the current churches had insufficient seating capacity.

After the last finance committee meeting Fr Dylan appointed a working party consisting of Ken Bateson (as chair), Mike Canty, and Dominic Lavan, to look into the implications of this.

The Working Party reported on its initial findings at a Parish Meeting in April which was attended by some 60 parishioners.

Options examined and eliminated at this stage included acquiring Holy Trinity (not available); the ex URC church (not available and probably too small); sharing with other denominations (none large enough) and renting a gymnasium or school hall (logistically difficult). There have also been some discussions with St Mary's School and although there are some options there, they are all fraught with difficulty.

The conclusions of the Working Party are that there should be one church to serve the whole of N. Dorset, with likely closure of other present churches. The required seating capacity would either be an extension to St Edward’s or a new church in either Gillingham or Shaftesbury. Any work to St Edward’s would be contingent on HCC approval as well as local authority planning approval. Funding would be a major issue for either option.

The working party are presently doing further research on the viability of these options.  As a part of this they plan to commissioning two separate architectural firms.

To assess our needs, a parish survey has been completed.  Mike Canty has been processing the results and we hope to publish them in the forthcoming newsletter (17th May).

The next steps are:

• Engage with Marnhull and ensure their input into the process.
• Eengage two firms of architects on a no fee basis to carry out feasibility studies, design concepts,cost estimates and a programme.
• Pursue funding and asset sales issues.
• Confirm Marnhull and Gillingham mass numbers.
• Pursue HCC approval procedures and issues.

 

Following the presentation of this report to the meeting, Fr Dylan would like to publicly acknowledge and thank the working party for the long hard hours of work they have been doing and are continuing to do. 

 

Summary Minutes of a Parish Meeting (10/04/08)
NB. These are not true minutes but merely a summary of the presentation and discussion that took place.

On Thursday 10th April Shaftesbury Catholic Parish had a meeting to discuss radical and probably unpopular decisions we need to make about our church building and about the other churches in North Dorset.  The meeting went very well, was attended by 60 people (about a quarter of the entire parish, which is a good turnout for any meeting), and was characterised by a positive spirit – despite the tough issues we were looking at.  The following summarises our meeting’s discussion.

The North Dorset cluster of parishes covers a huge geographical area: Sherborne, Marnhull, Gillingham, Shaftesbury, and (debatably) Blandford.  Government plans for new housing will dramatically affect the area:  Gillingham is destined to double in size and Shaftesbury is set to grow by a third.  Gillingham’s church is already at full capacity with people standing at every Sunday Mass and Shaftesbury is also full and has had its Mass attendance progressively rise over the last decade.  Neither town has a church big enough for it and each town is set to grow in population.  To this happy problem (and it is a good problem to have!) we must add the declining number of priests (which is not a good problem to have).  The Plymouth Diocese presently has 65 active priests.  We know these men, their ages, and when they will reach 75 and retire, and we know that there will only be 32 of them left in 10 years time.  This means we must plan for there to be only one priest for all of North Dorset, in 10 years time or less.  (By point of comparison: the Anglicans, Methodists and URC are all also suffering from dramatic clergy shortages, even though they ordain married men and ordain women).  This in turn means there will be fewer Sunday Masses and so we must anticipate needing to get our growing congregations into a smaller number of Masses.  It follows that these Masses need to be in larger churches and that we need to build a church with a seating capacity of at least 250. 

Given the huge cost of any building project, it seems inevitable that we can only afford one bigger church to cover the present Marnhull, Gillingham, and Shaftesbury area.  These towns are significantly far apart which poses transport problems for parishioners, but at the meeting we attempted to look at what was possible rather than despair about what is not possible. 

Gillingham church is on a small plot of land and cannot be extended; Marnhull village is considered too remote to be the central church for the three towns, which narrows down the list of possibilities; Shaftesbury church has land for an extension but is a listed building.  Options looked at included:

(1) building a new church in either Gillingham or Shaftesbury, for which 7 potential building sites have been identified, this might cost as much as £4million;
(2) extending St Edwards, Shaftesbury, for which several schemes had been developed in outline, costing up to £2 million; and
(3) moving to the chapel of St Mary's School, either on a short or long term basis, which seems to not be practicable because of the functioning of the school.
Other options thought unlikely at this stage include buying and modifying an existing non-Catholic church; renting a hall or gymnasium for Sunday Mass; and sharing with another denomination.

Following the Shaftesbury meeting we’ve started a major survey of the Mass attendance to assess where people live and what their needs are.  Coupled with data from Marnhull and Gillingham, this will help indicate the logical place for either a new church or indicate whether it is logical for the region’s church to be an extended church at St Edward’s, Shaftesbury.  An additional factor for considering the St Edward’s site will be the difficulty of getting planning permission to extend St Edward’s, a grade II listed building.  This said, extending St Edward’s might end up being the cost-effective option and funding will be a major issue.  The estimated £4 million price tag for a new church would seem difficult to contemplate – even if all the other churches were sold off to raise money. 

The next steps are to have the parishes of Marnhull and Gillingham and Shaftesbury meet to develop a joint plan and to open discussions with Rosary House, the diocesan administrators, to explore funding and approval issues.  We have significant hurdles to overcome, but without adequate buildings a Catholic community is not able to function!  A lot of time and effort has been put into investigating the various options and I’d like to publicly thank our buildings committee in Shaftesbury parish and the corresponding people in Marnhull and Gillingham parishes.
Fr Dylan James, Parochial Administrator, Shaftesbury

Notice of a Parish Meeting
On Thursday 10th April, 7pm, there will be a parish meeting at the British Legion Hall (by Tesco) to discuss the possible building of a new Catholic church.  While we are still looking at all the options, extending St Edward’s may not be possible and an alternative might be a new church.  I realise that this would prove very unpopular as St Edward’s is a beautiful church.  I would like to involve as many people as possible in developing a solution to our problem.

Copies of the Bishop’s Diocesan Reorganisation plan were circulated before Christmas.  He calls for drastic changes, including to buildings.  The inadequacy of the church buildings in N. Dorset was something the Bishop drew my attention to when he appointed me to Shaftesbury in July 2007 and he has reiterated the concern to me since.  This matter was discussed at some length at the February meeting of the Dorset Deanery.  At that Deanery meeting the discussion focussed on proposal 3 at the bottom of this page.

Two factors suggest that the present St Edward’s Church building in Shaftesbury cannot long continue:

1. At a parish level: The congregation is getting too large for our building: our Masses are already full, and houses for up to 2000 more people are being built in Shaftesbury –national averages would suggest we might need to seat an extra 50 people.  This is a happy problem to have, but it is a problem.
2. At a Diocesan level: The number of priests is drastically shrinking: within ten years there will be one priest to cover all of: Sherborne, Marnhull, Gillingham, Shaftesbury and possibly Blandford too.  

(It can be noted that the Anglicans and Methodists also face a shortage of clergy, even with having both married and women clergy).

The parish needs to consider what our options might be for the future.  In February I set up a working party to examine various possibilities.  This party consisted of Ken Bateson, Mike Canty and Dominic Lavan, and was chaired by Ken.  

Buildings options include:

1. Extend the present St Edward’s church.  This would be very expensive as it would need to be built according to listed building specifications.  The Historic Churches Committee is likely to be very particular about any changes we make.  In addition, the town planners might not grant planning permission (e.g. can we provide parking spaces for an increased congregation?).  Most significantly, extending the church would probably demolish the most beautiful part of the present church: the sanctuary, i.e. If we need to destroy the beautiful part of the church, why keep the church at all? 

Also: the Diocese is unlikely to be able to fund an expensive extension to the church.

2. Move the Shaftesbury congregation to a different site within Shaftesbury, possibly:

1. Rent a hall/gymnasium for Sundays (an ugly solution);
2. Share a non-Catholic church:
   

   Advantage: This would be a cheap low-budget option;
   Problem: Would anyone want to let us share their church? (probably not)

3. Ask St Mary’s School if we can move the parish into their chapel:

   Advantage: The school chapel can hold 350 people, i.e. our entire congregation plus anticipated growth in congregation.
   Problems: The chapel is difficult to access when the school is closed (school holidays); disability access would be difficult; and, not least, the school would find us a significant disruption to their premises.

4. Build a new church in Shaftesbury. 

   Problem: The diocese does not have funds to build a new church in Shaftesbury as well as a new church in Gillingham, and Gillingham needs a larger church.

3. Build a new much larger church to be shared by both Shaftesbury and Gillingham –both towns are increasing in size and growing closer together.  A single church would be a workable situation for a priest who was covering these towns as well as Sherborne and Blandford.  

 

Note: Options (1) and (2) provide for Shaftesbury’s increased congregation size, but do not provide for a decrease in the number of available priests.

As you can see from just a few sample solutions and their associated pros and cons, it is a trickier problem than it at first appears. Your view and input would be most welcome, so please come a long to the meeting.

Fr Dylan James, 6th April 2008