CHURCH PREPARES FOR FINAL SERVICE

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Church prepares for final service

A church is to close its doors for the final time next week.

St Barnabas', in North Evington, Leicester, is the latest of several city churches to be shut in the past few years due to dwindling congregation numbers.

Services will continue to be held at St Barnabas' Primary School next door once the building is officially closed.

A final eucharist will take place on Sunday, followed by a transitional service – which will see pupils taking part in a procession from the church to the school – on Wednesday.

Minister Derek Brown said he was expecting up to 70 people to attend on Sunday.

He said: "The church building is closing, but the people of God continue. The church is the people, not the building.

"I would just like to thank all the people who have been very supportive during a difficult time. The school has been very helpful and the congregation has been wonderfully supportive."

Father Brown said while it was sad to see the building close, it marked a new beginning for the members.

"This is a new chapter. We'll keep going and hopefully get a few more people along the way."

The first service at the school will be held next Sunday, July 10.

The grade II listed church has not been put up for sale, but options for the building will be discussed after it is officially shut next week.

The closure follows that of St Peter's, in Belgrave, and St Gabriel's, in Rushey Mead, at the beginning of 2010. Both buildings are now up for sale.

When churches are closed, some are sold on to become businesses or flats, others are used by different religions and some are adopted by the Churches Conservation Trust.

Others, such as St Christopher's, in the Saffron Lane area of Leicester, are demolished.

St Barnabas' fate was decided in October last year.

The building, which has space for about 200 worshippers, saw numbers fall to as low as 20.

The Church Commissioners for England decided the building was "too large and expensive to maintain for the small congregation".

David Gillman, of Clarendon Park, who specialises in pastoral reorganisation, was the only person who objected to the proposal to close the church when it was made last summer.

"I firmly believe, in my opinion, that the visible presence of a church in use in the community is priceless," said Mr Gillman.

"I think that sometimes there is too much insensitivity shown to the commitment of faithful worshippers."