Historic England published its annual Heritage at Risk Register yesterday. Many entries are places of worship. This comes just a week after the Church of England launched its report on how it manages its 16,000 church buildings as part of its Reform and Renewal programme.
David Pocklington Law & Religion UK More “At Risk” CofE Buildings in 2015
Anglican Communion News Service More C of E church buildings placed on “at risk” register
Maev Kennedy The Guardian Bomb factory and concrete church among historic buildings at risk
Hannah Furness The Telegraph A Napoleonic lookout and an ammunition factory: the ’ heritage at risk register’ 2015
David Pocklington’s article has drawn my attention to Monday’s official announcement that from January 2016 Mike Eastwood (Diocesan Secretary, Diocese of Liverpool and Chief Officer, Liverpool Cathedral) will be starting a two-days-a-week secondment with the National Church Institutions as the Director of Reform and Renewal.
As it happens there’s a very timely article in the November 2015 issue of the “Journal of Anglican Studies” by William Whyte entitled “The Ethics of the Empty Church: Anglicanism’s Need for a Theology of Architecture” available here (full text is subscribers only): http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9976756&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S1740355315000108