Do you have a role in one of our unlisted/ungraded churches here in the Diocese of Ely?
Recently we in the Church Buildings team have been doing some thinking about how we may better support unlisted churches. We spend a great deal of our time working with listed, often medieval church buildings, assisting with funding bids, community engagement, Net Zero heating/lighting advice and faculty applications.
However, we know that unlisted churches are also vulnerable to wear and tear, their congregations need assistance with repair and improvement projects, and they need guidance about the care, governance and maintenance of their buildings. Some of you are already in regular contact with colleagues about funding or faculty permissions, but we want to learn how we can better help you all to operate your church buildings and would like to do some listening about how we may do that.
If you have time we would appreciate your input in this survey: https://forms.office.com/e/iVRAajD0P3?origin=lprLink . Your answers here will help us understand how we can better assist you and help us to tailor future engagement with unlisted churches across the Diocese.
We are hosting a Zoom event on Monday 9 March, from 7.00 - 9.00pm. The idea of the event is to deepen some of the discussions we have begun, and for the buildings team to offer you some advice, hear your thoughts about how we can help more, and also meet with other people who are caring for church buildings just like yours.
Our draft agenda for the meeting is:
- 19:00: Welcome and Introduction
- 19:10: Unlisted Buildings vs Listed Buildings, comparisons, and assistance - Geoffrey Hunter (Head of Church Buildings and Pastoral Department)
- 19:30: Permissions and Consent – James Ryder (Church Buildings Adviser)
- 19:50: Maintenance of buildings – Samuel Pedlar (Church and Community Support Adviser)
- 20:10: NZC chat – Sacha Watson (Net Zero Carbon Officer)
- 20:30: Reflections on survey and where and how we can next help – Samuel
- 21:00: Close
Please RSVP to samuel.pedlar@elydiocese.org, if you would like to join us on Monday 9 March.
Please also share this survey and invitation with other colleagues who may be interested in coming along.