[Magdalen] Saint Andrew's Collegiate Chapel, PDS.

[Roger Stokes]

On 02/04/2016 16:10, Cantor03--- via Magdalen wrote:
> It reminds me of similarly redundant churches in the UK and Europe.
> They often survive as concert halls, museums, and, in one case in
> old Medieval Norwich, as a tea room.

Few of them can boast the magnificance of the decoration seen in the 
pictures of St Andrew's posted earlier. Part of the problem in England, 
exemplified very well by Norwich but seen elsewhere as well, is that as 
towns expanded the old rural model of one priest and one church parish 
was perpetuated along with the idea that the priest could not minister 
to more than a certain number of people. As a result you got a number of 
churches close together, often funded by some local worthy who wanted to 
establish a church, as haas been mischievouly said, "to the honour of X 
and in memory of God".  The 19th century saw another burst of 
church-building on a more organized scale to have churches in every part 
of the expanding towns.  Now we do not have the resources to maintain 
them in terms of personnel or finance.

In rural areas the situation is different as people want to see their 
village church maintained even if they don't attend it. However the age 
of the buildings means they are listed as of architectural and 
historical significance and getting permission to add such things as a 
bathroom is a nightmare - and even maintenance has to comply with 
expensive conditions to maintain architectural integrity.  There they 
don't have the money to pay clergy to serve them unless you group six or 
eight churches together in some cases.

Roger