Church of England parishes on the Isle of Wight have been given extra funding in a broad initiative to support and develop their congregations.
A 5-year, £2.7million project aims to renew church life in Ryde, including the launch of a brand new family-friendly congregation alongside existing ones. It would also involve more engagement with schools and new ways to serve the local community.
The national Church of England has announced that it will invest more than £1.2million of its strategic funds in the project. The other £1.5million will come from the Diocese of Portsmouth to fund clergy positions. This is the first part of a larger bid to encourage and develop churches across the whole diocese in 2024.
This project aims for All Saints Church, Ryde, to grow from its current faithful congregations to welcome up to 300 new worshippers attending different styles of church service. That would include a new family worship service planted with the help of Harbour Church in Portsmouth, plus a Café Church, traditional Eucharistic worship, and an intern scheme for young people.
The 5 CofE churches in Ryde – All Saints, St John’s and St Michael’s in Ryde itself, plus St Peter’s, Havenstreet and Holy Cross, Binstead – would work together to engage with the 7 schools across the town. They’d also work with local community partners and churches of other denominations to serve the local area better.
This would be the first stage of plans to revitalise Church of England churches across the Isle of Wight. Within the 5 years of this project, it is hoped that All Saints, Ryde, would be able to transfer worshippers to other CofE congregations on the Island, to complement worship and mission initiatives happening elsewhere.
The Archdeacon of the Isle of Wight, the Ven Steve Daughtery, has said:
“The island has a lot of churches – one for every 2,700 people – and many of them have small, faithful congregations. Ryde has the island’s largest population, and church attendance there represents less than 1% of its residents. It’s also the gateway to the island, so seems a good place to start.
“There are about 30 island Christians who meet in each other’s homes, some of whom travel to the mainland to Harbour Church in Portsmouth. So there is already a group who are able and committed to starting something new.
“Harbour Church was launched in 2016 with 15 people and now attracts 500, mostly teenagers, students and young adults. It has already planted three churches on the mainland, so it makes perfect sense for these 30 or so islanders to plant a similar congregation in Ryde with the help of Harbour Church. All Saints Church is a landmark and is in good repair, so we’d like our new family congregation and Café Church to be based there.
“Within 2 or 3 years, we’d expect that the various All Saints congregations would have grown into a younger, more diverse group, including families, younger adults and children, as has happened on the mainland. We would then invite some of them to move from Ryde to join in with what is already happening in Newport.
“While this is happening, we want to ensure that traditional worship continues and flourishes alongside newer services, which is why we have already appointed a team vicar for the five Ryde churches.
“We are delighted that plans for the revitalisation of the parishes in Ryde have received support. We long to play our part, alongside our brothers and sisters in other parts of the Christian community, in witnessing to the gospel of God’s Kingdom in Jesus Christ.”
Some of the £2.7million funding will be spent on providing the 4 clergy for the 5 Ryde churches – a team rector, 2 team vicars and 1 curate. The team vicar who will take charge of traditional, inherited worship, the Rev David Morgan, was appointed in September and other appointments will follow.
The national Church’s funding also allows for other staff to be recruited – a chief operational officer, worship/youth leader, children/families leader, part-time administrator and 4 interns. Some of the funding will also be spent on work to church buildings, so they can be used for a variety of worship styles and community activities.
What a waste of money…… Period!
This would not have been necessary had the ‘previous administration’ of Portsmouth Diocese not ruined the previously traditional congregations by a series of inappropriate appointments.
Congregations have declined greatly at all churches of all denominations, especially since COVID-19. On the current trajectory, most churches will be empty in 80 years. Only the most fundamentalist churches are thriving.
Oh yeah, just what the island needs. Pretty churches!
£2.7 MILLION. Yet we have families, single people, young and old who can’t even heat their homes this winter. People that have to choose between eating and heating. Mental health services suffering… The cost of living increase is literally killing people, but we have £2.7 mil to spend on churches?!
How absolutely ridiculous!
The Church of England is paying for this not the state. Try reading the article.
And where do they get their money from for doing nothing but preach .
From investments and donations. The church is not supported by the state.
Yes they are!! Massive tax breaks, to name one source. You are obviously a bible basher!
Absolutely right
What about some of these funds for St Lawrence?
Why would the Church of England pay for repairing a slipping road?
Or you could knock a few down and build some housing for the island young who cannot afford a mortgage, and move the half filled congregations to other churches where it makes a full congregation and you would then also only need half the number of staff.
And before the die hard start kicking off, remember according to the church god is everywhere so you don’t need a church to worship him. If thats what floats your boat.
Why would the church do that? Housing is not the responsibility of the church. You might as well suggest knocking down some big historic mansions in the major towns to build “affordable housing”. That would be equally unnecessary. However, I don’t see any homeless people on the streets so I think this “problem” has been blown all out of proportion. There is plenty of housing on the island. Work hard, save your money, and buy what you can afford. Alternatively, move somewhere to get a better paid job because the average wages on the island are very low.
It’s not about the homeless it’s more about young adults having to live with parents because they cant afford the extortionate rental rates as their wages are too low. Do people think in years from now churches will even be a thing? look at the younger generations and tell me they look like churchgoers of the future, what they need is housing and independence, and the rent money paid to the church would be better than old rotting buildings which pay them nothing.
Move if you want higher wages and your own home. The only industry on the island is tourism and wages are low. That is an obvious fact and it isn’t going to change.
I own my home and have a decent wage, it’s the younger generation i am worried about. And telling people to move is not really productive for the islands economy either is it. The poorer the island becomes the more crime goes up, and you will be the first one to start crying when it starts to affect you.
Outrageous. They need to spend that on Safeguarding alone.
Planting them here, there and everywhere, makes them sound like a bunch of vegetables. Oh I forgot, that’s exactly what these god fearing fools are.
Religion the root of all evil.
I know where you’re coming from, but I would put a different side to your comment, it is people who interpret religion to suit their beliefs that is the problem.
The same god is often worshiped and prayed to by opposing sides, including Christians, the same god does NOT preach to kill or injure, the problem lies with human beings who use religion to suit their cause.
Christians believe that the devil is the source of evil.
This is a total waste of badly needed money that will be spent on something that is way out f date , I think people are now over the Fear ofGod syndrome it’s all old hat and should be put to rest .
And come to that why are these religious people sitting in the house f lords getting £300 a day what is their purpose .
would you lot on here be saying this if it was Muslims wanting to spend money on turning churches in to mosques to worship in ?
Why would they want to turn churches into mosques? They are quite capable of building their own.
It was a disgrace when Wetherspoons turned a church into a Pub
and Planning on the Island allowed it.
They should be ashamed of themselves
How can an House of God be turned into a Drunk Haven!
Amen
It already was as “you lot” drink wine in church. The blood of christ my backside.
Wow this escalated quickly
One of the churches in Cowes is for sale. The council should buy it, beg or borrow the money, and turn it into low income/low waged apartments. Not boxes but decent sized homes for locals like me. Why our councils can’t provide better for the people that pay their wages disgusts me. The churches should be ashamed at their inability to give succour to people at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords and useless councils. Not their job! What is your job, making tea for pensioners?