Two churches "will likely close" Get behind St Albans, EB Volunteers could save the day

Elephant in the room: Ross Jamieson’s ‘oversupply of churches’ (April Herald ) asks if Eastbourne has too many churches. There are many possible responses. Rev John Hughes (St Alban’s) responds in this issue of The Eastbourne Herald and Rev Reg Weeks (St Ronan’s) responds in St Ronan’s May Record - www.stronans.org.nz/response. html Essentially, the one says a church is the congregation, not the buildings, and the other says a church’s primary function is community service, not church services. Both are right, but Ross meant the church buildings…

It’s obvious some building infrastructure is needed if people are to ‘congregate’ and if congregations are to ‘serve’. So, what are the likely (5-year?) futures of Eastbourne’s three sets of church buildings?

•All three church congregations are small and declining.

•Two sets of church buildings are seismically safe: San Antonio and St Ronan’s, but one is not: St Alban’s.

•Two sets of church buildings will likely close: St Ronan’s (lack of money to maintain them) and San Antonio (lack of staff to serve them), but one set is already closed: St Alban’s (seismic vulnerability and lack of money to fix them).

So,

•It makes good sense the three congregations should share their ‘sound’ buildings. They already are but could do more.

•But it doesn’t make sense the two sets of ‘sound’ buildings should be demolished while the one set of ‘unsound’ buildings is restored at great expense. And that’s assuming enough money can be raised in the foreseeable future.

•Many things would stop if Eastbourne had no church buildings.

Sandy Lang Eastbourne

With regard to the article on “over supply of churches” (April 2021 issue), I feel there were many good questions asked both on this subject and the difficult issues arising from declining church attendance. I’m afraid I don’t have answers to these problems, but do believe that Ross is right to call St Alban’s, the “most precious historic church to keep”. This building, from an historical perspective, does link our Eastbourne Community back to the days of the early 1900s, being built at much the same time as the Rona Bay Wharf. I gather this was a time when Eastbourne began to change from simply a recreational summer/ weekend place to a small established community with its own Eastbourne Borough Council. Even if the Historic Places Trust are unwilling to protect St Alban’s under their auspices, can it not be recognised by our own Historical Society and included in our excellent Heritage Trail as a place of interest to visit when the problem of earthquake strengthening is fixed? It is incredibly sad that the folk of St Alban’s were lumbered with the difficulties and expense of earthquake strengthening, and heartbreaking that the doors of this little gem of a church, had to be closed to worshippers, weddings, funerals, quiet meditation and so on. My only suggestion is to ask, whether there is a way that the wider community can help (maybe financial, maybe volunteer?) and get the earthquake strengthening ‘off the ground’ as soon as possible, so that this church and its once lovely garden can be used for the purpose it was originally built for. Eastbourne is a great community to live in and St Alban’s, at over 110 years old must be one of the oldest, original buildings in Eastbourne. The historic Bus Barns and the Rona Bay Wharf were saved by our community Can we help St Alban’s Church survive too?

M Short Eastbourne

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Ross Jamieson’s clever opinion piece laid bare the history of Eastbourne’s spiritual roots and the sad reality of the Anglican community’s present dilemma exacerbated by earthquake damage and stringent Council regulations.

During our nearly 30 years in Eastbourne, the community spirit was strong between the churches in terms of combined services, Christmas in the Park, Mainly Music, Pop in and Play, meditation groups, Winter Lectures, Anzac services, Alpha and youth groups, community gardens, Eastbourne Music group, weddings and funerals, Bill Wollerman’s engaging Beat the Blues winter sessions which attracted eager participants from Wellington and the Hutt Valley, and music for residents at Okiwi House, that wonderful institution made possible by Dorothy Archibald and Jean Gilmer’s dream and the generosity of the Smuts-Kennedy family.

It is sad to think that beautiful St Albans’ grounds are now languishing unkempt after 110 years. It only requires a small team of volunteers. A monthly roster open to the wider community of Eastbourne might offer new friendships, hope and direction? We’d volunteer to come down twice a year. Date, orange and cardamom scones outside the forbidden commercial kitchen anyone?

Mary Tallon Auckland